Anthony Newes is releasing a new EP, Love Songs About Love. It’s a collection of sample-based, electronic love songs, layered with analogue textures. I find them bright and welcoming.
We spoke in 2022 about your dream pop EP, In the Dark of the Sea. We’re excited to hear about the new venture, but first can you tell us a little bit about the last two and a half years?
It’s nice to catch up again! I made a record with an artist named Andew Kneeland, who is an impressive singer-songwriter that writes a wide variety of styles. I helped layer his record with bass, guitar, synthesizers and vocals. It’ll get released soon, and we’ll play those songs live. I also started writing some songs with Ryan Young from Trampled By Turtles. So far it’s all synthesizers and Ryan’s string parts chopped up and manipulated. It’s pretty weird and sweet. The thing I’m most excited about is that I moved out of Minneapolis after 20 years. My family and I moved to a small town south of the cities this summer. We live on the edge of town where farmland begins. Every night I see a sky full of stars and fall asleep to crickets. I love it.
You have a new EP coming out soon, Love Songs About Love. How much of it is autobiographical? It seems like there’s one focal point (two if we count La Mar) but it might be a compilation of memories.
Yeah, I’m excited to finally be releasing more tunes. My last group of songs was so dark, I decided to put together a batch of lighter songs. ‘La Mar’ is the only strictly autobiographical song of the bunch. I wrote it when my wife was pregnant with our first child, Esmeralda. It came so quickly that I decided to record it immediately in the other room (away from my sleeping wife). Mostly to preserve the sentiment. I hadn’t planned to share it. I recorded it with whatever cell phone I had 12 years ago in the kitchen of the small house we were living in. That’s the version that ended up on the record, except with some added instrumentation. I wrote the songs ‘What If We Fall in Love’ and ‘I Love You’ for my best friend Charlie and his wife, Tiffany. They were gifts for their wedding. He and I are as close as two people can be, so in a way those songs are autobiographical too.
Please tell us about the origin of To the Sunshine. It’s such a bright, welcoming start to the EP.
‘To the Sunrise’ is a simple love song I wrote for my wife a few years ago, though it’s not written autobiographically. I wrote it so it would be universal, which is true of most of my songs. Lyrically and musically, it’s a conversation; hence the falsetto on the call and response. It’s one of my wife’s favorites. When I was working on it, she told me to stop what I was doing. Sometimes I get excited and write a bunch of unnecessary parts. But she told me to stop and keep it simple. She is totally right too; less is surely more for this one.
I love the bell-musical interlude in What If We Fall in Love. How much of a song is written in stone when you get to recording it, or is there in-studio workshopping, post production? You have rich collaborations. I can only imagine the creative process.
Nothing is ever written in stone. I rarely know what a song is going to be beforehand. I still don’t know what some of my songs are about! I start with a simple idea and build. On that particular track, I worked with Jeremy Ylvisaker (guitar) and Chris Beirden (bass). Both of those guys are the nicest, kindest people, and they’re insanely talented. For the sessions, I didn’t want them to hear the songs in advance. The first time they heard each song was when I pressed record. They did several takes for each song, and I chopped up their parts and put them back together. Not to sound too cliche, but working with Jeremy is like watching a painter make a painting. It doesn’t always make sense while it’s happening, but then you see everything come together in layers. It’s mind blowing. I love that he lets his brain wander. The “bell-musical interlude” you are referring to is actually Jeremy’s guitar. Case in point. All the weird sounds on this song are Jeremy’s guitar.
Please tell us about the release. Will there be a show? If not, how will you celebrate?
I’m still not all that interested in playing these songs live at this time. I really enjoy writing them, but I don’t want to transfer them to the stage. That said, I am getting a bit antsy to put together a live band now that I’m getting settled in our new home. Honestly, releasing music is like getting the long-awaited green light to put energy into the new ideas I’ve been sitting on. I’ll maybe celebrate by finishing these little gems I’m making with Ryan’s. Pretty anti-climatic, I realize. But I’ll probably take a walk by a corn field too!
Mostly Minnesota 