Ginger Root Shares Pair of New Singles 'All Night' and 'There Was A Time'
The songs are from his upcoming album SHINBANGUMI, which is due out September 13.
By: Josh Sharpe Jul. 17, 2024
Ginger Root, aka multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and visual artist Cameron Lew, shares a pair of new singles “All Night” and “There Was A Time,” from his anticipated new album, SHINBANGUMI, due September 13 on Ghostly International. The latter comes with a video directed by Lew and collaborator David Gutel, which continues to storyline initiated with the album’s first two singles, “No Problems,” and “Better Than Monday.”
What makes Ginger Root special is Lew's ability to weave influence beyond pastiche into a bigger picture, exploring that rarified pop pleasure center where referential meets refreshing. "There Was A Time" honors the homespun melody-making of his favorite solo Beatle (early ‘70s Paul). Thinking about the song's utility within the overall sequence, like a scene break, Lew sought to write a lighter pop song. It doubles as the sweet wind-up for "All Night," a four-on-the-floor burner, a Ginger Root club cut albeit still with live instrumentation, inspired by his friend's seemingly endless night out in Paris. "This was my one attempt at writing a track that you can bump all night, but being the introvert that I am, when it came time to write lyrics, I couldn’t write it about me so the lyrics are borrowed from a friend's seemingly endless night out in Paris.”
Additionally, Ginger Root was interviewed by Zane Lowe on New Music Daily on Apple Music today, who also premiered “All Night.” Of the tracks, Paste is saying “‘There Was a Time’ sounds like a city pop outtake funneled into a kaleidoscope, a song-cycle gem rife with psychedelia and bleep-blooping electronica that sounds like the guts of a lava lamp… ‘All Night’ is just as vibrant, arriving as a four-on-the-floor burner worth its weight in intercontinental splendor and pop majesty.”
Ginger Root is hitting the road this fall on a massive North America, Europe and UK fall tour in support of SHINBANGUMI that kicks off on September 24th. All dates below.
Since Ginger Root’s first release of what he calls "aggressive elevator soul" in 2017, the multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and visual artist has been making handmade yet immaculately polished synth-pop, alt-disco, boogie, and soul — taking shape through Lew's lens as an Asian-American growing up enamored by 1970s and '80s music, specifically the creative and cultural dialogue between Japanese City Pop and its Western counterparts from French Pop to Philly Soul to Ram-era McCartney.
He spins his retro-minded influences and proliferates savvily in the present, synthesizing a songwriter's wit, an editor's eye, and a producer’s resource into something singular and modern. His long-awaited third LP and first for new label home Ghostly International, which comes with a visual album component, translates roughly to a new season of a show. It finds Lew more poised, idiosyncratic, and intentional than ever in a new chapter of life, unlocking "exactly what Ginger Root should sound and feel like," he says. "In terms of instrumentation and musicality, it's the first time that I felt very confident and comfortable with what everything should be comprised of. On the more personal side, I'm coming out of the last four years of writing, touring, and living as a different person; SHINBANGUMI is a platform to showcase my new self."
Tour Dates:
09/24 - San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
09/26 - Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
09/27 - San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theater
09/28 - San Francisco, CA @ Fox Oakland
09/30 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theater
10/01 - Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
10/02 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
10/04 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
10/05 - Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
10/08 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
10/10 - Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed
10/11 - Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy
10/12 - Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall
10/13 - Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe
10/15 - Boston, MA @ Royale
10/17 - New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
10/18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10/20 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
10/21 - Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
10/22 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
10/23 - Nashville, TN @ Cannery Hall
10/26 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
10/27 - Dallas, TX @ The Factory
10/29 - Austin, TX @ Emo's
10/30 - San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theater
11/01 - El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
11/02 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
11/03 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Hollywood Palladium
11/22 - Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
11/23 - Berlin, DE @ Hole44
11/25 - Cologne, DE @ Yard Club
11/26 - Paris, FR @ La Bellevilloise
11/27 - Amsterdam, NE @ Tolhuistuin
11/29 - Leeds, EN @ Brudenell Social Club
11/30 - Portobello, Dublin 2, IR @ Whelans
12/01 - Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
12/02 - Manchester, EN @ YES
12/03 - London, EN @ Koko
Photo Credit: David Gutel
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