Anand Wilder, formerly of Yeasayer, has announced his debut solo album. I Don’t Know My Words arrives early next year via Last Gang. Today, Wilder has shared lead single “Delirium Passes,” which arrives with a absurdist visual starring High Maintenance’s Ben Sinclair. Check out the Derek Howard–directed clip below.
Wilder wrote and recorded I Don’t Know My Words throughout quarantine in his New York apartment, playing every instrument on the album. “After some initial attempts at collaborating with outside musicians, I realized that I needed to have my hands on every aspect of recording my first solo effort,” he said in a press release. “So much of the pleasure of making this album was reigniting my childhood passion for challenging myself to pick up any instrument.”
He added that much of the album was inspired by his familial roots, particularly his mother, who was born in India. “Whatever we were doing, the Beatles, Cat Stevens, and Fairport Convention were playing in the house through these homemade speakers my father had wired. The lockdown brought all that back to me, and the music I began making translates that musical mood of my childhood for my family now. I wanted to go back to basics, back to songs. Light on electronics and experimentation, heavy on acoustics and vocals.”
Wilder added that “Delirium Passes” “is about escape versus perseverance,” and that the music video is a loose adaptation of a James Joyce short story called “The Boarding House.”
Yeasayer disbanded back in 2019, the same year their final album Erotic Reruns was released. Prior to the breakup, Wilder worked on Break Line the Musical, a stage show and album. The recorded version of the work features contributions from Rostam Batmanglij, Dirty Projectors’ Haley Dekle, and Man Man’s Honus Honus.
https://pitchfork.com/news/anand-wilder-ex-yeasayer-announces-debut-solo-album-shares-video-for-new-song-watch
