Washington, D.C.-based experimental pop band The North Country and Misra Records are excited to share “Inside Outside” the final pre-release single from the band’s EP Born at the Right Time (Exquisite Corpse) out on July 15 (pre-order). The song premiered today at Glide Magazine and will be on all streaming platforms on Friday for any playlist shares. On the song The North Country’s Austin Blanton (vocals, bass) says, “This song was written in the depths of lockdown as a reflection of the feeling of social and ecological collapse. There had been a lot of hand-wringing about going outside and staying inside, and that dichotomy presented itself as an interesting crux for the song.”
The new single follows “Procrastinator” and “Born at The Right Time” which were released earlier this spring. Both songs are available now on all streaming platforms.
The North Country have announced a summer tour in support of Born at the Right Time (Exquisite Corpse). The upcoming east coast tour begins on July 20 in Easthampton, MA at New City Brewery and will include shows in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Charlottesville, VA and more. All upcoming shows are listed below.
A follow-up to 2020’s America and Afterwards the new EP, written and recorded entirely remotely during the height of the Covid lockdowns, marks a new stage of creativity and collaboration for the band.
2020 was going to be The North Country’s year. After the successful release of two singles, “Future Humans” and “Freaks,” sold out release shows in D.C. and New York and a tour to SXSW coming up, the band was gearing up to share their music and brimming with optimism. Then Covid struck. Just as it did for literally everyone else on planet earth, the rude awakening halted all momentum, forcing the band to cancel their tour, just two days before they were set to play their first show.
The lockdowns were a clarifying moment for everyone and for The North Country it was no different. While some bands paused, and some fizzled out, the shared disappointment of having to stop everything only strengthened the bonds within the band. Between outdoor rehearsals in freezing cold weather and regular Google hangs, the band persevered through the lockdown and sought to collaborate and redefine what it meant to be in a band in a time when literally being in the same room with someone had the potential to be a serious health hazard.
Determined to still collaborate, and desperate to stave off the monotony of endless netflix scrolls, the band came up with the idea for the project that would become Born at the Right Time (Exquisite Corpse), a true covid-lockdown record, written and recorded completely collaboratively and completely remotely using only home studio equipment.
The process was this: each member of the band would write and record a short piece of music then send it to one other person in the band. Then they would work on it, adding to it for one week and then pass it along to one other person in the band. Using a 6×6 matrix of non-repeating numbers in rows and columns they set up a schedule so that each piece of music was passed to a new person in the band, in a unique order, and each person sent to and received from someone new each week. Nobody heard the whole thing until the very end.
The rules were simple: One or two ideas added per round. Ideas can be instrumental, structural, lyrical. Don’t be afraid to get weird.
