John Mark Nelson Shares New Single 'Better Slow'

John Mark Nelson is excited to share "Better Slow" the new single from the forthcoming Hideaway EP, due out April 8th via Nightshop Music. "'Better Slow' is a dark and textured meditation on Nelson's path thus far," writes Under The Radar.

"A pulsing bassline and swirling production add a newly expansive element, bolstering Nelson's magnetic falsetto and contemplative lyrics." The new song, which features the artist Bayonne on piano, follows lead single "Bright", which Dusty Organ lauded as "filled with rich guitar tones and electronic flourishes to round-out a feel-good anthem." A live session video for "Bright" was also featured on NPR Music affiliate The Current.

Nelson faced a crisis of confidence after going from being anointed a "wunderkind" by NPR in his teens to dropped by his booking agency in a dizzyingly short timespan. But now a few years down the road, and fresh off taking an opportunity to work with Dan Wilson in Los Angeles, Nelson finds himself creatively reinvigorated.

He attributes much of his growth in both songwriting and production to his experience at Wilson's studio working with new artists every day, including the likes of Mitski, Leon Bridges, and Taylor Swift, for whom Nelson served as an engineer on tracks for the re-recorded Red LP.

"I wrote 'Better Slow' during a period of discouragement when I felt stalled out in my career," explains Nelson. "The refrain of the song is almost like a pep talk written by me, addressed to me. It comes from this feeling like you are on the right path, but feel so much uncertainty in the wobbly, 1 step forward 2 steps back reality of trying to survive as an artist. This song feels resonant to me even 6 years after writing it. The path is slow and winding. People talk a lot about great talents getting 'discovered' but sometimes I wonder if patience and resilience is as important if not more important to a life in music."

In the summer of 2019 Nelson and his wife found themselves packed into a hatchback driving west with all their belongings. Still in his mid-20s, the Minnesota native was already reaching for a new beginning. His last proper full-length album had been released two years earlier, and he wasn't sure what the future held for his own music. Hopes and excitement were high, but little did they know that right as they'd find themselves further from family and friends than they'd ever been, the bottom would drop out of life as everyone knew it. Yet, just as many made the best of comparatively bleak times, Nelson dove into what brought him fulfillment to tune out the dissonance.

Thus began the story of the Hideaway EP, with Nelson reinvigorated as an artist, the songs were equally inspired by and conceived within the competing forces of isolated pandemic living and his experience working at one of the most currently relevant production studios in the world. Lyrically, as is especially evident on the EP's title track, allusions are made to the intimacy and comfortable safety of the one room apartment he and his wife shared and were forced to withdraw to when they first landed out west. The songs also find Nelson examining the dynamics of relationships; how people can seek to reinvent themselves through them, and how they can grow stronger or codify into staleness over time.

On "Bright", a simple fast picked classical guitar swells to a massive soundscape as he contemplates the brightness his at the time newlywed wife brought to his life in the otherwise dark days during a downward moment in his career as an artist. "Perfect Stranger", a song built around swirling, ambient piano, reappraises the word stranger to describe the perfect person to meet in the perfect moment as a chance for renewal and a path towards a future ideal, as opposed to the more standoffish interpretation of the term.

While "Don't Look Back" taps into the equally enticing trap of nostalgia, and our collective tendency to pine for the rose colored hue of the past when it comes to relationships or otherwise at the expense of a present that will take its place in time.

Nelson has been decidedly prolific of late. Outside of his own music, he's also recently collaborated with Suki Waterhouse, Sofia Mills and Alex Lahey among others. The forthcoming EP is also joined by the recently released ambient LPs Signa One and Signa Two, collections of instrumental compositions inspired by the natural world that he plans to add to as an ongoing series, exploring a path opened to him when he began delving into the works of Goldmund, Riceboy Sleeps and Jon Brion. Once again, Nelson is plunging into the unknown. "I don't really know what the future of my career as a performer looks like," he shares, "but I know I have tons and tons of music to make."

Listen to the new single here:

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