Burner Herzog (NYC) Releases Anthemic New Psych-Pop Album 'Random Person'

Records (October 6th) with an accompanying video for the track “Metric Halo.” The band carries on with their tradition for belting out undeniably catchy tunes with big hooks and anthemic refrains with this new album.

Burner Herzog was formed by multi-instrumentalist Jasper Leach in spring of 2015 as an outlet for some of his more overly ambitious recording projects. Inspired by Arthur Russell, Sun Ra and Paul Simon's Graceland, the project set out to make impossible-to-play-live pop symphonies.

A multi-talented songwriter, musician, and recording engineer, he relocated from the San Francisco Bay Area to New York City in 2019. He was fresh off of recording and playing with a number of bands, including that of pop savant Tony Molina, and had called curtains on the Bay-based lineup of Burner Herzog, his solo project and a stage persona he describes as “an androgynous medium priest character of sorts... sort of like Alice Cooper, but less twisted.”

The varied and dynamic sequence of songs on Random Person will surely please fans of Dinosaur Jr, Silver Apples, Silver Jews, Pere Ubu, The Breeders, and Pavement.

The video for “Metric Halo” was shot in Brooklyn's Prospect Park where Leach wrote much of the album, walking around during COVID lockdowns and getting lost. Leach reflects on the making of the video “We ended up using two iPhones inside a reflective shield for light because there were no power sources anywhere while families were having picnics and blasting music everywhere around this little cove we found.

I was looking for something that tied to the origins of the record for me and a feeling of the occult behind this album and this song in particular - hence the masks, sparklers and outfits. I want people to get the sense of the song echoing off the expanse of Prospect Park in a profound way. My friend Mike Harris, who used to do videos for major rap artists, was able to tie it all together perfectly in post.” 

While Burner Herzog may be a bit tricky to label musically, some have likened them to bands like the Byrds or Pavement who work idiosyncratically in the underground idiom where indie meets country-rock, with little regard for what's cool at the moment. The album is marked by intense self-reflection and trying to reorient one's identity in unfamiliar circumstances. There's a lot of upheaval, disorientation, alienation, but ultimately, there's also a lot of love and an embrace of something spiritual across all of the tunes.

Leach describes the process: “I was very lucky that everyone in the group was onboard for whatever I wanted to do. Once we were confident we had a record, we booked time at BC Studios in Gowanus, an out-of-the-way neighborhood in Brooklyn, run by its namesake Martin Bisi. Martin has owned and operated that studio in the exact same spot since 1981 - Brian Eno initially bought him some gear, and since then Martin has worked with any number of incredible artists, namely Sonic Youth, Dresden Dolls, Herbie Hancock, Swans… the list goes on. He used minimal gear to track us in two giant, cavernous rooms.”When reflecting on his inspiration for much of the album, Leach explains, “I get inspired by walking around unfamiliar places, and in my head a lot of my music is geographical that way. The second half of the album mostly came to me while wandering around Prospect Park with no particular place to go. Similarly, things like ‘Sometimes It's Hard to Break Free,' I think of wandering around the Maspeth UPS depot in the freezing December cold, or ‘Memo To Persephone,' finding my way back home from the industrial, vacant streets of East Williamsburg. I'm very proud of this record; in the end it is a celebration of life, and a celebration of the time I got to spend being creative with some of the most important people in my life, a time I didn't want to end. I hope at least a fraction of that comes through to outside listeners.”

Leach completed Burner Herzog's debut mini-album Wonderful American in 2017 and formed a live lineup, the Universal Forces, to promote its release that summer. The group has played alongside Shannon Shaw, tunEyarDs, Gary Wilson and many others. Returning to the studio that autumn, the group began work on BIG LOVE which saw release on legendary Bay Area label Paisley Shirt Records in 2020.

The album received positive reviews from Austin Town Hall, Week in Pop, and RIFF Magazine. Random Person feels like Leach's finest work yet and an excellent showcase for a versatile band that deserves to be heard far and wide.

“Everything we do has an element of melodrama to it and an element of humor to it, because I don't really know how to do it any other way,” says Leach. “The Greeks would put on Oedipus Rex but there would also be an absurd comedy the same night. I think that one kind of has to approach things that way.” Dive into this unforgettably creative album to experience the highs and lows of Burner Herzog.

L I V E

10/3 Gold Sounds, Brooklyn, NY

10/4 O'Brien's, Boston, MA

10/5 Launderette Records, Philadelphia, PA

10/6 Prime Location, Kingston, NY

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