David Gray announces details for the release of his new album, Gold In A Brass Age via IHT Records / AWAL Recordings. This marks his 11th studio album which is set for release on March 8, 2019. The first track off the album, “The Sapling” is available today via all digital streaming platforms HERE. See the full track listing below. In addition to the new album, David Gray announced his world tour, Gold In A Brass Age Tour.
Gold In A Brass Age was produced by Ben DeVries, son of producer and soundtrack composer Marius. The album finds Gray in renewed creative form and arrives just ahead of a run of headline shows in the UK, commencing at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on Friday, March 15th, and including London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, March 17th. Gold In A Brass Age is defined by an intuitive approach from Gray, exploring new electronic textures and sound palettes, along with new production techniques in the process.
David began writing Gold In A Brass Age in 2016 and it was recorded over several months between tours, including a 50 date US tour and a co-headline tour with Alison Krauss in 2017. Using a cut and paste approach to the arrangement of songs, the album’s atmospheric and experimental undertones are evident throughout. Gold In A Brass Age’s title is drawn from Raymond Carver’s short story Blackbird Pie, and informed by the regenerative cut of Gray’s adopted home of London and a fascination with the natural world, which has long since consumed his time outside of music. The album’s striking artwork – for which Gray sought out Peckham-based tattoo artist Londonboy Tattooer – depicts an Emperor moth with the City of London captured between its wingspan.
The album’s hypnotic lead single and album-opener, “The Sapling” bears out the nuanced approach in spades, with Gray’s rumination on the brevity of life tempered by layered vocals and a brass section including an English horn and baritone sax. “Time ticking by is a theme that recurs throughout the record,” says Gray. “Fragility, renewal, a changing of perspective.”
Speaking about the creation of Gold In A Brass Age, Gray says, “With this album, my default position was to do everything differently. I didn’t think ‘this would be a good hook’ or ‘these lyrics could work for a chorus’. I was keen to get away from narrative. Instead of writing melodies, I looked for phrases with a natural cadence, so that the rhythm began with the words. I reimagined where a song might spring from and what form it could take.”
Gold In A Brass Age will be David Gray’s eleventh album in a career that spans over 25 years, several Brit and Grammy nominations, and three No.1 UK albums, including the breakout multi-platinum White Ladder. It is also a vital new collection of songs from an artist still reveling in his passion for song-craft, pushing himself into unfamiliar terrain, surprising himself as much as his fans along the way.
Gold In A Brass Age Tracklisting:
- The Sapling
- Gold In A Brass Age
- Furthering
- Ridiculous Heart
- It’s Late
- A Tight Ship
- Watching The Waves
- Hall of Mirrors
- Hurricane Season
- Mallory
- If 8 were 9
2019 UK Gold In A Brass Age Tour Dates
March 15 Cardiff, UK St. David’s Hall
March 16 Cambridge, UK Corn Exchange
March 17 London, UK Royal Festival Hall
March 19 Brighton UK Brighton Dome
March 20 Southend, UK Cliffs Pavilion
March 22 Manchester, UK Bridgewater Hall
March 23 Nottingham, UK Royal Concert Hall
March 24 Gateshead, UK Sage Gateshead
March 26 Liverpool, UK Philharmonic Hall
March 27 Bournemouth, UK Pavilion Theatre
March 29 Birmingham, UK Symphony Hall
March 30 York, UK York Barbican
March 31 Glasgow, UK Royal Concert Hall
April 2 Belfast, Northern Ireland Waterfront Hall
April 4 Castlebar, Ireland Royal Theatre
April 5 Dublin, Ireland Bord Gáis Theatre
April 22 Byron Bay, Australia Byron Bay Bluesfest
April 30 Utrecht, Netherlands TivoliVrendenburg
May 1 Berlin, Germany RBB Sendesaal
May 2 Antwerp, Belgium De Roma
May 4 Cologne, Germany Carlswerk Victoria
May 7 Oslo, Norway RBB Sendesaal
May 6 Copenhagen, Denmark Store Vega
May 8 Stockholm, Sweden Cirkus
2019 US Gold In A Brass Age Tour Dates
May 24 Houston, TX Revention Center
May 25 Austin, TX ACL Live Moody Theatre
May 26 Grand Prairie, TX Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
May 28 Atlanta, GA The Roxy Theatre
May 30 Washington, DC The Anthem
May 31 Philadelphia, PA Metropolitan Opera House
June 1 Boston, MA The Wang Theatre
June 4 New York, NY Beacon Theatre
June 7 Toronto, ON Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
June 8 Akron, OH Akron Civic Theatre
June 9 Louisville, KY Palace Theatre
June 11 Indianapolis, IN Murat Theatre at Old National
June 13 Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre
June 14 Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater
June 15 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre
June 17 Denver, CO Ellie Caukins Opera House
June 18 Salt Lake City, UT Delta Hall at Eccles Theater
June 20 Portland, OR Keller Auditorium
June 21 Vancouver, BC The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts
June 22 Seattle, WA Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
June 24 Sacramento, CA Crest Theatre
June 25 Oakland, CA Fox Theater
June 28 Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theatre
June 30 San Diego, CA Copley Symphony Hall
(New York, NY November 1 – Ashley O’Neil | Live Nation)