Hockey Are Back with Fantastic New Track ‘explorer’ [premiere]

We’re so thrilled to present you with this freakishly flawless single, “Explorer”, off Hockey’s soon-to-be released album, Wyeth Is. This fine track is not only one of our new jump-off addictions, but it just stamped a new identity (and a killer one at that) on a band that hasn’t graced us with an album since 2009.

Don’t be fooled by their past disappearing act, though. This synth-pop doting duo is more than familiar with what’s good in the indie-rock circuit, and have come back to prove it. With new mannerisms of lighthearted, sandy synths and eclectic electro-rock relishes, Hockey have invented a sound that’s far less 4-years-ago and much more fantastically-far-out. Ringing in somewhere between Tanlines and some imaginary indie-ed out 80’s group, this almost-tropical treat of synth, pop, and poetic beats is one you’ll likely be insanely pleased with, if not entirely obsessed.

The full album will be available digitally May 7th, physically June 25th, and you can also catch them at Pianos on April 24th for a The Wild Honey Pie Presents show! To help prepare you, we asked Jerm Reynolds of Hockey a few questions about the release.

Interview:

1. In the days of Mind Chaos, your sound was often described as an amalgamation of The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem. You definitely dropped that comparison in this new album, and picked up a whole lot of new. Despite the changes, we of course still hear some of the same Hockey that we knew and loved back then. Were there certain aspects of your old sound that you’ll always hold onto? Or an aspect of your old stuff that you carried into this album?

I think we do carry the old stuff along even into the new record. Thing is, Ben and I have been making music for so long that we kinda came all the way back to the beginning, with the new stuff sounding almost like what we first came up with years back. Or like the band I saw Ben in before we started Hockey. Having only heard Mind Chaos I think most people would be unaware of the long trail we’ve been on. Anyway, we feel like the new album is us. There’s still a low-fi, beat oriented sound and the songs are pop, or takes on pop, with traditional arrangements and hooks and lyrical emphasis and all that. As an artist, you always end up putting your stamp onto something, even if you wonder how it got in there.

2. You’ve spent a lot of time with these tracks. What you take away from your album, or favorite song, has to differ greatly from what an outsider hears or experiences. Name one thing you’d want your listeners to notice about a track, or the album as a whole.

The album as a whole is just that, one piece really. Its a record of our time in the woods and all the strangeness of coming off two years on the road. It was an odd and kind of subtly intense time, and we put all that in. So our hope is that people will listen to the record with that in mind. Its a piece and a whole, a story of us finding our new sound.

3. During your hiatus between albums – between Mind Chaos and Wyeth Is, how did your own musical and personal interests change and develop? How did those changes influence the making of the album?

Oh yea, change we did. I’m not sure the things we were influenced by really changed much, but our orientation to them did. We went looking for what makes a song a song, and we were totally open to whatever came out. I was still listening to Bowie and The Rolling Stones and things like that, but just ready to be honest about whatever direction things went in. Anytime we tried to steer it, it got all fucked up.

4. Describe the duo dynamic. What’s your favorite part about working together?

The duo dynamic is good. We’ve been involved in the same pursuit awhile, and you end up coming to an understanding if you can keep going. Ours is just: make the song good. Make it work. Doesn’t matter who comes up with what or how, we’re both just after 3-1/2 minutes that work and somehow really transport or affect the listener. Thats what pop is, experience. Being taken out of yourself and swept along in a world.

5. Tells us what your favorite session is on The Wild Honey Pie?

6. Draw your own album cover in crayons for Wyeth Is.

I actually did make the album cover, with old books and paint and glue, so asking for a crayon of it is exciting, and throwing me a real bone. Thanks!