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Jun 24, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Charlie Anastasis

After the seminal 2000s indie rock outfit The Walkmen went on hiatus, Peter Matthew Bauer started a solo career with his 2014 debut Liberation! and continued in 2017 with Mount Qaf (Divine Love), released via his own imprint, Fortune Tellers. Last month, Bauer shared “Knife Fighter,” the lead single from his first album in five years, and later this year, he is set to share his new full-length solo record, Flowers.

Flowers sees Bauer returning to the studio without missing a beat, pairing with his former Walkmen bandmate Matt Barrick on drums and production, and reviving his passion for pounding and anthemic indie rock. The full album is out September 23rd, but ahead of the record’s release Bauer has shared another new single from the record, “Skulls.”

With “Skulls” Bauer’s textural organ once again meets Barrick’s muscular drumming, recalling some of their best work from their days with The Walkmen. Bauer conjures a miasmatic haze of organ chords, contrasted against Barrick’s towering drums, thickly layered vocals, and Bauer’s cascading guitar solos. The resulting track feels both rousing and subtly hyptonitic, like an ocean of dense melody broken by waves of guitar and percussion.

Check out the song and video below. You can also read our Q&A with Bauer on the song and his forthcoming record. Flowers is due out September 23rd via Fortune Tellers Music.

What is the inspiration behind “Skulls”?

“Skulls” was inspired by a new style of guitar playing that I stumbled on. In all the years I’d made music, I’d never figured out a way to take a guitar solo before. I started using a distortion pedal and a space echo, playing these kind of waterfalling guitar riffs over some farfisa chords. It felt really loose and brought me a lot of joy. From there, I tried to write a very joyous melody to match it. There’s a record by Peter One and Jess Sah Bi, it’s a kind of 1980s country rock record from the Cote d’Ivoire. I feel like their style of melodies really inspired me throughout this album. Just the rhythm and the way they’re both laid back but really letting go.

What do you want your fans to take away from this single?

I’d say I did a very good job of writing and recording this music without worrying about whether or not anyone would ever hear it. When you make weird tiny records that no one ever hears, you have to become a master of pretending you don’t care. Now that it’s ready though, I find myself really hoping that someone will hear it, especially new people that have never heard from me before. It would be so wonderful to play concerts and have people come and have a drink with their friends and have a good time. The band could really kick down the doors with this music.

What does it mean to you personally?

This one has a lot of strange lines about magic mountains and supernatural payphone calls.

I really try not to think about what I’m doing while I’m doing it. I’d written a record called Mount Qaf and the magic mountain in the song is sort of looking back at that. It’s a song about how what is strange and small and human is more gratifying than any sort of spiritual escape.

Can you share a bit about your songwriting process? And what do you think makes a good song?

At this point, songwriting for me is all about jumping into something strange and unknown that you can let take over. I try to be as direct and without analysis as I can be. The singing is always the hard part. I feel like I discover songs just by disguising my voice in different ways and trying to get to a place where I’m comfortable listening back.

I have no idea what a good song is, except viscerally when I hear it. For my own music, there’s a shape that starts to take form in my mind before it exists in the real world. Like a perfect form of the song in some other world that I’m doing the best I can to mimic over here in this one.

How has moving to LA influenced the new music you make? How is the new LP differ from the last one?

LA definitely makes you a little different. I find myself wanting a cool car which is something I never cared about back east. I also wear more sneakers and comfortable clothes which I never did before. I’ve got a lot of crackpot ideas now. I’m guessing that’s this city too. The biggest surprise is that I’ve come to like and follow the Lakers.

Musically, this record feels far more natural and has no strings attached. After the last Lp, I gave up on playing music for a long time. I’m not sure why I was able to find a way back. All of a sudden, music brought me a kind of peace I hadn’t felt in a long time. Then, while I wrote these songs on my own for a long period, I started collaborating with Matt Barrick again for the first time in years. He played the drums and mixed everything. I flew to Philadelphia and finished everything up at his studio and the whole album came together. It just felt natural and easy. I think that spirit comes across.

How have you been spending your pandemic time?

I run a management company so, for the first part, I was trying to figure out how to stay afloat and find ways for artists I worked with to keep going. I spent a lot of time with my family. I started a small record label and put out a couple of records last year for other folks called Fortune Tellers. Then I’d go write music late at night after work. That’s what I did for a long time. Nowadays, I feel like things are finally moving again but it’s still a very precarious time for everyone touring and making records. So that’s usually my focus. I’m not certain where anything is heading and sometimes things get very dark, but I like to keep moving forward and remain hopeful.