British Psychedelic Folk Rock Band Turin Brakes to Make Rare Live Appearances in NYC

It's been four years since much heralded British folk-rock band, Turin Brakes, who have been described by the UK's Daily Mail as "one of the finest Indie bands of the last decade", released a new record and went on the road in the US.

Now, on the heels of the October 8 release of their sixth record, "We Were Here", on Cooking Vinyl/Red River Entertainment, and following their successful largest UK tour in a decade in November, the group, comprised of Olly Knights, Gale Paridjanian,

Rob Allum and Eddie Myer, are proud to announce that they will be returning to the States in March for special shows in NYC, LA and SXSW. The band, whose music has been described by "AMG's" Matt Collar as "...sophisticated, often epic and deeply emotional '60s and '70s folk-influenced pop...", will be performing on March 10 in NYC at the Mercury Lounge, March 13 at the Palm Door on Sixth and March 14 at Waterloo Records' parking lot at 1PM (both in Austin during SXSW), and March 17 in LA at The Troubadour.

"We Were Here", Turin Brakes' first record since 2010's "Outbursts", finds the group at their most assertive and consistent, with a hypnotic collection of songs that nods to classic releases of the '70s and also to the triggers of existential dread that sit right at the heart of the information age. The songs explore themes like loneliness, disconnection and Knights says, "realizing one's own place in the scheme of things." He continues, "As a writer, I love to plumb the depths of the human condition."

To create "We Were Here", the band relearned some of their older songs, a process that reinvigorated them creatively and also served as the disc's inspiration. They recorded the album live over two weeks of eighteen hour days in legendary Welsh studio Rockfield. Eschewing digital technology wherever possible, the band recorded live to tape after managing to half-inch some reel-to-reels previously stashed at the studio by analogue overlord Steve Albini during a countrywide tape shortage several years before. Working with Ali Staton who acted as engineer, co-producer and mixer, they were determined to "develop from the live takes into a full blown Technicolor indie movie".

The results - warm, crystal clear acoustics ("We Were Here") that give way to expansive echo chamber electrics ("Blindsided Again") and chaotic, proggy woodwind ("Dear Dad"). From the majestic opening swoop and swirl of "Time and Money" through to the elegiac campfire slide of closer "Goodbye", "We Were Here" gorgeously chimes and echoes with the pastoral psychedelia of Pink Floyd, the sunset soul of Laurel Canyon, the blues of the Mississippi Delta and the band's own six-stringed past.

Here's a link where you can stream the track "Time and Money" from "We Were Here":

https://soundcloud.com/turinbrakes/time-and-money/s-EJqVD

You can check out the video for "Time and Money" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVEfTLCUNZY&feature=youtu.be

Discussing their influences, Olly says, "Gale and I spent much of our teens getting stoned listening to old blues records in our bedrooms. That informs Turin Brakes as much as my personal love of Laurel Canyon singer/songwriters - we're hugely inspired by artists like Joni Mitchell and more recently people like Laura Marling; brave female soul singers aren't afraid to leap into their own wells and come up spluttering, making something beautiful with what they find. With this record, the four of us brought in our own very different influences - everything from jazz to hip hop to ambient music and things like Pink Floyd. Their records have been there right since the Door, the first single off the Optimist. The records of the early '70s, they're like extra limbs to us."

Arriving as it does after a timely re-evaluation of some of their earliest recordings, Turin Brakes' "We Were Here" is something of a confident fresh chapter: a wide open door to the band's next decade.

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