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Lake Street Dive announce new album 'Free Yourself Up,' share 'Good Kisser'

Cover art for Lake Street Dive's album 'Free Yourself Up.'
Cover art for Lake Street Dive's album 'Free Yourself Up.'Nonesuch Records
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by Adrian Williams

February 27, 2018

Brooklyn-based Lake Street Dive have announced a new album: Free Yourself Up will be released May 4 on Nonesuch Records. The record will be a follow-up to Side Pony (2016), the band's debut album with the label.

They've shared "Good Kisser," a track from the album, with an in-studio performance video. A tour behind the album will bring them to St. Paul's Palace Theatre on May 17.

What inspired the new album's title? "We self-produced this album," singer Rachael Price explained by phone, "which was a big decision for us because we've never done that before. It was a big leap of faith."

Although Lake Street Dive were founded in Boston, they're named after the street in Minneapolis, home town of the band's Mike "McDuck" Olson. Free Yourself Up was recorded in Nashville, the area where Price was raised.

The decision to record in Nashville, said Price, was all because of engineer Dan Knobler and the studio Goosehead Palace. After recording some demos and rehearsing at the studio, "we loved working with Dan and just continued to go back there."

While Free Yourself Up draws on a wide range of musical influences, Price said its sound wasn't specifically influenced by the city where it was recorded. The studio served as "an island unto itself," she said. "We could have been in Alaska."

For the new album and tour, Lake Street Dive also enlisted keyboardist Akie Bermiss. "It became a match made in heaven," Price said about Bermiss's debut with the band on their last tour. "When it came to making the record, we couldn't imagine not having him with us."

The band are known for their frequent and popular tours, and Price said the Twin Cities are always a special stop. "We always have really great shows there," she said...but from coast to coast, "we love it all."