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Sep 29, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Lila Barth

Next month, Baltimore-based singer/songwriter Peter Wagner is releasing his debut album as Furrows, Fisher King. Though Wagner fell into the jazz world early on, while studying at Berklee Wagner discovered Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House, pulling him into the lane of indie singer/songwriters that he inhabits today. Taking cues from touchstones like Sujan Stevens and Elliot Smith, Wagner’s subsequent nomadic wanderings have brought him to his debut record, a widescreen portrait of haunting alienation and a yearning search for meaning.

Furrows has already shared his first single from the record, “Grey Cities,” and today he’s back with his latest effort, “Wasteland,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Wasteland” takes its title from the T.S. Elliot poem of the same name, tracing a portrait of isolation through Wagner’s evocative poeticism. His vocals imitate the intimate confessions of his influences, yet the spacious atmosphere and weightless melodies bring a psychedelic feel to the track. Wagner floats adrift, detached from the turmoil he describes as he lays bare a deep all-consuming sorrow一”Waking alone/Sightless, unseen/Your hollow inside/Stuffed like a straw man/Hiding his eyes at the edge of the world/From what the inferno will bring.”

Wagner says of the track, “Inspired by TS Eliot’s interwar visions, the titular “wasteland” is a society of masks where performative entertainment and greed conceal a nihilistic, rotting substructure that threatens to collapse underneath and plunge us into the cold and empty sea below.

Check out the track below and watch for Fisher King, coming October 15th.