Tycho "Awake" LP on Ghostly International
Release date: MARCH 18, 2014

Purchase "Awake": shop.iso50.com/collections/awake

formats:
CD/LP/DIGITAL

artwork by:
ISO50

For nearly a decade, Tycho has been known as the musical alias of Scott Hansen, but with the release of Awake – his second LP for Ghostly International – the solo project has evolved into a three-piece band. Relating closer to post-rock than ambient soundscapes, the record is situated in the present, sounding more like Hansen than drawing from his influences. “This is, in many ways, the first true Tycho record.”

Following 2011’s Dive LP, the San Francisco-based designer toured extensively, and with a full band on stage, his sound coalesced into a percussive, organic whole. Zac Brown (guitars, bass) rejoined Scott on the road for this tour, but it was the particular addition of Rory O’Connor’s live drumming that ultimately sent Hansen back to the studio with a more precise vision. “After the tour, I decided that I wanted to capture the more energetic, driven sound of the live show on the next album,” Hansen recalls. Bringing musicians into Tycho’s creative process was a step towards expanding his own songwriting and advancing the project beyond its current sound.

In a cabin near Tahoe last winter, Zac and Scott began fleshing out the structure of the new record, but it wasn’t until they set up shop in the hills of Santa Cruz with Rory that it all fell into place. “It crystallized the vision of how the drums would come to the forefront on this record,” says Hansen. The sound was much more stripped-down and concise with more organic instruments in the fold. Songs like “Montana” and “Awake” are a departure from Tycho’s previous material – unique to the group effort poured into the songs on the new record – while “See” and “Dye” echo ideas from previous works, bridging a middle ground between the old and new. Working with Count Eldridge, who also engineered Dive, the team could fixate on the pulses that Tycho might previously layer under synthesizers and exhume them with distinct bass and guitar patterns.

Also known for his design work as ISO50, Hansen’s visual and sonic efforts have dovetailed throughout the course of his career. “This is the first time in my life I've dropped everything to focus on one artistic pursuit,” notes Hansen. Previous Tycho releases came to fruition when an amalgam of songs were nearing completion, but Awake is where music becomes the focus and true expression becomes the result.

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Awake

Make Me Feel

Andrew Morris - Dust

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Free Download

FinD Me (Original Mix)

Featured by BBc Intro London and Playlisted on Spotify and Youtube by Mahogany Taken from the Album Salt catch Michael Baker on tour
March 19th The Brunswick Brighton
http://bit.ly/39wJpfG
March 29th The Duke Whitstable
free admission
March 30th The Finsbury London 
http://bit.ly/3awkRUf
April 5th The Loft (Above The Kings) Portsmouth

BIOGRAPHY, by NME’s Andrew Trendell
“I lived in my van for two and a half years to pay for the making of my first record,” casually laughs singer-songwriter Michael Baker. “I moved into the van after a typical period of heartache. I had nowhere to go, but it was pretty good actually!” 

Spending his childhood near Brighton (where he went to the same school as Rag N’ Bone Man), Michael got his first guitar aged eight after seeing Oasis live and needing to learn ‘Wonderwall’. In his teens, the songs soon started to flow. It wasn’t long before the purity of his voice, the direct rawness of his writing and the sheer scope of his sound found him regular gigs and a devoted fanbase – one that only grew bigger and more in love with the release of his magnificent debut album Dust & Bone. 

A soaring collection of heart-wrenching indie-folk and cinematic sounds, Dust & Bone was recorded with Massive Attack collaborator Dan Brown, and was a staggering first showcase of Baker’s ambition and soulful style. “I’m really proud of the songwriting on that record,” he admits. “I was in such a bad place in my life when I made it, but it got such a great response from the people who heard it.”

Early sessions for Salt started when Baker hit the studio with Dan Brown and Oliver Baldwin, who had recently finished making Aldous Harding’s acclaimed album Party with PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish. While promising Michael says ‘’It felt like I needed more time to experiment than we had scheduled in.” So Baker headed back to record and produce the album with long-time friend Ed Martin. 

After discovering that his childhood home would be empty for a few weeks while his parents were in the process of moving away. He went in and stripped everything away, begged and borrowed all the equipment he needed, crammed the band in, drank a lot of wine, got a little stoned and naturally just flowed through the album – playing all day and all night. The recordings were so impressive, that Baldwin agreed to mix the record at Real World Studios and gave the songs a whole new dimension (as well as inviting Jack White’s pedal steel player Maggie Björklund to play on the album too). 
“I absolutely love artists like Cat Stevens and Bon Iver,” says Baker. Salt is a record that maps Baker’s journey through darkness and vulnerability to something a lot more hopeful. 
Among the key tracks that show Baker’s road to recovery, ‘Baby Books’ was inspired by being in close proximity to someone taking their own life – and totally changing the way he saw the world. Single ‘They Look Just Like They Know’ also deals with how “the mind can be a deadly place” and “feeling trapped in the prison of your own vision”. He’s looking for the sunrise on the horizon, too. Baker’s personal favourite ‘Claire’ celebrates the “the beauty of space in a relationship” and the escapist ecstasy of ‘One Good Damn’ has won over scores of new fans with its feel-good magnetism. 

Salt is a towering accomplishment that will win hearts with its adept handling of love, loss and hope, and there’s more to come. For now though, you’re about to get to know the real Michael Baker. “I feel like I have too much of a personal relationship with anyone who says they like my music,” concludes Baker. “I’ve been getting letters and messages from people saying that my songs have got them through a very hard time, and I don’t know how to reply to them other than as if I’d known them my whole life. That’s the way that I would do it. I hope that my music gives them as much as it’s given me.”

Little Hands

Singer/ Songwriter/composer/producer. All songs self produced unless otherwise stated.

Make Me Feel

Andrew Maxwell Morris

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