Fans of Interpol will be happy to see that the band’s long-time drummer Sam Forgarino’s solo project, EmptyMansions, will be releasing it’s debut LP, ‘snakes/vultures/sulfate’, April 2nd on Riot House Records. Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers) joins on guitar, and for the record, producer Brandon Curtis (Secret Machines, Cosmicide, Interpol) was at the controls, giving the album a raw, rocked-out feel, just on the rowdy side of radio friendly. Curtis also adds bass, keyboards, and backing vocals to the songs, making it a kind of Interpol family-affair. While the songs definitely fit into a more conventional rock format, they draw on influences like Requiem for a Dream writer Hubert Selby, Jr. (“Sulfate”), the TV-drama Justified (“Up In The Holler”), Black Francis of the Pixies (“That Man”), while taking musical cues from classic rock, including a cover of Neil Young’s ragged murder ballad, “Down by the River”. In talking about EmptyMansions and the new record Forgarino says, “In November 2011, at the completion of a fifteen month long tour supporting Interpol’s fourth, self titled effort, I found that I had finally arrived at EmptyMansions. A long time coming; not without effort, but rather without force—This alone took years to figure out. The songs that I had written, I not only liked, but had to sing myself. There was no choice in the matter. To do it any other way would have rendered the whole endeavor dishonest and pointless.” Now that’s what you call artistic integrity. Give a listen to the first single off ‘snakes/vultures/sulfate’, the outer-space influenced track, “Lyra”:
Track Listing:
1. Led to Measure
2. Lyra
3. Up in the Holler
4. FTC
5. Sulfate
6. That Man
7. [The Former] You
8. Down by the River
