MEKO BRAIN, THE NEW SOLO PROJECT FROM MIKE O’BRIEN (ZEUS), ANNOUNCES DEBUT LP, WONDERMENT, OUT VIA VICTORY POOL OCTOBER 9, 2024
WATCH / SHARE “NEW LOW” HERE
BUY / STREAM “NEW LOW” HERE
PRE-SAVE WONDERMENT HERE
Photo Credit : John Butler // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Meko Brain is the fantastic new solo project from Mike O’Brien. Keen observers of Canadian indie music will know his work through an impressive list of projects, first and foremost his long-running pop outfit Zeus, which since 2009 has produced an encyclopedic style of pop/rock music, and they've amassed a pile of much-loved albums on the venerable Arts & Crafts label. And you’ve likely seen him as a sideman with other Canadian stalwarts such as Dan Mangan, Bahamas, and Jason Collett.
Today, he announces his debut LP, Wonderment, set for release via Victory Pool Records on October 9. Wonderment is a picture of economy: the words, arrangements, and instrumentation are all directly aimed at serving the song, whose inner core is formed by O'Brien's clean, mellow acoustic guitar alongside melodic, gently probing basslines (care of Zeus sideman and Yaehsun's Jason Haberman), and the wonderful Ringo-meets-Levon Helm drumming of the legendary Don Kerr (Ron Sexsmith, Rheostatics). This stage of the album was masterfully recorded by Gavin Gardiner (MOONRiivr, Wooden Sky) at his All Day Coconut Studios, home to many recent projects coming out of Toronto and beyond.
A product of the pandemic, Wonderment reflects O’Brien’s desire to focus on what’s most important in life. “Songwriting, in some ways, is like a check-in with yourself,” he says. “Are you doing your best? Are you showing up for those you love?” Even a cursory listen to these songs will attest to these themes; the album's warm sound is mirrored in its vast empathy, positivity, and self-awareness. Rendered in pleasingly sunny vintage leaning hues, masterfully dressed in muted electric guitars, glistening, lightly trippy keyboards, woodwinds, tight, subtle backing vocals, and mixed by Robbie Lackritz (Feist, The Weather Station), Wonderment is a veritable feast for the ears.
O’Brien also shares the second single off the album, “New Low”, of which he says, "many of my other songs have a more acoustic folk sound so I wanted to bridge the more acoustic, organic folky sounds with this slinky pop song. I love how it turned out. I ended up layering the vocal several times to get a wide yet intimate sound. It all culminates with a satisfying fuzzed-out guitar riff to bring it home! As for the lyrical idea, I started to form this idea of a guy who knows his partner is being unfaithful but doesn't want it rubbed in his face. If it's not stated out loud then he can continue to carry on the charade that he doesn't know what's going on. So in a sense, it became a dance song about self-pity. I wanted to make a video that matched this idea but in a not-too-literal way, so we enlisted Jack Harrison who created an amazingly simple yet effective video that matches the song's mood perfectly!"
WATCH / SHARE “NEW LOW” HERE
BUY / STREAM “NEW LOW” HERE
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MORE ABOUT WONDERMENT
Album opener “Anyone Else's Eyes” features patiently unfurling nylon-string guitar chords and a hushed, earnest vocal espousing the merits of a multi-faceted worldview. A fitting introduction for an artist whose own multifacetedness, brings to mind both Canadian contemporaries such as Sandro Perri, Michael Feuerstack, and Peter Elkas, as well as history's true titans of song.
Whiffs of The Beatles pop up in brief flashes, such as the Lennon-esque guitar leads in the bridge section of “Take Me As You Will”. The shuffling bounce heard in “You Still Belong” sounds like it could have had an assist from Tom Petty (and features some diverting guitar work from Sam Weber), as does “Brush It Off”, right up until the chorus, which displays a distinct early '80s skinny-tie pop flavor (think Squeeze or Joe Jackson).
The production on “New Low” utilizes a distinctly upbeat approach, infusing the album's burnished sound with falsetto vocals and a dash of late 70s dance floor feel, almost like a super relaxed Chic, before spinning off into a thick, guitar harmony-laden middle eight. On “If It's Autumn”, O'Brien taps into a deep, timeless wellspring of songwriting, its shuffling, start-stop rhythm section underpinning an exercise in classic folk-pop songwriting, while “The Old Days” sounds like it could have been slipped onto a 4-track-era Elliott Smith album.
WATCH / SHARE “ANYONE ELSE’S EYES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “ANYONE ELSE’S EYES” HERE
Wonderment is an easy album to get lost in, and with its relatively breezy runtime, it's a listening experience that will no doubt have one reaching for the play button as soon as it's done. This is in no small part due to its remarkably streamlined and consistent sound, but also to O'Brien's increased focus on creating a cohesive, robust set of tunes, both musically and lyrically. “It was the first time that I really felt like I was consciously writing from my own experience in a truthful way,” he says, “and really talking about my lived experiences.” Of this new collection of songs, O'Brien says, “I hope it sounds like me. At this point in my musical life I'm not trying to emulate anything in terms of a sound or style, I'm just using my experiences to get as close to something authentic as possible.”
PRE-SAVE WONDERMENT HERE
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WONDERMENT TRACKLIST
01 Anyone Else's Eyes
02 Say The Word
03 You Still Belong
04 Brush It Off
05 Come On Back
06 New Low
07 Take Me As You Will
08 Born Free
09 Warm Wind
10 The Old Days
11 If It's Autumn
12 Hallelujah Goodnight
