THE MENZINGERS have unveiled new versions of Strawberry Mansion and High School Friend, taken from their upcoming reimagined album, From Exile, uncovering 12 stripped-down versions of songs from their acclaimer 2019 album Hello Exile.
From Exile was recorded from the band’s respective homes while in isolation during COVID-19 stay at home orders.. The new LP is due out on September 25 digitally, and available on vinyl from November 19th.
“The live music industry vanished before our eyes, and just like that we were out of work like tens of millions of others,” explains singer/guitarist Greg Barnett.
“As the weeks progressed the upcoming tours got rescheduled, then rescheduled again, then effectively cancelled. There were times when it all felt fatal. There’s no guide book on how to navigate being a working musician during a global pandemic, so we were left to make it up as we went along. We wanted to document and create in the moment, and though we couldn’t be in the same room together due to social distancing lockdowns, we got creative.
We would track the songs from our own home studios, share the files via Dropbox, and pray it all made sense when pieced back together. Initially, we planned for the album to be similar to our acoustic demo collection On The Possible Past, but we quickly found out that this batch of songs benefited from more detailed arrangements
We rewrote, and changed keys and melodies. We blended analog and digital instruments in ways we never had before. We dug through old lyric notebooks and added additional verses. We got our dear friend Kayleigh Goldsworthy to play violin on two songs. No idea was off limits. Hell, I even convinced the band to let me play harmonica on a song – no small feat! The recording process ran from mid-March till June, and upon completion we sent it over to our dear friend and close collaborator Will Yip to mix and master.”
