Eric Anders and Mark O’Bitz sing The Variant Blues on their politically charged new folk-rock album — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The latest instalment in the Anders/O’Bitz collection “music in the time of coronavirus,” the 10-song Variant Blues finds the duo showcasing their Neil Young-like acoustic-based sonic signature while expressing frustration at society and the state of the world — most notably on the anti-Trump song Far Gone, which highlights the album’s sense of brooding dystopia.
Both The Variant Blues and its predecessor Stuck Inside, Anders says, “are full of songs that try to capture something about these times of a global pandemic, climate change, and the rise of new forms of very old right-wing ideologies. Some through references to history, some with references to the poet Emily Dickinson, and others that are more directly about these troubled times we live in.
“We had hoped to go into the studio to finish these albums during the spring and summer of 2021, but the Delta variant kept us all at home. These two albums were done almost completely remotely — 90% remotely — with regard to the three principals: Me, Mark O’Bitz, and Mike Butler, our producer.”
Northern California singer-songwriter Anders got into writing and recording songs in the early 2000s when he met southern Californian guitarist-composer O’Bitz at one of the latter’s shows. Eric then tried to make up for lost time by releasing three critically acclaimed solo releases in four years: Not At One (2003), Songs for Wayward Days (2004), More Regrets (2005), and Tethered To The Ground (2006).
In 2007, the duo’s song So Wrong was used in the Michael Schroeder film Man in the Chair, starring Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer. The song Big World Abide was used in TV shows the Dutch soap opera Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden, and the Courtney Cox TV show Dirt.
Listen to The Variant Blues below, and keep up with Anders/O’Bitz at their website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
