SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: S. LABATE – “EMERALD RAIN”

S. LABATE – “EMERALD RAIN”

A SPILL EXCLUSIVE MUSIC PREMIERE

S. LaBate’s new single “Emerald Rain” echoes up from the depths of a California canyon, a fever dream of love, lust and smoldering heartbreak. Unfolding against a snaky groove, it’s an exercise in gorgeous, orchestrated simplicity, the bass line weaving its hypnotic countermelody around the clockwork crack of the snare and thump of the kick. Acoustic strums radiate in delicate waves alongside a vintage Stax-style guitar hook, the song’s arrangement occasionally shot in the arm by carefully administered doses of shimmering tremolo guitar and Farfisa organ. At the center of it all are LaBate’s alternately detached & impassioned vocals and impressionistic lyrics, somewhere outside of place & time—maybe “the astral plane,” as he sings in the opening verse.

“There are definitely ghosts floating around in this song,” LaBate says. “A lot of memories flooding back through the fog. It all seems like a lifetime ago, and it seems like yesterday. It’s a vignette of a disappearing act, of someone slipping away. The feelings are there, but the balance or the timing is off—it’s stronger for one person, but not quite enough to sustain for the other. These are universal experiences; rites of passage—love and pain and lust and longing all thrown together in a cocktail shaker. But from that comes learning, growing up, acceptance… coming to terms with things not going the way you thought they would, and finally making it through to the other side, hopefully with a deeper understanding of yourself.”

A collaboration between S. LaBate and producer/engineer Evan Mui (Surfer Blood, Jolie Holland, Slint / Gang of Four guitarist David Pajo), “Emerald Rain” was recorded and mixed at Mui’s Weathervane Sound in L.A. and mastered by Daniel Good. During the sessions, LaBate handled vocals, guitar and organ, with Mui taking on the role of one-man rhythm section.

“I love working with Evan,” LaBate says. “He’s an incredible musician, he plays many different instruments well, and he always has a great idea for a part. With ‘Emerald Rain’ he came up with a really unique bass line, something unconventional that played around the rhythm and chord structure instead of directly with it. It transformed the song in such a cool way.”

The arrangement LaBate and Mui settled on for “Emerald Rain” feels at once grounded and ethereal, reflecting the lyrical dream sequence playing out in contrast to the song’s stark reality. “There’s a devastation and a yearning in the song that reminds me of The Everly Brothers’ ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream,'” LaBate says, “where you conjure someone in this dream world since they’ve suddenly become elusive in real life.”

There’s also a subtle layer of defiance woven through the song’s narrative. Accusations of self-sabotage are leveled, though LaBate is quick to undercut them. “Maybe it’s there to a degree,” he says, “but a lot of the time what some freshly wounded person sees as self-sabotage in another is really just their own coping mechanism. Maybe it’s what they need to believe in that moment to make it through the night.”

At its core, “Emerald Rain” reflects a decision to love someone despite their wounds & flaws, in some ways because of them—and in spite of our own. “The whole thing is a recognition of beauty in chaos and constant motion; in occasionally violent evolution toward becoming the most refined version of itself. That and the futility and frustration and emotional wreckage we sometimes experience in pursuit of love. In the end, though, you have to let it go. Like Mick & Keith said, you can’t always get what you want. Sometimes you get what you need.”

S. Labate
[Single]
(Myth Maker Records)
Release Date: November 15, 2024

Artist Links