THAYER SARRANO (“The New Queen of Shoegaze”) Releases New Album
Four years since the release of her critically-hailed album Shaky, Athens, GA-based THAYER SARRANO has released her fourth album Wings Alleluia today (March 29, 2019) via The Guildwater Group / CEN. The album encapsulates hopefulness in light of dark times; a paramount example being the latest single and video to be released off the album “The Eternal” which premiered on Post-Punk.com and was written in the aftermath of a close friend’s passing. Post-Punk says, “‘The Eternal’ is “a song conjuring the early 90s occult shoe gaze moments permeating with the smell of Nag Champa and clove cigarettes set to the soft vocal timbre of singers like Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star.”
Much like the supernatural-esque Natalie Neal-directed video for “The Eternal” – which features prism lighting and colored landscapes – the album itself exists on an almost mystical level. During the making of the album, Thayer came upon a therapeutic understanding of time and realized how transcendent music can be. As a very visual person, rather than writing a linear storyline, Thayer says many of her lyrics come from translating the imagery she sees when painting, drawing, and at times making sculptures. While embracing her visual creative outlet, she has also been composing instrumentals since she was a child; being a classically-trained pianist and also playing the pedal steel guitar, oboe, and percussion.
Since 2009, she has released three LPs and toured heavily, headlining tours in the US and Europe, as well as supporting Drive-By Truckers, Television, Robyn Hitchcock, Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker, Nicole Atkins, The Whigs, she has also been a featured guest vocalist at a Big Star’s Third show in Athens amongst other things. In the studio, she has shared songwriter in the rounds with Patterson Hood (DBTs), Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Dave Marr (Star-Room Boys) and others. Her songs have been featured on network television, in the Netherlands’ Groninger Museum, and she won the Flagpole Music Award for Music Video of the Year (2016) for “Shaky.” Last October, she released a 7 inch with a book of drawings for the stand alone track, “I Will Never Be Used to Your Beauty,” with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will” as its b-side, featuring producer and artist Andy Lemaster.
Wings Alleluia was made in [Let’s Active founder] Mitch Easter’s studio, The Fidelitorium, and was engineered by Drew Vandenberg (who also engineered 2012’s Lift Your Eyes to the Hills). The album features the Athens Cowboy Choir, T. Hardy Morris, Justin Collins, Parker Gispert, Billy Bennet, and more on backing vocals. It is out now via The Guildwater Group / CEN and can be streamed here.