MILAN McALEVEY – “WHATEVER IT WAS”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE MUSIC PREMIERE
Today, Milan McAlevey (of Maine rock band Coke Weed) shares “Whatever It Was,” the focus track and knock-out centerpiece off his brand new LP, Islands of Milans (out today, September 30 via Fortune Tellers). McAleveyβs brand new LP, including this focus track, is a perfect encapsulation of the singer-songwriterβs work over the last decade. It was recorded in Portland, Maine and upstate New York (largely with the help of Walter Martin of The Walkmen), and while largely being a one-person production, it also features contributions from several guest musicians, including Maine luminaries dilly dilly and Micah Blue Smaldone (Cerberus Shoal), as well as indie veterans Walter Martin (Walkmen), and Nina Donghia (Coke Weed).
Speaking on the LPβs focus track, a folky heartfelt number, McAlevey wrote:
“‘Whatever It Was’ is about finding spiritual refuge in friendship and authentic connection, seeking an antidote to the 3 am scaries, that terrifying existential dread that comes from overly engaging in the human world. I’ve been very lucky with my friends my whole life, and the dude in the song was a real guy, but you can’t really drive from Monhegan Island, you have to take a ferry to the mainland. But we did really drive from Maine to Memphis back in the 90s. Every boy growing up in New Hampshire dreams of going to Graceland, it was a bucket list trip. Walter Martin handles the drums and congas on this track, so you know it’s going to groove.”
On his full-length new LP, he continued:
“There are 365 islands in Casco Bay, Maine, so they’re called the Calendar Islands. Islands of Milans (it rhymes) are ten of my little islands floating in my mind-bay. The first track, ‘Blue Peninsula,’ sets the scene with a fingerstyle guitar part that evokes the rocking of a wooden boat and lyrics about escaping to an imagined paradise.”
“I really bottomed out for two years starting in 2016, which is alluded to in the song ‘Dreamed I Keyed a Car.’ Part of coming back from that and getting healthy was rededicating myself to songwriting and revisiting my roots in folk and country. Sometimes, I think of my style as ‘magical absurdism;’ there’s definitely an element of broken-hearted existentialism, which is leavened and illuminated by the music, which is where the magic comes in.”
I wrote the songs at the Trelawny building in downtown Portland, Maine. I recorded there and did a couple sessions with Walter Martin (The Walkmen) at his place in upstate New York. His contributions are always perfect and I particularly love his vibraphone, which features on three songs. A very reclusive local artist here called dilly dilly sang harmonies on four tracks, which was a big get for me. I taught myself to mix, which I loved and might just be in my blood, I have an uncle who engineered on a lot of big 80s hits. Last but not least, I got Nina Donghia, my old partner in crime in Coke Weed, to sing with me on ‘You Can Get It.’ The minute I sat down to mix it, I knew we had our special sound back, at least for a minute.”
Earlier this summer, McAlevey also shared his lost 2008 debut record entitled Admiral of the State of Maine, out now via Fortune Tellers. The record is a gem of folky, acoustic bliss, recorded 15 years ago on an old 4-track cassette machine and shipped back and forth from Maine to Brooklyn, where producer Walter Martin (of The Walkmen) gave notes and helped the album along.
McAleveyβs newest LP, Islands of Milans, is out September 30 via all DSPs.
Milan McAlevey
Islands of Milans
(Fortune Tellers)
Release Date: September 30, 2022
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