Released on June 5, 2024
HWY-097.1
Digital
Purchase Album
Featured Collaborators
Fusilier
Fusilier
Bartees Strange
Bartees Strange
Notes
THE SONG
A duet with Fusilier, the lead single is equally indebted to Arthur Lee and John Cale but with a breezy yet progressive vibe that recalls the more adventurous ends of the '80s pop charts (eg: Peter Gabriel and early Robert Palmer) or contemporaries like Connan Mockasin or Khruangbin. Accompanied by a video shot behind the scenes while the album was recorded, the track displays a rare virtuosity in the service of a song that examines the process of gentrification with engaging nuance. Structured as a kind of metaphysical dialogue between an artist being pushed out of a neighborhood and one of the area's previous residents who was pushed out before him, the song makes reference to the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn (since turned into office space) and "the last of the artist lofts," as it captures both the hypocrisy of the urban newcomer's sense of ownership over a space in which they are a transplant, and the common ground shared by the groups each character represents in the face of capitalist forces beyond their control.
THE PROJECT
The self-titled debut album from Pegg is the work of a reclusive savant, briefly surfacing to unite like-minded musicians in a laboratory-slash-funhouse of his own invention. While possible to categorize as pop music, Pegg contains multitudes. Kinetic rhythms and elegant balladry co-exist. While the distinct collaborative nature is not only important, but crucial, the contents are quite personal. Spiritual and familial identity is inspected, reckoned with, celebrated, and danced to. As the ringleader of this project wants you to know: “Pegg is just as advertised on the cover—a model of my head leaving a trail of flowers in its wake.”
The person at Pegg’s center is Xander Duell, a long time participant in the kind of NYC music communities that fly under the radar locally but made connections across the globe. Previously under different identities, he’s released music on Mexican Summer and INGRID, the Swedish collective founded by Lykke Li, Andrew Wyatt, and Peter Bjorn and John. He’s shared stages and recording studios with everyone from Amen Dunes to Weyes Blood, from Modest Mouse to the legendary Van Dyke Parks (whose ornate orchestrations grace Pegg’s “No Dice”).
Seeking to reboot his creative practice, Duell first created a series of improvisational recordings with Jon Bap aka Maurice II—a quietly influential, experimental R&B enigma known for his soundtrack work on the A24 / HBO series Random Acts of Flyness. Where in the past he might go back to his home studio with those recordings to work in solitude, the Xander of today leaned into collaboration, teaming up with bassist/vocalist Blake Fusilier to build on those initial grooves and ideas.
Together they assembled an underground supergroup of players to complete the recordings, enlisting pianist/guitarist/vocalist Teeny Lieberson (Sharon Van Etten, Here We Go Magic, TEEN), drummer/pianist Brandon Buz Donald (Standing on the Corner, Kelela, ex-L’Rain), and vocalist Arone Dyer (Buke and Gase). With acclaimed artist Bartees Strange joining on production duties, the Pegg caravan relocated Upstate New York to a space known as the River Church to record. Explains Duell: “It’s a big boomy room like most churches, but it’s not enormous; rather it’s a small regional church so the cavernous effect actually has a distinct stopping point. Its natural reverb gave a really unique and vibey sound to the songs we created up there.”