The Wedding Present – Sprague: Track Premiere
Listen to a brand new track from The Wedding present's forthcoming album Going, Going…
Leeds-based indie pioneers The Wedding Present return with their tenth studio album on 2 September, following the 2012 release of previous LP Valentina, and you can listen to a brand new track here. Something of a departure from their celebrated brand of breezy guitar pop, Sprague is a much more sedate, pastoral affair, with gentle piano arpeggios gradually layered with interwoven string melodies.
"The instrumentation on Sprague isn’t typical Wedding Present!" acknowledges frontman and songwriter David Gedge. "I wrote the track on my computer in a cabin in Rockport, Washington and then printed out scores for the musicians to use. The piano and the string quartet were all recorded by Paul Hiraga at Crackle & Pop Studios in Seattle."
Despite its clear change of pace for the band, Sprague demonstrates that Gedge's keen sense of melody remains intact – however long-term fans may be relieved to discover that this track isn't widely typical of Going, Going... either. “I didn’t want to make the next release just ‘another album’," he explains, "so I came up with the idea of 20 ‘interconnected’ pieces of music."
Of the accompanying video, he says: "In the summer of 2014 I travelled across the USA with photographer Jessica McMillan and we made some atmospheric short films to accompany the tracks. Since then it’s been a case of progressing through the music, trying all sorts of ideas, seeing how they work set against the visuals.”
As a further treat for Wedding Present fans, they've also provided this video of studio footage for another new track: Bear is a characteristically tuneful slice of lyrical indie-pop, undercut with both mournfulness and muscle thanks to the harmonies and fuzzed-up bass of bandmate Katharine Wallinger. "Our drummer Charles Layton set up his camera to film the band at Studios La Fabrique [Saint-Rémy-De-Provence, France] and Parr Street Studios [Liverpool]," says Gedge. "He edited the footage for this video."
Watch the video for Bear below, and check out the band's tour dates after the jump:
2016 UK Tour dates
7 Sep – TramShed, Cardiff *
9 Sep – Sage, Gateshead *
10 Sep – School Of Art, Glasgow *
11 Sep – Lowry, Salford *
12 Sep – John Peel Centre, Stowmarket *
20 Nov – Arts Centre, Colchester
21 Nov – Britannia Theatre, Chatham
22 Nov – Wedgwood Rooms, Portsmouth
23 Nov – Cavern Club, Exeter
24 Nov – Fleece, Bristol
26 Nov – Limelight, Belfast
30 Nov – Tunnels, Aberdeen
1 Dec – La Belle Angele, Edinburgh
2 Dec – The Point, Sunderland
3 Dec – Bewery Arts Centre, Kendall
4 Dec – Picturedrome, Holmfirth
6 Dec – Arts Club, Liverpool
7 Dec – The Venue, Derby
8 Dec – O2 Academy, Oxford
9 Dec – Aquarium, Lowestoft
10 Dec – O2 Academy Islington, London
*The Going, Going... Audio-Visual tour, playing the album in its entirety accompanied by the short films made in collaboration with Jessica McMillan
Going, Going... is released on 2 Sep via Scopitones