News: LISTEN TO “KLONOPIN,” THE NEW SINGLE FROM PORTLAND SLOWCORE BAND DROWSE

Drowse, the nom de plume of Kyle Bates, will release its sophomore album on March 9th via The Flenser.  Titled Cold Air, the record continues to exorcise the demons that sent Bates spiraling into mental turmoil years ago. As evidenced by the album’s second single, “Klonopin” (listen now via NPR), Cold Air is an album that frames big picture ideas within intimate, often shame-ridden experiences—a nose broken while blackout drunk, a seizure followed by feverish hallucinations, a father’s stroke, the death of a close friend. Cold Air is the sound of the uncertainty beneath our lives surfacing.

 

Bates commented:

 

"‘Klonopin’ is an epistle to benzodiazepines. In the song I wake up from drug induced sleep and imagine myself as the empty part of a shape imprinted in mud: a strange vision of shame. With this image in mind I ruminate on how I’m ashamed of the way I force a wall between myself and others--on the inside I’m passionate but I keep a cold, calculated distance from those I love. This fixation makes me anxiously waste my day, stumbling wistfully through my waking life until night comes and I can take klonopin to forget myself again.  I shot sections of the video in Squamish, BC. Later, Maya and I finished shooting and editing together in one extremely long day. As the video progresses the footage is increasingly layered. This blanketing of images is meant to reflect the brain fog that slowly rolls in and envelopes the user on heavy doses of Klonopin; symbols of disconnection abound.”

 

Drowse emerged from the ashes of Bates’ fractured mental state in 2013. With a sound that sits alongside slow burning ambience and emotional seer of bands like Mount Eerie, Grouper, Planning For Burial, and Have A Nice Life, the band has grown into complex and layered project set apart by its raw ambition.  Following a severe breakdown, Bates was prescribed a plethora of antipsychotic drugs to subdue his paranoia and suicidal ideation. Several unmedicated years later Bates’ anxiety began to resurface, and he turned to Klonopin and alcohol to blanket the intrusive thoughts. It was during this time that Bates wrote and recorded Cold Air. Marked by fanatical self-exploration and expansive detuned instrumentation, Cold Air is the project's first release for The Flenser.

 

Cold Air is due out on March 9 via The Flenser and is available for pre-order here. 

Cold Air, Track Listing: 

1. Small Sleep

2. Quickening

3. (Body)

4. Rain Leak

5. Klonopin

6. (Bedroom)

7. Death Thought

8. Two Faces

9. Put Me to Sleep

10. Knowing

11. (Person)

12. Shower