Mat Kerekes Announces Upcoming New Album 'Nova'

Mat Kerekes, founder and vocalist of the band Citizen, has announced details surrounding his upcoming solo LP called 'Nova', which will be released on August 5, 2022 via Wax Bodega. The first single "Danger" is out now and can be streamed below.

"Danger is a song that wrote itself," says Kerekes. "As one of the first tracks written for' Nova',it kind of sparked the entire writing process and lit the fire that I needed to write an album. The subject matter touches on not feeling heard or seen by someone you once looked up to. I had Daniel Fang track the drums on Nova and I feel like he really gave a new life to them, especially this song.I'm very excited to finally let it see the light of day."

The album's title was inspired by two places-an early 2000s PC game and the state where he's living. He's been splitting time between his hometown Toledo, Ohio and Woodbridge in North Virginia-NoVa to locals. A rerelease of the fantasy hack-and-slash game Diablo 2 brought the second iteration with a character's special attack called 'frost nova.' The stars had aligned: 'Nova' would be the next record.

If this sounds like a shockingly chill way to name a record, that's the point. The new album is brimming with imagination, humor, romance, balls, and whimsy. 'Nova' isn't a record that feels like our grave, endlessly serious historical moment; it's a record that escapes it.

Kerekes recorded and engineered the record in the basement of his Virginia house, but after tracking drums he discovered a new pet peeve: his own drum style. To redo the drums, he called up his friend, Turnstile drummer Daniel Fang.

The pair worked together over two days in Toledo with Steve Warstler, who mixed and mastered the record. At one point, Fang was blasting out drum fills while they were taking levels from his kit. Kerekes hit record. The result is track five, a nine-second percussion meltdown titled "Daniel Fang." "I thought it was funny, so I put it on the record," shrugs Kerekes.

'Nova' isn't an essential, high-brow distillation of a theme, angle, or topic. It's just good, fun music, plain and simple. In an industry full of on-the-nose branding, marketing, and sales of ideas, identities, and experiences, 'Nova' feels like the anti-record; it feels honest and real.

Listen to the new single here:

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