The Surrealist, an instrumental progressive duo based out of Boston featuring guitarist Roopam Garg and drummer John-Marc Degaard, have released a debut single “Self Spiral” which announces the band’s forthcoming EP Naked Awareness.
Talking about the creative evolution “Self Spiral” represents for the Surrealist, the band commented: “‘Self Spiral’ was intended to introduce the whole concept of The Surrealist, and represent a new and introspective sound to the progressive music scene. Our music is the sonic embodiment of what you’d find in surreal artwork. Surrealism by definition is art that intertwines elements from contradictory worlds such as fantasy and reality. An example of this would be depicting an elephant with a trumpet its trunk, or a whale swimming through the sky in a bizarre fashion. The amalgam of such contrasting elements produces something that is challenging to the viewer. We intend to reflect this philosophy in a musical way. In this case, we hope to paint upon the canvas of silence by blending together a multitude of contrasting sounds. We hope to capture the imaginations of people and create music that completes a soundtrack to ones life.”
The Naked Awareness EP is scheduled for the September 17 release. About the creative process for the record, duo says: “Whenever we sit down to record, we rarely have any predisposed ideas. The writing phase and recording phase happen simultaneously, meaning that we would come up with a certain idea, or part of an idea, and then record it, vet it, and make any necessary changes before moving on to the next part of the song or idea. So essentially, we have no clue how the song will sound before we sit down to record, and we end up being pleasantly surprised with how it turns out. We just let whatever feels right at the time to guide the direction of the song. It sort of writes itself really. It’s pretty crazy.”
The biggest challenge the band faced during the writing phase for Naked Awareness was time. “We take an excessive amount of time to write music. We find ourselves being too judgmental with everything that we create. One day we’d love what we’d written, and then the next day we’d consciously try to find flaws and reasons not to love it in the hopes of creating an even better outcome,” the band states.
“Although this process works well for us, we recognize that this isn’t the optimal way to write music simply because it takes too much time. The ‘Naked Awareness’ EP took two years to finally complete, and we recognize that this isn’t a sustainable practice. We’re now trying to write in a non-judgmental less-resistant way, and to hear the beauty in everything we create.
“That’s when ‘Self Spiral’ was created – that track literally wrote itself in three days. It was so unexpected. If you told us the day before we started working on the track that we were going to finish it in three days, we would’ve laughed,” they continue.
The Surrealist has big plans for the future. “We hope to put out another release in the coming months, and then go on tour early next year. We’re currently pondering ways to differentiate the experience of The Surrealist. One of the ways is putting on the best live experience ever in an economical way. We want to enthrall not just the ears, but also all the other senses too.”
Listen to the Surrealist’s debut single “Self Spiral” below. The Naked Awareness EP will be released on September 17th, and a single taken from the release will be premiered on September 2nd.
Pre-order Naked Awareness from Bandcamp.
Naked Awareness Track Listing:
1. Canvas Sky
2. Flowering Of Consciousness
3. Become Whales
4. Waves Of Naked Awareness
Links:
https://thesurrealist.org
https://www.facebook.com/thesurrealistmusic
https://thesurrealistmusic.bandcamp.com/
About The Surrealist:
The Surrealist is an American Progressive band based out of Boston, MA. The band is composed of guitarist Roopam Garg and drummer John-Marc Degaard.
Synthesizing sounds from a multiplicity of genres—metal, jazz, eastern-fusion, ambient, and soundtrack — The Surrealist is a reflection of the new era of modern instrumental music
The Surrealist paints upon the canvas of silence and operates on the endpoints of the spectrum of human emotion
Featuring sweeping, whirling guitar lines that cascade over blankets of plush, droning soundscapes and intricate modulating polyrhythms, The Surrealist breaks new grounds and transcends the separation of genres, leaving nothing but a pure sphere of sound.
