Deerhoof share new single ‘Wedding, March, Flower’
Deerhoof has released their tender piano ballad, ‘Wedding, March, Flower’. The material is the latest single taken from their upcoming new album Miracle-Level, to be released on March 31st, 2023, on Joyful Noise Recordings.
The love song – sung in Japanese by the band’s Greg Saunier – had arrived in time for Valentine’s Day. The track came accompanied with a video featuring studio footage of its creation at No Fun Club. The song features Saunier on piano and Satomi Matsuzaki on drums. ‘Wedding, March Flower’ follows album singles ‘Sit Down, Let Me Tell You a Story’ and ‘My Lovely Cat’.
Discussing the song’s personal origins, Saunier explained: “The real kicker came when Satomi wrote lyrics. They were in Japanese, so when we first rehearsed it, I wasn’t even sure what I was singing. But Satomi had written a love song about a wedding. Satomi and I ended our marriage over ten years ago, and it hasn’t always been easy for any of us to keep the band going. Our songs have always been one way that we all process our feelings with each other. Co-writing and performing ‘Wedding March Flower’ with her was really intense.”
Miracle-Level, the band’s 19th album, is to be their first recorded in a typical recording studio environment, in a departure from their previous DIY recording methods. It is also their first album to feature lyrics exclusively in Japanese. Their new direction for the record was due to a desire to make themselves uncomfortable by opening up their previously secretive DIY methods to a professional producer.
Mike Bridavsky, the album’s producer, described the process as daunting but was able to build a rapport with the band. He described their main drive with this new project as “dispensing with the months of obsessive tinkering that usually make their albums sound so beautiful and insane”. The band explained: “We don’t want to do our usual aggro control-freak thing. We’re going for bare-minimum production that doesn’t push the listener around.”
Among the group’s inspirations for the album were artists like Les Freres Michot, Ngola Ritmos, Rosalía and Mozart. This lack of English-speaking inspirations is what drove the group to decide to record the record purely in Satomi Matsuzaki’s native Japanese.
Following the release of Miracle-Level, Deerhoof will embark on a North American tour beginning in Toronto, Canada, on March 31st and including shows at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere The Hall on April 4th and Los Angeles’ Lodge Room on May 10th.
Miracle-Level tracklisting:
- Sit Down, Let Me Tell You a Story’
- ‘My Lovely Cat’
- ‘Everybody, Marvel’
- ‘Jet-Black, Double-Shield’
- ‘Miracle-Level’
- ‘And the Moon Laughs’
- ‘The Little Maker’
- ‘Phase-Out All Remaining Non-Miracles by 2028’
- ‘Momentary Art of Soul!’
- ‘Wedding, March, Flower’
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.