Daily Dose: Astral Swans, “What Are You Gonna Do With Yourself”
From the forthcoming Strange Prison LP, produced by Scott Munro of Preoccupations.
Ben Painter Music Features Astral Swans
Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
Calgary songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Swann, aka Astral Swans, will release his sophomore album, Strange Prison, on May 18. “Despite these songs dealing with hard themes of pain, alienation, and our limitations, the end objective is finding beauty to transcend the shittiness of the world,” Swann says.
First single “What Are You Gonna Do With Yourself” is a prime example of this. Delicate and sparse, the moody track features a hazy, spooky background, over which Swann contemplates life and getting older. Its swirling video, directed by Mitch Nybo, stars an equally introspective cat (wearing a hoodie!).
Strange Prison was produced by and features guitar and organ from Scott Munro of Preoccupations. Destroyer’s Dan Gaucher is featured on drums. Preorder the record here. The album will be released via Canada’s Saved By Vinyl, Japan’s Moorworks, and the Netherlands’ Tiny Room Records.