April 2, 2020: Today David Wax Museum, the duo of David Wax and Suz Slezak, released the single “Juniper Jones” from Euphoric Ouroboric, their eighth full-length record and the first of several made in their home studio during the pandemic. Produced by their longtime collaborator Alec Spiegelman (Okkervil River, Kevin Morby, Pokey LaFarge, Woods, Anna & Elizabeth), the album will be released on April 16 via the band’s own Mark of the Leopard label.
Riding high from their 2019 release Line of Light (Nine Mile Records), the band was enjoying a new level of success just as the pandemic hit, with their national TV debut on CBS Saturday Morning, multiple features on NPR’s World Cafe, and a Netflix sync. Instead of lamenting the cancellation of their album release tour, they committed themselves to learning how to self record and quickly enlisted their favorite musical collaborators to make Euphoric Ouroboric.
Euphoric Ouroboric is the band’s first foray into the world of home recording and remote production, a significant departure after thirteen years of making studio records. The album's title captures the emotion and experience of diving headfirst into this new way of recording, spending hour upon hour “in a jubilant dialogue with the self,” as David puts it. He elaborates, “‘Ouroboric’ comes from the mythological ouroboros snake that eats its own tail. I often felt like there was something self-referential and all-consuming about learning to record and edit myself. But, at the same time, I was having such a blast rediscovering my love for being ‘in the studio.’ So I wanted to celebrate this beautiful, weird feeling, hence, Euphoric Ouroboric.”
The album features contributions from special guests John Hadfield (Yo-Yo Ma, the Saturday Night Live band), Anthony da Costa (Sarah Jarosz, Joy Williams), Emily Hope Price (D’Angelo, Sting), and Philip Mayer (The Band’s Visit, Natalie Merchant), alongside David Wax Museum mainstays Danilo Henriquez (trumpet, drum kit) and David’s cousin and former Wax Museum member Jordan Wax (accordion).
“Juniper Jones,” a playful and upbeat song with a big catchy chorus, bursts at its sonic seams, complete with the band’s signature Mexican instruments. This time around, however, these rustic, handmade instruments are dramatically altered, distorted and processed. They sit nestled alongside the pleasantly warped sounds of flute and accordion, a surprising farfisa, David’s voice burbling through pedals, tasty electric guitar hooks, and a triumphant bridge for trumpet and saxophone. It’s the band at its light-hearted best, singing to Juniper, the seeker, who’s not satisfied with the world as it is and dreams of greatness.
“I was thinking of all those bands I knew from our early days in Boston, particularly when there would be one member shining effervescently in a band, and you just knew that band couldn’t contain her and that she was destined for something bigger,” explains David Wax. “I wanted to sing to Juniper, listen in on the questions of doubt in her head, and encourage her to break out on her own. Any of us can get in a rut and lose confidence as we’re setting out on a new course, and I wanted this song to be for all of us who have a little bit of Juniper Jones inside, knowing that we can’t sit back and wait for things to happen.”
“We may have gotten a little carried away with this song,” David coyly admits. “But I wanted the bridges in the song to explode with color as Juniper starts breaking free from others’ expectations and her own hesitations. At first, the song simply started with Alec, the producer, sending me a loop made from small metal singing bowls. And we just kept sending the song back and forth, each time with a new surprise tucked in there for each other. The hardest part of making a record remotely was knowing when to stop. Once we got to the autoharp and baritone sax, we realized we’d probably gone too far and that it was time to call it a day.”
Radio Contact:
Ronda Chollock / Insubordinate Media
rchollock@gmail.com / 434.939.7249
4/21/21 - David on Rhett Miller’s Wheels Off Podcast!
4/16/21 - Euphoric Ouroboric on NPR Music’s New Music Friday
4/15/21 - David Goes Deep on the Basic Folk Podcast
THE BAND’S NATIONAL TV DEBUT ON CBS SATURDAY MORNING - OCT 5, 2019
Line of Light became Amazon’s #1 Mover & Shaker after CBS Saturday Morning appearance!
DAVID WAX MUSEUM on NPR’s WORLD CAFE - Oct 24, 2019
GOLDEN HOUR on NPR’s WORLD CAFE - February 14, 2020
DAVID WAX MUSEUM on NPR’s WORLD CAFE - February 12, 2020
BILLBOARD PREMIERES THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR “UNCOVER THE GOLD”
“David Wax Museum’s ethereal harmonies shine on ‘Uncover the Gold.’” - Billboard
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Photo by Anthony Mulcahy
“Equal in the Darkness”
We've been blindfolding our audiences for experimental concerts we call Concert in the Blind. We perform the entire concert moving in and out of the crowd, whispering in their ears and playing with the fact that they can't see us. I wanted to write a song that spoke to this particular experience. I imagined harking back to those classic country duets where a man and woman are in conversation but recasting it with a metaphysical slant -- a rollicking song about good and evil, light and dark. In all our 12 years together, we've never written or performed a song that works like that and I loved the challenge of it.
For a country-tinged song like "Equal in the Darkness," it was important that the recording have certain elements that countered the hoedown vibe of the track. I think we achieved that musically by the drony electric guitar work of producer Carl Broemel and the subtle, atmospheric synths of Paul Curreri. I'm also playing the rhythm track on my huapanguera -- a large guitar from la Huasteca region of central Mexico. Lyrically, I wanted to embrace the idea that the song was a conversation between good and evil in order the steer the song away from what could have become a more twee love song.
Contact
ALBUM RELEASE DATE for Euphoric Ouroboric — April 16, 2021 via Mark of the Leopard
RADIO: Ronda Chollock - rchollock@gmail.com / 434.939.7249
PRESS: Nick Loss-Eaton - nick.losseaton@gmail.com
US BOOKING: Peter Loomis - peter@newfrontiertouring.com
EUROPEAN BOOKING: Gijs Cals - gijs@sedate-bookings.com
MGMT: Nate Erwin - nate.erwin@redlightmanagement.com
LABEL: Rick Pierik - rick@ninemilerecords.com
NEWS
Watch
3-Min Trailer for Documentary about the Making of Line of Light and Touring as a Family
About
Line of Light
David Wax Museum, the duo of David Wax and Suz Slezak, announce their seventh studio album Line of Light will release on August 23 via Nine Mile Records. The album was produced by Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket and was the first full length album he produced in his newly built recording studio in his home of Nashville, TN.
Line of Light marks the band's return for their first full-length album in four years. It finds the duo tackling subjects both political and personal in a way they haven't explored in the studio before. With Broemel taking the band's folk-pop underpinnings and outfitting them with serious sonic force, the songs push deeper into themes of interconnectedness, spiritual longing, and deep personal reflection. Being artists from Charlottesville, VA, where they raise their two children, they found themselves responding to the political milieu we all find ourselves in at this moment. While not necessarily sunny, the collection shares a firm optimism in the human condition: there's light beyond the darkness. Line of Light shows David, Suz, and their collected accompanists on a sonic evolution - making music that rewards repeated listens.
Photo by Vivian Wang
“Uncover the Gold”
White nationalists gathered in our hometown of Charlottesville in August of 2018. We, along with everyone else in our community, have been struggling to process the hate rally and the anti-Semitic chants we heard in our otherwise quiet, progressive college town. I've seen our community radicalize in positive ways and strengthen as a result of this terrible event and wanted to write a song that reflected on how an awful situation can reveal something beautiful. I wrote this political anthem for hope as a father to his children. It's both a reminder that light can come out of darkness and a prayer for a world with less strife and ugliness.
Producer Carl Broemel
My favorite part of making records is combining lots of preparation and hard work with a love for the spontaneous, unexpected, and chance happenings that humanize the music.
When I listen back to Line of Light now, I hear David, Suz and myself bouncing back and forth between these two ways of working. They had lots of great demos and lyrics, all organized. We prioritized songs, we invited musicians, we booked studio time.
But there were also unexpected breaks to handle kids and meals that stopped any of us from getting too overly serious. Doing overdubs with children in the room playing on a blanket changes your perspective of the music, in the best way.
David was able to not only have tons of great ideas ahead of time, but was able to rewrite a verse right in front of me when I asked if he had any other ideas. It was amazing to see that kind of talent and flow. Also Suz and Dave are able to easily switch from being responsible parents to following their musical muses into unexpected areas. They truly are an interlocked duo in life and music, complimenting and supporting each other. I think they must get their limitless energy and stamina by simply being together, and having the family along for everything.
The songs, the family times, the happy accidents, the good people who contributed, all combined in a wonderful way on this album. On it there is variety, experimentation, and a message throughout of peace, love and togetherness that never gets old and we can never have enough of it!
Photo by Patrick Glennon
