Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders new album due 4 May 2018
Album release: ‘Blue Poles’ by Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders
Release date: 4 May 2018
Label: Self Portrait Records
More info: Band website
Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders return with a first taste from their forthcoming album ‘Blue Poles’, the first new music since the May 2017 single 'Susan'.
Jack has also announced solo support dates with fellow Australian Alex Cameron across Europe and the UK in March and April. Stream / watch 'White Flag'.
'White Flag' is an unlikely love song about surrendering to a prison that binds two people together. In the music video we find him in Indonesia, struggling with a special kind of captivity. “It’s written from two perspectives”, says Ladder. “I didn’t want to duet so I sang both parts. It allows for more mystery.” The video and the forthcoming album maintain the recurring bone dry sense of humour that has been a thread through all of his work.
“I’ve got no fingers left to cross, each time I leave you cut one off.”
'Blue Poles' will be the fifth album from one of the most singular characters in Australian music. Sentimental and mournful, sardonic and surreal. Jack Ladder brings that towering and tender baritone to bear on tales of beauty, love, hope and redemption. A master of musical narrative, he conjures lyrics that celebrate the absurdity and sincerity of the human condition in songs that groove in subtle ways.
Burke Reid produced HURTSVILLE (2011), Kim Moyes shaped Playmates (2014), but this time Jack Ladder takes total control of his creative process. “Blue Poles is the most melodic thing I’ve ever done”, he reflects. “I really pushed myself into some uncomfortable places.”
'Blue Poles' was recorded at Oceanic Studios in Sydney, engineered by Tim Whitten (The Necks, The Church, The Go-Betweens) and mixed in Los Angeles by Noah Georgeson (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom). Once again he’s joined by The Dreamlanders, Australia’s very own misfit supergroup made up of Donny Benet on bass, Laurence Pike on drums and this time two guitarists - Kirin J Callinan and Ben Hauptmann.
He has been invited to tour with some of the world’s most intriguing musicians: Angel Olsen, Weyes Blood, Father John Misty, Florence and the Machine and of late has been touring the US, UK and Europe with dear friend Alex Cameron.