After the bombast of 2018’s Here Comes the Wolf, Tuxis Giant turned in a more tactile, quiet direction for follow-up album, Goldie. The third full-length of Boston-based project, the record swapped sprawling intensity for something more subdued, though sacrificed nothing of the emotion in the process. “We wanted to make it feel it intimate and hemmed-in,” lead Matt O’Connor explained. “Close and present, like you’re in the room with us.” What resulted was a hushed yet unguarded exploration of identity and expectation in the face of failure and change. An attempt to “appreciate the moment, your own life,” as we put it. “To not betray yourself so badly as to mark it all up as idle dreaming.” As we continued:
If this mood is facet of the human condition, then it is one the millennial generation have taken to heart. A cohort that feels childish in front of what is expected of them, their every waking moment subconsciously or otherwise judged on some scale of productivity. The guilt of being oneself. When O’Connor sings about not being able to live in dreams forever, the sense is that they feel to the need to ‘grow up’, to leave the fantasies of the young and enter the ‘real world’. But what if the irony of our time is that the expectations are the fantasy? The ‘real world’ not real at all?
The release of Goldie coincided with the early months of the pandemic, a period which O’Connor spent in a Vermont cabin, alone and writing songs “about the pursuit of a perfect, heavenly feeling.” What they describe as “the kind of dreamy fantasy that hooks you hard but is always a little out of reach.” Songs, that is, which again probe the line between reality and dreams in search of a healthier, more fulfilling way of life.
With long-time band member James Steinberg (drums, bass, aux percussion) joined by Eleanor Elektra (guitar, backing vocals, piano), O’Connor took to Big Nice Studio in 2021 to record the resulting tracks. Sixteen in total, though talk of a double album was ultimately shelved in favour of a neater package. So while the next Tuxis Giant full-length is currently being mixed, this November sees us get the first taste of this new period with the release of EP In Heaven on Candlepin Records. A collection of six songs—four of those written in Vermont and two ‘transition’ tracks featuring spoken word samples taken from a old cassette tape of O’Connor’s parent’s wedding.
Today we have the pleasure of sharing the EP’s first single, ‘New Roman Gods’. A song which continues the alt-country style put forward on Goldie with its bright and welcoming sound, O’Connor wrestling with love and the efforts required to stoke its warmth. “It’s not always easy to love someone. Or yourself,” O’Connor says. “And if you’re feeling distant from love, you may need to will yourself into it. For better or worse.”
