UK singer, songwriter and producer – Richard Walters – is very pleased to announce a new solo album: ‘Murmurate’.
Scheduled for release on 17th November 2023 via the Nettwerk label, the album is preceded by the enchanting first single “After Midnight”.
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Whilst the prolific Oxfordshire musician has been receiving praise of late for his work with LYR (alongside poet laureate Simon Armitage and Patrick Pearson) and under the moniker of Sun Lo (in his recent collaboration with ATTLAS), ‘Murmurate’ will be the first collection of songs to be released in Walters’ own name since 2020’s ‘Golden Veins’.
Leading the way with “After Midnight”, it’s a song that finds Richard pairing lyrics laced with a gentle sense of humour to starry arrangements reminiscent of The National at their most simmering, or ‘Tunnel of Love’-era Springsteen at his most tender.
Painting a scene that will be familiar to anyone who has reached a calmer stage of life , “After Midnight” recalls the Herculean effort it can take to hit the town as you get older, and the unspoken relief that can come with calling the cab back. As Richard explains
“My attempt at being Springsteen! The older I get, the more home-based I become. It’s a feeling I’ve noticed other friends my age expressing. So it’s a middle aged anthem about not wanting to be out on the town post-midnight, about the beauty of the quiet life and the taxi home.”
Characterful and confessional, intimate and intricate, “After Midnight” follows recent teaser track “Move On”, with both opening wide the spectrum of emotions that ripple through Walters’ upcoming album ‘Murmurate’.
Like the new generation of lockdown babies that have since taken their first steps, Walters’ new album was born out of the pandemic, but by no means inspired by it. Sketched out during those isolating times and inked-in during the colourful rush of social and creative hook-ups that immediately followed, ‘Murmurate’ is not another “lockdown album”, but rather a reflection of the curious period that followed. Homing in on those feelings of waking up in the post-pandemic world to the realisation that you too have changed, Walters explains:
“When the world started to wake up again post lockdown I sprinted towards the door; I bolted, with unbelievable enthusiasm and joy, and I fell. I wiped out a fair few times in my desire to get back into a routine, to return to normality. I eventually found myself moving back from the bustle and noise, a combination of anxiety and a previously unearthed desire for more and more calm…. For me this is not a lockdown record. It was largely written in 2022, post weirdness, but many of the songs do tap into that sense of post-lockdown-anxiety (PLA!?) and the mixed up, confused feeling of needing to be elsewhere but feeling the tug of home”.
Giving a voice to the push and pull of nuanced thoughts and emotions he experienced, these mixed feelings soon began to form the spine of his new body of work. Take the new single “After Midnight”, an anthem for homebodies and that overwhelming need for the expected, well-worn and loved. Or “Anchor”, a response to Walters finding himself away from his daughters for the first time in almost 20 months. Elsewhere, “Salt” and “Skye” both vocalise Walters’ need to be on the move, to get back to unknown landscapes, to escape the claustrophobia of the town or city, while other songs on the record explore the tension that arose from life picking up where it left off, his relationships at home and the small tremors they created. A touching tribute to the much missed “Philip Seymour Hoffman”, serves as further reminder of just how much the world has changed in the 10 years since his passing, let alone the axis-shifting past few.
An album that often ruminates on our human need for real-world relationships and importance of meaningful connections with those closest to us, it was a theme that also played into the intimate way in which ‘Murmurate’ was recorded. And wherein the album would find its title…
“When it comes to music, throughout lockdown I was desperate to be in the room with other people making things again. In my opinion, Zoom just doesn’t cut it when it comes to finding common musical ground and building things up” says Walters. “That’s where the title ‘Murmurate’ comes from – I just wanted to feel that unison again, to move in time with other songwriters and musicians, to flock and gather and soar a little bit, even if the distance from my homelife made me feel torn from time to time.”
RICHARD WALTERS – LIVE DATES 2023
24 Nov – BRISTOL, The Louisiana
25 Nov – OXFORD, Jericho Tavern
29 Nov – MANCHESTER, The Castle Hotel
30 Nov – LONDON, The Grace
Tickets on sale now: https://www.
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