“…beguilingly simple, with a lingering eerie beauty that’s evocative of the surrounding Irish landscape, of foggy plains and craggy dolmens, of ghosts and memories long dead. The songs sound like those of a lonely man pining after ghosts, or perhaps a lonely ghost pining after those left behind.”

We also had the chance to have a quick chat to Rey Villalobos about the album and his music in general. Check it out below!

Hi Rey, thanks for speaking to us! How is life treating you since the release of Daughter of the Sea a few months back?

Things are good thanks, been pretty busy… I recently threw everything in storage in California and temporarily moved to Berlin, super inspiring city. I’ll be in Germany until I leave for tour this September.

You recorded the new album in Wexford on the east coast of Ireland. What were the reasons for this? And do you think the location influenced how the songs sound? Would they have turned out differently if you’d recorded them in sunny California?

The number one reason I went to record in Ireland was to work with my good friend and producer Darragh Nolan, I knew his aesthetics and his taste in music where exactly what the songs needed. And most definitely the surroundings affected the sound of the record, its impossible for it not to, especially since we decided to leave in all the outside ambient noise around us. This acted almost like another musician on the album, the sounds of Ireland. If
we would have recorded in California it would have had a different sound, still melancholic but very different.

Geography aside, where did the inspiration for Daughter of the Sea come from? To me, your writing seems pretty instinctive and abstract, as if the images were dredged from your subconscious. Is this something you agree with? If so, do you still see (perhaps unintentional) signs of your own life and experience within these images?

Yes I definitely agree, my writing comes from the heart, my feelings, my experiences, its a very instinctive process. It’s never planned, the songs arrive from the subconscious.

This is a question I always ask, but would you say your writing has been influenced by any authors or poets? Or is it something more natural and personal?

No, its much more personal for me, ideas arrive from life experiences and then form into songsThe album has had a really good reception pretty much across the board. Presumably this feels really good, but how much notice do you take of other people’s response to your work?

It’s rad to read a good review, but i’m usually focused on the next record, right now my head is buried in mastering my 3rd album that i recorded 2 months after Daughter of the Sea.

You are currently raising funds for a limited vinyl release of the album in France and Belgium. Firstly, are you excited to hear the songs on vinyl? And why the European release?

Extremely excited to hear the songs on vinyl! I think they will sound even better, darker, and have more of the analog sound that I love. Releasing in Europe because I was approached by Microcultures last spring while on tour in France, we talked and decided to collaborate on limited edition vinyl & CDs. They curated a great campaign, I’m really appreciating their sense of design and creativity that they have for their releases.

You are embarking on a European tour this September is support of the release. Are European shows a different experience to North American ones?

They are only different in that I’ve been playing here in Europe much more so there’s larger crowds than in the U.S., but the audiences are very similar in that they both are very respectful and sensitive to the quiet moments of the set. To end, could you name 4-5 acts you are currently listening to? They could be brand new or classics, whatever you’ve been into lately.

Before i headed to Berlin I downloaded a bunch of Roy Orbison on my phone, but really I watch way more films and TV series than listen to music. I’m currently watching the TV series Fargo, it has a great soundtrack, also just finished the documentary ‘Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon’ which is a great film about how Shep Gordon got into the music industry as a manager.

Daughter of the Sea is out now and you can grab it on Bandcamp. You can back the Microcultures campaign to make the vinyl a reality now too.

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The album was recorded with Darragh Nolan at his studio in County Wexford on the east coast of Ireland. As well as the skill and expertise of Nolan, one can’t help but feel that the location itself, consciously or not, had a major influence on the sound of the album. The tracks are beguilingly simple, with a lingering eerie beauty that’s evocative of the surrounding Irish landscape, of foggy plains and craggy dolmens, of ghosts and memories long dead. The songs sound like those of a lonely man pining after ghosts, or perhaps a lonely ghost pining after those left behind.

The album opens with ‘Beautiful Things’ with its elegantly morose piano and air of noirish romanticism. It’s a song about those fleeting little moments, the everyday beauty that we too often miss. Next track, ‘Daughter Of the Sea’, is one of the tracks that feels most indebted to the environment in which it was conceived. In our preview of the single we described the song as sounding like sitting in a “cosy but lonely cabin on a rugged clifftop, somewhere warm and comfortable yet haunted by the the past”. It’s soft and delicate, with a strange dream-like intimacy, appearing to tell the story of the narrator’s love of a girl from the sea:

“She is the
daughter of the sea
coursing in me
haunting me”

‘One’ has quavering, whispery vocals, sounding almost like Chad van Gaalen playing a slowed down folk song, with an atmosphere of isolation, although this time more emotional than geological, while ‘Martians’ teams subtle rumbling drums with strange lyrics (“Remember the martians will wreck your face”) with staccato chorus (“Before. I. Will. Fall. Down. In. Your. Little. Town.”). ‘Take Me to the Others’ opens with sparse guitar and birdsong, before blooming into a fragile but defiant tale of the ending of something and remaining your true self through what that can bring. Villalobo’s vocals begin as a restrained croon, but gathers volume and intensity towards end as he sings,

“Take me to the others
and let me fade away
you’re just like the others
with your silly little ways”

‘Love’ is all pianos and eventually lazy percussion and sad, lovelorn lyrics, a song about a love that is doomed from the beginning, not through cruel circumstance but because it was never wholly real in the first place. Next up is ‘Rain’, a short incantation intended to summon dark clouds, backed with plaintive acoustics guitars and minimal percussion. Closer ‘Just Shy of Survival’ is lead by gloomy piano which spikes in urgency through the track’s middle section, accompanied by Villalobo’s vocals, which sound more desperate than at any other point on the album. The song, and indeed the record, then ends in the sound of rainfall, which is hopefully a literal ode to the album’s geography rather than a sonic metaphor for Villalobos’s feelings. Or perhaps ‘Rain’ really is a spell after all?

There is currently a crowdfunding project underway to fund the limited-edition pressing of Daughter of the Sea to vinyl, which will go on sale to those France and Belgium, as well as limited run of CDs which will go on sale worldwide. Visit Microcultures to order yours. Villalobos is also being joined by French drummer Dimitri Dedonder for a European tour in September. Check out the dates on the House of Wolves website.

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Californian Rey Villalobos, AKA House of Wolves, is back with the first song from his upcoming sophomore album. ’Daughter Of The Sea’ is the album’s title track, and is reminiscent of acts such of Sun Kil Moon and Jesse Marchant, a hushed, intimate folk song with ambient overtones. Produced and mastered by Darragh Nolan in his studio on the east coast of Ireland, the song has the feel of a cosy but lonely cabin on a rugged clifftop, somewhere warm and comfortable yet haunted by the the past. Check it out below:

The album Daughter Of The Sea is coming out in April on {Dusk, Dais, Dawn}. The press release promises an album “densely overcast with warm, lo-fi acoustic guitar, vintage grand piano, laid-back drums & mellotrons dusted throughout”, which sounds pretty good to me. If it sounds good to you too you can pre-order it now.

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