Now, Now have announced their surprise new EP 01. The four tracks found on 01 are the first new music from Now, Now since their critically acclaimed 2018 album Saved, which landed them on multiple year end “Best Of” lists among praise from NPR, Stereogum, Pitchfork, New Yorker, Nylon, FADER, GQ, Billboard and more. The beloved twin cities duo (KC Dalager and Brad Hale) have never been ones to rush a good thing, and 01 is worth the wait.
Now, Now have always taken their time between releases. Retreating to their cocoon after each new album and touring cycle, where they slowly metamorphosize until emerging fully formed in a different and more powerful light. “We aren’t the type of band that can just churn things out for the sake of churning them out,” shares Hale. “We really have to be in a very specific place to start making new music.” In the time since the release of Saved, Dalager and Hale have navigated their own personal pursuits and challenges. Hale leaned in to producing, mixing, and songwriting with and for other artists, and became obsessed with knitting. Dalager released the well received solo album Think I’m Gonna Die as KC Rae in 2023, became a certified sound meditation practitioner, and has been learning how to care for and work with horses while volunteering at an equine assisted therapy nonprofit. “I’d never been able to have a life where I focused on anything other than music and touring as the main and pivotal focal point of existing,” says Dalager.
Taking the time and space for self-discovery and life outside of Now, Now was key to the duo’s path back to the band. The recording process behind the songs found on 01 benefitted from their unhurried and deliberate approach as well. After Saved, they found themselves free from the constraints and sometimes stressful expectations that come hand in hand with releasing music via a label. So when they finally began to record again in earnest in 2023, they did so without the specter of looming deadlines, outsider ideas, and unwanted suggested collaborators to contend with. They returned to their basement studio, just the two of them, back where they began. Albeit with some new toys to experiment with as they huddled in front of the space heater during the colder months of the Minnesota winter. “I’ve gotten a lot of fun gear over the years that we’ve been using,” says Hale, “lately some vintage digital reverbs that have been great to incorporate.” The extended timeline has allowed them the opportunity to really sit with their music as well. “I think we spent more time on the sonic world these songs live in this time around,” shares Dalager.
01 is a bridge connecting Now, Now’s past to the present, and with an eye to the future. The songs on the EP, two of which have been in the works since the late 2010s, have evolved with Hale and Dalager as they better came to understand themselves. This in tandem with their ever increasing well of experience to draw from when it comes to instrumentation and production. “I think these songs are really a great example of the culmination of everything we’ve learned over the 23 years of making music together,” says Hale, noting that the band have swung back towards some of their more analog roots while continuing to push the boundaries of their digital experimentation. 01 is also “another lesson in trusting ourselves,” says Dalager, and it’s an instinct they plan on fully embracing as they figure out what comes next for Now, Now.
Featured image by Tom Thorton.
SOURCE: Official Bio
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