Track Premiere: New Myths “Edge of the World”
New Myths make music that would make Debbie Harry proud — ethereal, breathy, catchy-electric tunes that are as enigmatic as they are deeply alluring. Their debut album, Give Me Noise, drops October 14 via Taming Ghosts (their own imprint), but in the meantime we’re excited to premiere the track “Edge of the World.” It borrows the mystique (and driving beats) of bands like Joy Division, mixes it up with some Bowie-esque electro-flourishes, and comes out the other side as a creature 100% all it’s own. We love.
Click here to listen to “Edge of the World.“ Read our exclusive Q&A with the band, after the jump.
When did you guys start making music together?
As a band, we’ve been together for a little over two years, but we’ve all known each other from different musical settings for much longer. Marina and Rosie were in another band together through high school and college, Brit and Rosie met studying jazz in college, and Marina and Brit went to the same high school.
Your sound is clearly (and coolly) influenced by a lot of Big Names from past eras of music, can you talk a bit about your favorite past musicians and how you reinvented the sound for your own?
Thanks! We all come from very different musical backgrounds and are constantly looking for new music to listen to, so our influences are all over the map more often than not it’s impossible to follow the train of thought from inspiration to execution. Our influences on this album range from David Bowie to Queens of the Stone Age, Michael Jackson to Fleetwood Mac, Blondie to Placebo, George Martin to Tito Puente. We love playing with sound, whether it’s finding interesting harmonies or manipulating found sounds (there is a sample of a sheep on one of the tracks), so really any of our influences end up going through our own crazy filter.
Follow up: what would be your dream act to open for?
Oh man, that’s tough! The short dream list? Probably The Police, Prince, Sleigh Bells, David Byrne, and Nine Inch Nails.
Tell us a little about recording this record.
The recording process took about 2 years. We worked really closely with our producer, Seth Glassman, and recorded at The Carriage House studios in Stamford, CT and Alder Sounds in Westchester, NY. Recording is a blast! Our producer was very open to letting us play with sounds and arrangements until we all felt that the songs were right. A few of the tracks called for instruments that none of us played. For those parts we felt very strongly about having real people play as opposed to synths, so we spent a few days tracking with a live string section and saxophonist our string section consisted in part of our moms. We also spent a lot of time experimenting with digital and analog synthesizers until the electronic elements felt just right. The biggest challenge we came across while recording the album was making the decision to say “OK, it’s finished.”
What’s next?
We really want to get out on the road and tour. We’ve done a few shows in other parts of the East Coast and Canada and it’s been great! Also, we’re in the process of filming a video for our track, “Howl”.
What other cool bands should be looking out for (in your esteemed opinions)?
We’ve loved playing shows with Teen Commandments, The Suzan, and Psychic Twin to name a few. We are also both friends and fans of Sunflower Bean, Honduras, Max Garcia Conover (out of Maine), Evan P. Donohue (out of Nashville), Tutlie (out of Philly), and My Gold Mask (out of Chicago).