The High Water Marks will release their third album in as many years on June 9. Your Next Wolf comes courtesy of Minty Fresh and finds Hilarie Sidney, Per Ole Bratset, Øystein Megård, and Logan Miller contemplating themes of war, loss, and joy in the face of tragedy. Known for her role as co-founder of the iconic Elephant 6 Recording Co. (as well as The Apples in Stereo), Sidney has long used various tangents of pop music to sort through the difficulties of everyday life.
She continues to use the echoes of psych and jangle-pop histories as a foundation for the bands’ kaleidoscopic view of the world in which they live. To get us acclimated to the rhythmic contours of Your Next Wolf, the band has offered up “Trouble from the East”, a rocker of sustainable emotional malleability, using blissed-out guitar riffs and pop-centric harmonies to examine the impact of war and nuclear annihilation. Calling Norway home, the band knows firsthand about the perceived threat of violence from just across geographical lines. This song examines the way in which they approach this doom and how best to combat the degradation of their collective mental health as a result.
“This song is basically about chilling the fuck out,” says Sidney. “We aren’t a political band, but politics affects us all. 2022 was an insane year over here in Europe with the Ukraine war. In Norway, we border Russia (our trouble from the north and east) and especially in the beginning, there were a few times we thought there was a nuclear threat.“
She continues: “It’s been crazy. Right after the war started, there was an attack on a nuclear facility in Ukraine. Then Russia started talking about using nuclear weapons. Norway’s national guard inspected every single bomb shelter in the country to see if they were up to code and repair/replace anything needed. It was really scary!“
Watch the video below.
The High Water Marks’ new album, Your Next Wolf, is due out June 9 via Minty Fresh. Follow the band on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
