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“In our heads we’re haphazardly trying to write classical music,” says Jesse Tabish, and if you listen with an intent ear to Other Lives’ lush, layered beatific musical creations, it’s hard not to imagine the singer-musical maestro crafting his next opus. “Every sound, every drum beat has to have some sort of purpose,” he adds. 13 years since they first began playing together in their native Oklahoma, Other Lives, which includes Josh Onstott and Jonathon Mooney, remain focused on the search for audible clarity: their next expression, their next melody, their next rhythm. Rituals, the band’s third and latest full-length album, is a pure encapsulation of the trio’s relentless drive for precision. “It’s more dimensional, it’s more 3-D, if you will,” Tabish explains. “We wanted a cleaner, brighter record with more movement and more color.”

It’s been some time now since we’ve had the pleasure of sharing new music with you all, and today we’re very excited to share a song from the album we’ve been working on over the last two years. The song is called “Reconfiguration”. We hope you enjoy.

The new album is called RITUALS and will be released on May 4th. You can pre-order it now.

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And here’s the track listing:

01. Fair Weather

02. Pattern

03. Reconfiguration

04. Easy Way Out

05. Beat Primal

06. New Fog

07. 2 Pyramids

08. Need A Line

09. English Summer

10. Untitled

11. No Trouble

12. For The Last

13. It’s Not Magic

14. Ritual

Jesse, Jonathon and Josh

Unlike their self-titled debut—a studio-bound effort that was produced by Beck’s longtime drummer, Joey Waronker— Tamer Animals was tracked in the privacy of the band’s own space in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Waronker eventually mixed the entire affair and sanded down its edges, but it took Other Lives 14 months to get to that point. We’re not talking about lazy Sunday sessions here, either. More like 11 songs that were carefully sculpted over time, with
certain sounds creeping up when the record called for them, and nothing that’s forced or rushed.

There’s no point in trying to unearth an obvious “single” in Other Lives’ second album, Tamer Animals. Here’s a better idea instead: succumb. Let every last song wash over you like proper long players once did, from the swift strings and pulsating horns—a technique learned from old Philip Glass LPs—of “Dark Horse” to the richly orchestrated denouement of “Heading East,” a cut that could have been cribbed from the early instrumental sessions of Other Lives’ old band Kunek.

“The core of that band is still with me,” says frontman Jesse Tabish, who founded Kunek with cellist Jenny Hsu and drummer Colby Owens. “In a lot of ways, it’s still what I gravitate towards, songwriting wise.”

Unlike their self-titled debut—a studio-bound effort that was produced by Beck’s longtime drummer, Joey Waronker— Tamer Animals was tracked in the privacy of the band’s own space in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Waronker eventually mixed the entire affair and sanded down its edges, but it took Other Lives 14 months to get to that point.

We’re not talking about lazy Sunday sessions here, either. More like 11 songs that were carefully sculpted over time, with certain sounds creeping up when the record called for them, and nothing that’s forced or rushed.

“Every sound has a purpose without being too indulgent,” explains Tabish. “There’s nothing like, ‘Hey, let’s rock out on this!’ It’s homemade in a way. For better or for worse, it’s all our sound.”

That sound amounts to one hell of a sweeping listen—an atmosphere, a mood, a state of mind. So while you might find yourself going back to the minor-key melodies of “Dust Bowl III” or the Morricone-caliber arrangements of “Old Statues” more often than not, it’s all part of a greater whole. And since Tabish prefers treating his vocals like an instrument, the lyrics are left open to interpretation.

To be honest, they don’t even matter in the end. What matters is how Tamer Animals makes you feel; how it aims to hit you in the chest…hard, like the Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós LPs that made Tabish want to write this kind of music in the first place. (If you can believe it, he played in punk bands as a kid and didn’t resume the piano lessons he started in third grade until he was 18.)

“I’d rather us be an ensemble than a rock band,” he says. “That’s my goal—to get away from those traditional ideas. It’s not a strength in numbers kinda thing, either, where 12 people are on stage and five of them are playing the same melody. When the music calls for that many players, we’ll go there. We’ll destroy the band itself.”

He’s smiling as he says that. And frankly, so are we.

Download it here.