Frontperson, the new project from Kathryn Calder (vocalist and keyboardist for The New Pornographers) and Mark Andrew Hamilton (who has released six albums as the excellent Woodpigeon), have announced details of their debut album ‘Frontrunner’ which will come out on 21st September on Calder’s own Oscar St. Records. They’ve also shared the video for ‘Tick – Tock (Frontrunner)’, the first single from their debut album which shows a track and field event shot backwards in slow motion, also reflected in the album artwork.
Frontrunner got its title from a cherished photograph that the duo would eventually incorporate into the album artwork of their debut, as Hamilton explains: “About 20 years ago, a photographer friend of mine named Ambrose Fan gave me this incredible picture of a young girl with her fists clenched, getting ready to run a race at a track meet. I’ve lived in a lot of places since then, and this photo has always come with me. When we started recording at the National Music Centre – basically one of the world’s best keyboard museums where we had pretty much free reign over their incredible collections of synths and such – I put the photo on the recording console, and it stayed there for two weeks guiding the making of our record. Whenever someone would ask what sound we were going for, I’d just point at that picture. Calder adds: “The photograph is now our record cover, it was the inspiration for our album name, and it’s still guiding this record, because we decided to use it as inspiration for the video for our first song, Tick-Tock (Frontrunner).”
For the making of the album, Frontperson were joined by Melissa McWilliams(drums, drum machine), Jen Sévertson (bass, also of Peach Pyramid), Clea Foofat (cello, also of Raleigh and Dojo Workhorse), Foon Yap (violin), Marek Tyler (percussion, also of nêhiyawak), and producer Colin Stewart (The Cave Singers, Dan Mangan, Black Mountain).
Frontrunner Track List:
1. U. O. I
2. Long Night
3. Tick – Tick (Frontrunner)
4. He Follows Me
5. Young Love
6. Shorter Days
7. This City Is Mine
8. Postcards From A Posh Man
9. Insight
