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Oct 27, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Hanna Sturm Casper Clausen

Casper Clausen, frontman of Danish trio Efterklang, has announced his debut solo album, Better Way, and shared its first single, the nearly nine-minute long “Used to Think.” Better Way is due out January 9, 2021 via City Slang. Check out “Used to Think” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

Better Way was recorded in Lisbon, Portugal, where Clausen has been living for several years. Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) co-produced and mixed the album.

“My very first introduction to him was listening to the Spacemen 3 song ‘Big City’ in Berlin at 8mm bar years ago—there’s a little nod to ‘Big City’ on ‘Used to Think,’” Clausen says in a press release. “I went out to meet him and his partner in their house. It’s magical. We decided to mix and produce the album there, in his studio. I was fortunate to co-pilot, while he was warping the sound of the record, I admire his incredible ear-mind. I learned a lot from him.”

Clausen also had this to say about the new single: “‘Used to Think’ was one of the first songs I wrote for Better Way a couple of years ago. I had a run of some small shows around Portugal testing the new songs I was working on at the time, and this one became one of my favorites, I really like the energy of it. It was also the song that made me reach out to the producer Sonic Boom. He ended up mixing/co-producing the entire album. There is some inspiration from his band Spacemen 3 luring around in there and he lives in Sintra, very close to Lisbon where I’ve been the past couple of years, so it all made sense.

“To me ‘Used to Think’ is like a Kaleidoscope with interchangeable lenses, each section of the song, a different pallet of colors and shapes. Before I stopped thinking I thought, open up, share more and think less.”

Clausen also had this to say about the whole album: “It’s a record about finding a better way, loving stronger, falling harder. It’s about being far away, and it’s about being myself, how I make music by myself. It’s my first album, though I’ve been in bands ever since I started making music in my teens. Most of the songs on this record were written in a similar way; I’d go to my studio every day, turn on some machines and find some sounds that I like and let my mind drift away. I would always leave one song behind every day I went to the studio.”

Eftkerklang released their first new album in seven years, Altid Sammen, in 2019 via 4AD.

Better Way Tracklist:

1. Used to Think
2. Feel It Coming
3. Dark Heart
4. Snow White
5. Falling Apart Like You
6. Little Words
7. 8 Bit Human
8. Ocean Wave

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