Random Desire is the first solo album of Greg Dulli (Apghan Whigs) under his own name, due for release this coming February 21st via ROYAL CREAM/BMG, following canonized stints at the helm of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers.
The title is a play on “random selection,” which refers to a process that researchers use to pick participants for a study. When using this method, every single member of a population has an “equal chance of being chosen as a subject.” Recontextualized, it allows us to realize the randomness of existence, the odd alchemy of emotions, chemistry, and circumstance that baffle us to no end. The reasons why artists write songs and why listeners need them. And even if the answers are evasive, that’s no excuse to quit searching.
Today, we get a taste of the first fruits of this creative process in the form of the album’s opening track, and new single “Pantomima” – the Spanish and Italian word for “Pantomine” (listen below).
Random Desire started in the aftermath of the last Whigs record, 2017’s In Spades. Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to take a short sabbatical to record and tour with his other band, The Raconteurs. Dulli’s longtime collaborator, bassist John Curley went back to school, and there was the tragic death of the band’s guitarist, Dave Rosser.
Recording and writing way stations included his home in Silver Lake, the village of Crestline high up in mountains above San Bernardino, and New Orleans. But the bulk was finished amidst the arid beauty and stark isolation of Joshua Tree (at the studio of engineer Christopher Thorne. Dulli handled most instrumentation, but an all-star cast of characters appear across the track-listing including The Whigs’ guitarist Jon Skibic and multi-instrumentalist Rick G. Nelson, Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers), pedal steel wizard, upright bassist, and physician Dr. Stephen Patt, and drummer Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta).
Random Desire track listing and artwork:
1) Pantomima
2) Sempre
3) Marry Me
4) The Tide
5) Scorpio
6) It Falls Apart
7) A Ghost
8) Lockless
9) Black Moon
10) Slow Pan
Catch Greg Dulli live at the following dates in March 2020.
March 19th – Róisín Dubh – Galway, IRELAND
March 20th – Whelans – Dublin, IRELAND
March 22nd – SWG3 Warehouse – Glasgow, UK
March 23rd – Gorilla – Manchester, UK
March 24th – Islington Assembly Hall – London, UK
March 26th – Paradiso Noord – Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
March 27th – Muziekodroom – Hasselt, BELGIUM
March 28th – Trix – Antwerp, BELGIUM
March 30th – Luxor – Cologne, GERMANY
March 31st – Lido – Berlin, GERMANY
April 2nd – Hotel Cecil – Copenhagen, DENMARK
April 3rd – Debaser Strand – Stockholm, SWEDEN
April 4th – Parkteatret – Oslo, NORWAY