Reading about Colin Huebert’s recent struggles with hyperacusis and related anxiety, you might find an easy explanation for why Siskiyou’s last album Nervous had a palpable sense of desperation, which arrived primarily via the low-key vessel of Huebert’s raspy vocals and introspective songwriting. Certainly those health issues had an unintentional thematic effect on the album, as Huebert himself admits, but if you go back to Siskiyou’s debut from 2010, it’s not like the resultant listener inclination was to get up early in the morning solely for the purposes of waving hello to the springtime songbirds. The music was just as thoughtful back then, so really, we should be considering an ode to Huebert for continuing his art despite changes that are more visible behind the scenes. (Seriously, imagine being a drummer or otherwise musician and suddenly developing a debilitating sound sensitivity. Only the passionate would persist!)
The recording process for Nervous had to change substantially, and Siskiyou’s new album Not Somewhere, out May 17 on Constellation, is similarly a reflection of a new creative normal for Huebert. Where Peter Carruthers, Shaunn Watt, and Erik Arnesen (Great Lakes Swimmers), were formerly all in on the Siskiyou project; it’s been revealed in official press that the new album is essentially a Huebert solo effort. All songs were “were written and self-recorded” by the Canadian musician as he transitioned to his new Toronto abode.
Siskiyou is now intimately owned and operated, in other words! The track “Stop Trying” continues to say as much. Check it out below, and pre-order Not Somewhere NOT RIGHT OVER HERE.
Not Somewhere tracklisting:
01. Stop Trying
02. What Ifs
03. Temporary Weakness
04. The End II /// Song Of Joy
05. Untitled 32 (live off the land)
06. Dying Dying Dying /// Wake Wake Wake
07. Unreal Erections /// Severed Heads
08. Nothing Disease
09. Silhouette
10. Her Aim Is Tall
11. Stop Trying (jubilant reprise)
12. Unreal Erections /// Severed Heads (alternate outro)
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