Chris Bathgate Shares New Single 'Don't Look Back'

Michigan songwriter Chris Bathgate returned last month after a half-decade away, releasing "Bruises" to announce The Significance of Peaches for a May 13 release via Quite Scientific. Today he shares another taste from his sixth full-length album, "Don't Look Back," along with a video. Pre-order The Significance of Peaches here.

Regarding the track, Bathgate simply noted that it, "'Don't Look Back' is an interpretation/echo of Orpheus and Eurydice, one part Greek myth, one part personal myth-it has a bit of an attitude." In other words, a defiant yet tragic love story, put to song.

The Significance of Peaches finds Chris ruminating on time spent living in rural confines, from the National Forests of Michigan to farms in Northern California, along with the significance of that aforementioned stone fruit. After migrating down to San Francisco, Chris reconnected with the love of his life, and the eventual mother of his children, which led to a return back home to Michigan.

Discussing this time, Bathgate stated, "Before I moved to California, I spent a

summer in the Huron-Manistee National Forest. I was camping, parking my van in the woods, sometimes working as a carpenter. There are orchards on the westside of Michigan, and late that summer I ate every local Michigan peach I saw. I would give peaches to people I cared about, sometimes trying to express exactly what I meant by the gesture. Here, please have this-a focal point of this exact and singular sacred summer, a ripe local peach. It's been nice to be alive with you here, Carpe Diem, I love you. The interest followed me into a changing life, into the wonderful Co-ops of Northern California. Then to the Embarcadero Farmers market, while living in SF with the now mother of my children."

Sonically the album leans heavily on the structural support of a parlor organ, with barely a cymbal in sight, and not a guitar to be found. Chris' haunted vocals perched atop it all.

Over the course of a last decade, and five albums prior Bathgate has toured across the US and some of Europe, performed a NPR Tiny Desk Concert, had extensive airplay on the BBC, and received praise from outlets such as Paste, NPR Music, No Depression, All Music and The Independent (UK).

Watch the new music video here:

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