The Band Perry Go Electronic on New, Rick Rubin-Assisted EP ‘Coordinates’
Country trio The Band Perry will release their first second EP, Coordinates, on September 21st via their newly-formed creative house, ARTRAT. Rick Rubin executive-produced the project, which finds the band exploring a new sound: electronic music.
In a statement about Coordinates, which the band wrote and self-produced, the Band Perry wrote that the EP reflects their “ongoing evolution as artists and humans.” Singer Kimberly Perry offered more specifics in a new interview with Variety, citing “German electronic music,” Trent Reznor’s How to Destroy Angels project and Kanye West’s Yeezus as major influences on their new direction.
“We went and studied a lot of that music, and on the way to the studio in the morning, we would be playing very specific things to inspire the mood of the day,” Perry said of their sessions, noting that the EP’s “minimal brutalism” reflects “brutal” things happening in their personal lives, like her own recent divorce.
Coordinates follows the band’s two studio albums, including 2013’s Pioneer, and a stream of transitional singles over the past three years (2015’s “Live Forever,” 2016’s “Comeback Kid,” 2017’s “Stay in the Dark”) that tilted away from country into mainstream pop.
Perry told Variety that Rubin helped the group maintain their core songwriting, even as they experimented with “crazy sounds” like Moog synthesizers, drum programming and 808 drum machines. “That’s been some really great continuous advice from Rick, too, as we challenge different parts of the song to make them better: Hey, does this one hold up on guitar and piano?” she said.
She added that the group is planning to move away from full-length albums for time being, focusing instead on the immediacy of issuing EPs.
Coordinates Track List
1. “Seven Seconds”
2. “Nostalgia”
3. “Dear Departed”
4. “Run Away”
5. “Marfa Prada”