Atmosphere announce 'Fishing Blues' album, debut single
by Atmosphere, Jill Riley, Leah Garaas and Brian Oake
June 22, 2016
Following last month's Soundset success, Slug stopped by The Current's Oake and Riley in the Morning to announce a new Atmosphere album and debut its lead single.
Loyal Atmosphere fans could have guessed an album was in the air. Since September 2015, Slug and Ant have released a song per month with a variety of guest emcees including Aeseop Rock, deM atlaS and Blueprint, though none of those eight songs will appear on the new album.
"When I started releasing these singles I was excited about trying new things and before I knew it me and Ant were making an album again. I was like, 'Why can we not break this structure? What do they call it, a mixtape?' Y'know, even though it's not a tape. 'We'll call it ...' – but we couldn't. We put together a full record with too many songs," says Slug.
"It's an interesting thing to even consider the concept of the album right now because a lot of our contemporaries no longer necessarily care about that, but we're old! And we'll be stuck making albums forever because that's how I grew up. That's how I took music in when I was a kid."
Fishing Blues — out Aug. 12, 2016 via Rhymesayers — was not the original album title. During a promotional photo shoot, Slug and Ant saw a sticker on the side of a canoe in a nearby lake, and it stuck. "All the songs are about fishing, and I don't mean literally about fishing, but all the songs are about trying to secure something; trying to find something; fishing for compliments; fishing for validation; fishing for food, love, money," explains Slug.
The lead single, "Ringo," is not necessarily autobiographical, nor is it about any one person (including Mr. Starr). Instead, it's about a journey.
"Looking at myself and some of my friends and seeing those of us that 'live that life' for an extended period of time you get to find yourself in role reversals: the idea of the falling star; the idea of the guy that's on the top of the world and then suddenly on the rock bottom. Or vice versa, the guy that's on rock bottom but manages to lift himself out and put himself on top."
Fishing Blues Track List
Like a Fire
Ringo
Besos
Pure Evil (feat. Ibe)
Perfect
Seismic Waves
Next To You (feat. deM atlaS)
The S**t That We've Been Through
When the Lights Go Out (feat. DOOM & Kool Keith)
No Biggie
Everything
Chasing New York (feat. Aesop Rock)
Sugar
Fishing Blues (feat. The Grouch)
Won't Look Back (feat. Kim Manning)
Anybody That I've Known
Still Be Here
A Long Hello
