The Minneapolis-based band Night Moves have announced that “Double Life”, their fourth LP and first in six years, is due out July 25th via Domino. Co-produced with Jarvis Taveniere (Woods, Waxahatchee, David Berman), the album is built on personal experiences designed to be universal messages. They’ve also released the single ‘Hold On To Tonight,’ a kaleidoscopic soul tune that was inspired by death in the family; “it’s a snapshot from a boozy night alone, when you stumble into the realization that the only thing you’re holding onto is fading memories.”
The album’s backstory concerns a string of rough breaks that frontman John Pelant and the band have navigated in recent years. Alongside the ever-vexing question for artists about when they’re supposed to step into the responsibilities of adulthood and maybe away from the lifelong compulsion to create, especially as Pelant started thinking seriously about marriage for the first time in his life. He started writing in the Minneapolis duplex he shares with his fiancée, Tasha, but those early drafts led to domestic issues so he decamped to the band’s little rehearsal room—stuck in a grim industrial zone of the city, surrounded by garbage dumps and foundry fumes—as an office, showing up with workmanlike diligence to keep crafting demos.
By all accounts, this also proved somewhat difficult; as separated by paper-thin walls, Pelant soon figured out his drug-addled neighbour not only lived there but would also erupt into near-daily shouting matches with his partner as well as spilling Big Gulp cups of piss in their shared hallway. But he persevered; delivering hard liquor and wine at his new day job as well as working until he and the band felt they had the core of a record ready.
The band cycled through two producers who had first sounded like dream collaborators but just didn’t seem to fit. They then returned to their own practice space, recording the bulk of the album, after capturing basic tracks at Minnesota’s legendary Pachyderm Studios. The decision afforded them, for the first time, the challenge and luxury of producing themselves, of making every decision about tone, arrangement, and timing before passing the songs to Woods’ sonic mastermind Jarvis Taveniere for mixing and co-production.
The album is available to pre-order on limited edition Curacao Blue vinyl, standard Black vinyl, CD, and digitally. Pre-order here:
“Double Life” Tracklisting:
1. Trying To Steal A Smile
2. Daytona
3. Hold On To Tonight
4. Almost Perfect
5. State Sponsored Psychosis
6. Ring My Bell
7. The Judge
8. White Liquor
9. The Abduction
10. This Time Tomorrow
11. Desperation
