New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Revered drummer & prolific songwriter, Kyle Crane has lent his talents on tours with the likes of
Neko Case and
M. Ward among others as well as being the incredible drum double for the film Whiplash. Today, Crane announces an album of his own, Crane Like the Bird, due out January 18, 2019. Consequence of Sound has announced the record with an "
Origins" feature and debuted the video for the dazzling first single from the album, "Nicole," featuring Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell.
"This song is about honoring my sister," Crane explains. "She is a very strong woman who has been through a lot. She got pregnant in high school and became a single mother when the father died of a drug overdose. The chorus takes us back to simpler times."
Steeped in autobiography, Crane Like the Bird is akin to gazing out different windows of the same childhood house. Crane's pilot father, Jeff was a Coast Guard lieutenant out of Humboldt Bay, CA; his helicopter went down in a 1997 search-and-rescue mission, leaving the family shattered. The album tells the story of the time leading up to his father's death and the effects on them - everything from the music to the album art that includes his father's old pilot logs and maps, and the album cover photo of his mother at the site of the crash on the cliffs of Mendocino, throwing a rose out to sea.
"I've always had songs, but you keep putting them on the shelf when you're a sideman," Crane explains.
Drums were his ticket into music - his dad gave him his first set for his tenth birthday, a year before the crash. Crane went on to attend Berklee College of
Music and post-grad jazz studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he lives now.
The album touches on love, loss and memory, but also ski lifts and Nintendo, making it clear that romance songs don't have a monopoly on the universal human experience. The impeccable collaborations on the album makes it come alive with diverse palettes;
Conor Oberst on lush track "When I See" featuring
Daniel Lanois on pedal steel and Kurt Rosenwinkel on electric guitar,
James Mercer on jangly, fast-driving opener "Wishing Cap," Luke Steele on synth-laced "Mendocino,"
Peter Morén on New Wave-inflected "Glass Half Full" and Sabina Sciubba in spoken French on the shimmering "Kaleidoscope," blossoming under jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. Stay tuned for more from Crane Like the Bird.
Crane Like the Bird Tracklisting:
1. Wishing Cap (feat.
James Mercer)
2. Now
3.
Nicole (feat. Ben Bridwell)
4. Grizzly Creek Redwoods
State Park
5. Mendocino (feat. Luke Steele)
6. When I See (feat. Conor Oberst)
7. Kaleidoscope (feat. Sabina Sciubba and Brad Mehldau)
8. Glass Half Full (feat.
Peter Morén)
9. The Painter (feat. M. Ward)
