Buck Meek – “Haunted Mountain”

Buck Meek – “Haunted Mountain”

Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek has announced his signing to 4AD and a new album, Haunted Mountain. His first for 4AD and third solo outing, Haunted Mountain will be available August 25. Meek is also sharing the record’s lead single and title track, which is co-written with fellow Texan Jolie Holland, who co-wrote four other album songs.

Arriving two years after Two Saviors, Haunted Mountain was recorded in the Texas border town of Tornillo at Sonic Ranch. According to a press release, the songs themselves were written in actual mountains: “by cold springs in the Serra da Estrela of Portugal, on the submerged volcano of Milos in the Cyclades, Valle Onsernone in the Swiss Alps (where Haunted Mountain’s cover photo was taken), and the Santa Monica range where Buck now calls home.”

In addition to Meek’s longtime backing band — Adam Brisbin (guitar), Austin Vaughn (drums), and Mat Davidson (pedal steel, bass), Meek is joined by bassist Ken Woodward and Meek’s brother Dylan on piano and synths. Haunted Mountain is produced by Davidson and mixed by Adrian Olsen, who also did the album’s modular synths.

About the title track, which has a video directed by Riley Engemoen, Meek says: “It’s about being humbled by the thing you’re drawing power from only at which point an actual, fair relationship begins.”

Meek adds of the album itself, which is about “love” and “something other“: “Not break-up songs, but an actual love song written in earnest? That is taboo now. Sometimes it can feel like all the great love songs have already been written… When you are in love, it inhabits your environment, animates the inanimate, charging everything around you with a sense of meaning,” he says, “and not just new love; also love of many years.”

Listen to and watch “Haunted Mountain” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Mood Ring”
02 “Haunted Mountain”
03 “Paradise”
04 “Cyclades”
05 “Secret Side”
06 “Didn’t Know You Then”
07 “Undae Dunes”
08 “Where You’re Coming From”
09 “Lullabies”
10 “Lagrimas”
11 “The Rainbow”

TOUR DATES:
08/18 – Brecon Beacons, UK @ Green Man Festival
08/19 – Oslo, NO @ Langs Akerselva
M08/21 – Copenhagen, DK @ Stengade
08/22 – Berlin, DE @ Kantine am Berghain
08/23 – Groningen, NL @ Noorderzon Festival
08/26 – Edinburgh, UK @ Summerhall
08/27 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
08/28 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
08/29 – Manchester, UK @ YES
08/30 – London, UK @ Lafayette
09/01 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
09/03 – Vlieland, NL @ Into the Great Wide Open Festival
09/05 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso | Tolhuistuin
09/06 – Paris, FR @ Le Hasard Ludique
09/12 – Milan, IT @ Magnolia Segrate *
09/13 – Turin, IT @ Spazio211 *
09/14 – Nyon, CH @ La Paranthese*
09/16 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv Club *
10/ 27 – New York, NY @ Racket
* solo

Haunted Mountain will be out 8/25 via 4AD. Pre-order it here.

Shervin Lainez

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