Blackout Orchestra fondly recall a long-lost relationship on their tenderly potent new single Unfound — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Rooted in pulsating beats and flowing vocals, the Canadian alt-indie rock duo’s latest track is a soothing, introspective shoegazer that tugs at the heartstrings of the past — and offers a preview of the pair’s upcoming sophomore album Beauty Sleep.
“Unfound was a bit of a turning point in making the record, coming late in the game,” says vocalist and songwriter Ben VanBuskirk. “I knew a girl in high school — she transferred in and back out within about a month, but we became really close in that time. We were the only ‘grunge’ kids at our school, listening to Fugazi and Velvet Underground. I remember she had Kid A on vinyl and I thought she was just the coolest person ever. After she moved, she was quite transient — going from city to city so I never knew how to reach her, but for years every now and then a package would arrive in the mail with these beautiful ramblings, art, knick-knacks and mixtapes.
“Eventually they stopped coming, and I honestly have no idea what happened to her. The song is sort of a fictionalized look at where we ended up — these idealized punk rock kids who thought we’d never ‘sell out’; that we’d always be these creative weirdos and never compromise. I wonder if she ever found a way to navigate the ‘adult’ world, and what each of us might have gained and lost along the way.”
Blackout Orchestra — VanBuskirk and singer Morgan Thompson-Reid — arrived on the scene in 2021 with their debut album I Will Want You When We Are Ghosts. A self-described chronicling of heartbreak and recovery, Beauty Sleep is about finding your footing after a fresh start.
“The last album was very much about hitting bottom and the slow climb back up,” VanBuskirk explains. “This record is the continuation of that — when you get your life together, it isn’t ‘happily ever after’… Life keeps happening; there are still the ups and downs of day-to-day life, those quieter battles that happen between the big moments of your life. I was particularly interested in taking softer acoustic sounds and marrying them with minimal electronic beats and flourishes, to further add to the feeling of being between two worlds.”
Check out Unfound above, sample I Will Want You When We Are Ghosts below, and join Blackout Orchestra at their website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
