Black Marble, the synth-wave project of LA-based Chris Stewart is back with his third full-length album, Bigger Than Life out 25th October on his new home, Sacred Bones.
About the new album Stewart explain: “The album comes out of seeing and experiencing a lot of turmoil but wanting to create something positive out of it,” Stewart continues. “I wanted to take a less selfish approach on this record. Maybe I’m just getting older, but that approach starts to feel a little self-indulgent. Like, ‘Oh, look at me I’m so complicated, I get that life isn’t fair,’ It’s like, yeah, so does everyone. So with this record, it’s less about how I see things and more about the way things just are. Seeing myself as a part of a lineage of people trying to do a little something instead of trying to create a platform for myself individually.”
Watch below the video for new single “One Eye Open“, directed by Chris Stewart and Ben Pier.
With regard to the video for “One Eye Open,” Stewart goes on to say: “I’ve been living in LA for two and a half years now, and I wanted to make a video that used the city as a character as a way to sort of show what I’ve been seeing. I love cities so I always gravitate towards taking press photos on the street and things like that because I always want to ground myself in the city that I live in. Halle, who was on the cover of the last Black Marble record, lives out here. We thought since this was going to be the first song off the new record that it would be cool to re-introduce her using a Lime scooter to move her through the city. I love those scooters also. People make fun of them but I think they are awesome and wanted to celebrate that through a character that seems a bit isolated but finds a kind of freedom on them and doesn’t really care what other people think.”
As with every Black Marble album, Stewart recorded, produced, and played everything you hear on Bigger Than Life using entirely analog gear, though the process was new. This time around, he wrote everything on his MPC and sequenced it live to his synths — only using the computer to record, not to create. “Everything about this record from the album art to the title, to the themes to all the sounds on the record is my response to this particular time,” Stewart says. “Music is what I choose to do in response to this time. I think it’s a time where it’s easy to feel powerless, but I’m trying to express humility, because I think gratitude comes from humility and that’s a powerful thing. The people that practice the least humility also seem to be the least grateful. I’m learning the two are connected.”
Black Marble – Bigger Than Life tracklist and artwork:
1. Never Tell
2. One Eye Open
3. Daily Driver
4. Feels
5. The Usual
6. Grey Eyeliner
7. Bigger Than Life
8. Private Show
9. Shoulder
10. Hit Show
11. Call
Black Marble Tour Dates
Nov 2 – Los Angeles, CA – SUBSTANCE at the Los Angeles Theater
Nov 7 – Austin, TX – Levitation at Empire Control Room
Nov 22 – Brooklyn, NY – at Bowery Ballroom (Record Release Show) w/ Automatic