EKKSTACY ANNOUNCES SELF-TITLED ALBUM
EKKSTACY ANNOUNCES SELF-TITLED NEW ALBUM
SHARES NEW DOUBLE SINGLE “BELLA” AND
“I CAN’T FIND ANYONE”
EKKSTACY OUT JANUARY 19TH
Photo Credit: Jason Nocito
“bella” & “i can’t find anyone”
https://symphony.to/ekkstacy/bella-i-cant-find-anyone
Fast-rising Vancouver, BC native EKKSTACY announces his new self-titled album today, along with a pair of new singles. EKKSTACY, the followup to his 2022 album Misery, will be released January 19th via Dine Alone Records in Canada, and both new songs, “bella” and “i can’t find anyone” delve further into the calculated and dynamic new direction EKKSTACY is taking his music with his new album.
Sonically, it’s fitting that this third body of work from EKKSTACY is a self-titled album. It’s an autobiographical reflection on his life as a musician and the highs and lows of the solitude that comes with creating art and touring. Recorded with frequent collaborators Mangetsu and Apob between long stints on tour and festival plays over the course of the last two years, including his Lollapalooza debut earlier this year, EKKSTACY is the most dynamic version of the raw and frantic sound he first emerged onto the scene with on widely-celebrated debut NEGATIVE and breakout single “i walk this earth all by myself.” He’s continued to hone that sound alongside Chris Coady (Beach House, Future Islands, The Drums, etc), who mixed his new self-titled LP and his previous album Misery. His songwriting is resolutely solemn, but there’s a maturity behind the meandering thoughts in his head that blossomed into powerful post-punk, jangly surf-rock, and big, brash shoegaze moments on EKKSTACY.
He first teased the new LP with his previous single, “Problems,” featuring Trippie Redd, which embraced a more reflective and somber tone than the rowdy goth and post-punk tracks he belted out on Misery. On new single, “bella,” he describes a mysterious girl who has captured his heart at first sight with a bouncy amalgamation of the surf and garage rock influences that are at the heart of EKKSTACY. “i can’t find anyone” signals a dramatic shift in tone to the wider spectrum of emotion he shares on this album, with a track that sonically mirrors the feeling of spiraling into a pit of despair. His self-titled LP is set to push that to the next level — a natural evolution that was predicted by the Alternative Press who dubbed his 2022 album Misery, as, “the mark of an artist who’s come out of his shell, stepping boldly toward his future.”
This past summer, EKKSTACY embarked on a summer European tour, including performances at Reading & Leeds, that saw the artist come into his own as a live performer, playing shows that saw his post-punk, dream-pop, and indie blend translate across the globe. Next month, he’ll be back in Europe touring alongside Bakar, with a run of dates including shows in Glasgow, Paris and London.
Check out “bella” and “i can’t find anyone, see below for more info on EKKSTACY and his forthcoming self-titled LP, and stay tuned for more from him coming soon.
Upcoming Tour Dates w/ Bakar:
11/21 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy
11/22 – Dublin, IE @ Academy (SOLD OUT)
11/23 – Belfast, IE @ Limelight
11/25 – Paris, FR @ Le Bataclan
11/27 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
11/28 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo (SOLD OUT)
11/29 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall (SOLD OUT)
11/30 – Manchester UK @ Albert Hall
EKKSTACY album artwork shot by Jason Nocito
EKKSTACY
EKKSTACY
January 19, 2024
i don’t have one of those
luv of my life
i guess we made it this far
alright (feat. *** *** ******)
goo lagoon
bella
shutting me out
problems (feat. Trippie Redd)
get me out
fuck
chicago
headless horseman lost his way
i can’t find anyone
More about EKKSTACY:
Since the release of EKKSTACY’s aptly titled, goth and post-punk indebted sophomore record, Misery, the Vancouver-born indie star has been touring basically nonstop. Between shows and festivals across Europe and North America, including his Lollapalooza debut, EKKSTACY found time to work on a third album, the self-titled EKKSTACY, forthcoming January 2024. EKKSTACY’s new project is more expansive and dynamic than anything the 21-year old musician has yet made. EKKSTACY came up on his brooding, raw sound — epitomized by his breakthrough single “i walk this earth all by myself” — but here we find him, increasingly involved in the music’s production, leaning into brighter indie rock and surf punk sounds.
It’s giving 2010 — the year of Wavves’ King of the Beach, Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast, Beach House’s Teen Dream, of Girls, MGMT, and Japandroids, all of which can be felt within the sonics of EKKSTACY. Despite the fact that, at the time, the artist was still a few years from learning guitar. Songs like “fuck,” “luv of my life,” and “goo lagoon” have the energy of garage rock shows on the waterfront. “goo lagoon” in particular, a marquee track written in a hotel room in L.A. and one of Ekkstacy’s personal favorites, is guitar-heavy, lively, and a little bit sticky: At the start, a wacky B-horror voice informs us we’re about to enter “A stinky mud puddle for you and me,” in which we get drunk by the water and get lazy by the coast. Heck yeah. Meanwhile, “i guess we made it this far” and opener “i don’t have one of those” are low-key jangly, dreamy and drum-driven tunes that are melancholy in a sunny way. It was music that became EKKSTACY’s outlet after battles with mental health. It’s clear why: There’s joy in the music that shines through the goo of gloom.
Though EKKSTACY and friends and collaborator Mangetsu [and TK?] wrote and recorded this third record in fits and spurts, during tour downtime, and though EKKSTACY is accustomed to and prefers the speedy release process of his SoundCloud origins, EKKSTACY really feels like an album. (The album is made up of a few “little rolls,” EKKSTACY says.) It’s not surprising that EKKSTACY and co were listening to lots of Ramones, The Strokes, and My Bloody Valentine. You can feel the playful punk, the indie rock power chords, the celestial production. It’s a rollercoaster-esque sinking-rising feeling all the way through the ups and downs. Wanting to cry, causing problems, rather drink than fuck. Remembering trips in the backseat of the car, needing to be alone with a guitar — it’s alright, haunted, quickening heartbeats, reminiscing about Chicago, clouds and rain and sunshine at the same time — and all the while these chords that go from languid to swift, and the sweet stretchiness of EKKSTACY’s vocals.
“I think everything is cool,” EKKSTACY told Office magazine in 2022. “Sometimes I’ll be listening to rap, and I’ll be like, Oh fuck, I want to be a rapper. And then I’ll hear a metal song, and I’ll be like, Fuck, I want to do metal.” That all-inclusive, eclectic creative drive is what makes EKKSTACY’s music what it is — and it’s what makes this new chapter so much fun. EKKSTACY’s got everything. ADHD-core but make it cohesive. It’s big, it’s reflective, it might even make you wanna mosh a little. There’s the soft pensiveness of “Problems,” to which Trippie Redd contributed (EKKSTACY “came up listening to Trip,” so it’s notably special), the windy riffs of “the headless horseman lost his way,” reminiscent of the emo-post-hardcore of Title Fight, the dulcet, bouncy moodiness of “alright,”. And there’s the one EKKSTACY calls The One: “bella,” which is like if you took all of EKKSTACY’s faves and influences and rolled it into one 2:30-minute banger. Picture EKKSTACY’s fans packed into one of the huge rooms he plays, all pogo-ing.
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