Brassland | Pegg

Released on August 23, 2024
HWY-097
LP, Digital

Purchase Album

Featured Collaborators

Arone Dyer

Fusilier

Bartees Strange

Songs

Tilt Shift
Radiothon (feat. Fusilier)
Geronimo (feat. Fusilier)
Peace on Earth
Sweetheart
No Dice
Cancer Alley
Celestial
Davey
Via Dolorosa
Lying to Myself

Notes

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.”

CREDITS
Produced by Bartees Strange and Alex Dowling
Additional Production by Jon Bap, Xander Duell, Aron Sanchez
Engineering by Brian DiMeglio, David Jerkovich
Creative Producer: Alec Hanley Bemis

Drums: Carter Zumbotel, Brandon Buz Donald
Bass: Blake Fusilier
Piano and Keys: Teeny Lieberson, Jon Bap, Brandon Buz Donald, Xander Duell
Guitar: Xander Duell, Teeny Lieberson, Bartees Strange
Vocals: Xander Duell, Blake Fusilier, Teeny Lieberson, Brandon Buz Donald, Arone Dyer
Horns: Jackie Coleman, Lynn Ligammari, Maria Eisen, Mariel Bildsten
Programming on “No Dice”: Aron Sanchez
Strings on “No Dice”: Van Dyke Parks

Mixed by Alex Dowling
Mastered by Al Carlson

Art Direction and Layout Design: Jesse Bonnell / Foghorn
Project Management: Mike Caulo / Sipsman

Special thanks to Jesse Johnson, Terrance Thomas, Doug Lacy, Steven Reneau, Oona and Fox and Emma.