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Feb 18, 2022 By Joey Arnone Photography by Xan Thorrhoea

Today, Australia’s Methyl Ethel (the band led by Jake Webb) have released their newest album, Are You Haunted? The band has also shared a live performance video of the whole album. View the performance and stream the new album below.

In a press release, Webb elaborates on the creation of album track “One and Beat”: “The central idea for the chorus took a trip to California in 2019. I spent a few days with Chris Coady in his space at Sunset Sound in L.A., a really incredible studio. In between trying to set up a giant tape loop, apparently on the tape machine that was used to record ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ and chatting about how one must always keep a CD copy of Selected Ambient Works 85-92 to give as a gift should one be required at any event, we tried to figure out what was needed to transform the idea into a song.

“Chris is a great producer, he painted so many great ideas into the work,” he continues. “I left his place with a really beautiful mess. I eventually wrote what became the whole first section of the song, having finished a tour of the U.S. that was really special. The shows were pretty small, we finished a show in Atlanta and got the whole audience on stage with us to finish the set, that kinda thing.

“I wanted to write something that spoke directly about the relationship between songwriter and listener, performer and audience, from my experience and perspective. I’ve found that this is such an important part of the whole musical world, something not often spoken about in song.”

Are You Haunted? also features the songs “Neon Cheap,” “Matters,” and “Proof” featuring Stella Donnelly (which was one of our Songs of the Week). Methyl Ethyl’s previous studio album, Triage, came out in 2019 via 4AD.

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