Wachten op Shearwater is voorbij

Na zes jaar brengt de band rond Jonathan Meiburg een nieuwe plaat uit.

Shearwater releaset op 10 juni 'The Great Awakening', het zevende studioalbum via het eigen label Polyborus. Xenarthran is de eerste single uit de plaat en daarbij kreeg de band de hulp van Emily Cross (Loma, Cross Record), die de video regisseerde. 

Meiburg legt uit: "Xenarthrans are the 'strange-jointed' mammals, which mostly live in South America: armadillos, anteaters, and sloths. Only one species of armadillo has wandered up to the southern U.S., and while we were recording 'The Great Awakening' in Texas, I often saw them scurrying dimly through fields at dusk or snuffling in the mud after a rainstorm, and I couldn't help admiring them. They'd walked thousands of miles on their wispy little feet, long noses to the ground, trundling into alien landscapes filled with unfamiliar dangers. This song, and Emily's eerie video, aren't about armadillos, exactly—but they are about making your way through the dark spaces of a menacing but still very beautiful world. The roaring sounds near the end are howler monkeys I recorded in Guyana."

De plaat werd geproducet door de band en Dan Duszynski (Loma) toont een heel ander Shearwater. "I felt hopeless" zegt Meiburg. "And I didn't want to make hopeless music."