Matthew Caws, Juliana Hatfield Debut New Band Minor Alps – Premiere

When Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws came together as Minor Alps, it wasn’t out of necessity: both artists have enjoyed successful careers in their other projects (Caws in his indie-rock act Nada Surf, Hatfield with her solo career and tenures in Blake Babies and Some Girls). But they achieve a unique synchronicity on their collaborative debut album, Get There.

Juliana Hatfield, Matthew Caws Team Up in Minor Alps

The album’s 11 tracks were cowritten by the pair, who share lead vocal duties throughout – often singing in a unison that blurs the line between the two. There are moments of raw power scattered throughout (particularly on the raw punk-pop attack of “Mixed Feelings”), but the album is mostly reflective and intimate, as on lead single “Buried Plans,” which finds Caws and Hatfield harmonizing over fragile electronics and unobtrusive acoustic guitars.

Caws recently spoke with Rolling Stone about their new album, which is available to stream below. “This record was a long time coming,” he says, noting that the pair have collaborated together on each other’s projects in the past. “Aside from my being a big fan of Juliana’s voice and songwriting since my twenties, something really clicked when we guested on each other’s records a few years ago. I felt a real kinship. We’re different, but there’s some kind of shared musical DNA in there somewhere. . . Basically, I think once we sang together, it was inevitable that we were going to make a record one day.”

Get There will be released October 29th on Barsuk Records. The album is available for pre-order at iTunes.