Premiere: Motherhood - Shepherd
The Cups N Cakes Network is giddy with anticipation for the release of the newest LP from Fredericton art-punk outfit, Motherhood. Their last release, Dear Bongo, came out in 2019 and was named our favourite album of that year. With their newest effort set to arrive on June 24th through Forward Music Group, we have been eating up any advance info we can get and today are excited to share some new details.
The new album is called Winded and it is a musical exploration into the natural world as it mirrors human suffering. The album expands on the sounds found in 2019s Dear Bongo with Motherhood crafting a “genre-salad” of influences that include art-rock, punk, 60s pop, spaghetti western, and fuzzy garage psych. Although fans of Motherhood will find similarities between Winded and Dear Bongo, where the band made its most significant departure is in the ways the compositions within Winded make use of space. Falling in line with the albums title, Winded gives the listener room to breath, Penelope Stevens explains, “we let air become its own force.”
Today, the Cups N Cakes Network is honoured to be premiering the music video for the second single from the new album. The track is called “Sheperd” and it was one of the very first songs the band started writing for their new album, yet it was one of the very last to come together. Fast and poppy, the track sees the band emulating classic Beach Boys harmonies with Man Man-esque wildness.
Penelope Stevens further explains:
"I kept picturing someone walking through the halls of a motel, with shag carpet and cigarette smoke. The demo was originally called Creepy Motel, for that reason, even though the song ended up being about sheep. We spent a long time playing with major and minor transitions, taking inspiration from the Marty Robbin’s Gunfighter Ballads and old westerns. Then Brydon wrote the verses and chord progression, and we battled it all out until basically the night before we went into the studio. For being such a hard-won song, it ended up being one of our collective favourites, for sure."
Enjoy Shepherd below and head over to Motherhood’s Bandcamp page to pre-order Winded now. For vinyl aficionados, don’t wait too long as the more limited version of the LP is nearly sold out!