New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Buzzing Cornwall-based trio
William The Conqueror released today their new single "
Move On" off their forthcoming third album
Maverick Thinker. With ringing, poignant guitar lines, "
Move On" urges a step forward into the wide-open future by means of faded Polaroid snapshots of a redolent past, moments frozen in time and etched into memory. Earmilk stated, "'Move On' tackles the unforgiving tide of restlessness, of feeling stuck without any way forward, moulding a vague origin story to your own with effortlessly penned lines, and a lulling drum beat."
"I found the riff and the hook on an old Dictaphone recording of a soundcheck," stated frontman Ruarri Joseph. "The guys are jamming along and it sounds fully formed, then it cuts off and we do something else. I'd forgotten all about it, so it was perfect for a song about piecing memories together."
Out on March 5th through Chrysalis Records,
Maverick Thinker was recorded in Los Angeles (alongside producer Joseph Lorge) at the legendary Sound City Studios right ahead of last year's lockdown in March. The album is part three of a semi-autobiographical trilogy written by Joseph. It was inspired by the poet Herman Hesse, who wrote in My Belief that life could be divided into three stages: innocence, disillusionment, and conviction. Under the guise of his doppelgänger/alter-ego "William," Joseph charts the shifts in perspective accompanying the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The result is deeply personal yet vibrantly evocative, as the songs dig deep into Joseph's own past to retrieve quiet moments and vivid images to sketch an intimate portrait.
As he continued to find more bursts of inspiration throughout the writing process, Joseph couldn't contain all his ideas to the confines of the trilogy alone. He expanded on the story in both a soon-to-be-published novel and a podcast. Launched late last year,
William The Conqueror: The Podcast is the audiobook version of the novel about a fictional, yet part autobiographical, musician trying to make ends meet, trying to be seen and to be acknowledged, and trying harder still not to care. Charmingly naïve and wincingly relatable, it's a fun listen, and is yet another example of how fiercely creative the group is. New episodes are released weekly and can be heard HERE.
William The Conqueror first began teasing new music last year with the lead single "Wake Up," a gorgeous slice of laissez-faire college rock that sits somewhere in a disorganized melee between Pavement,
Speedy Ortiz, and Built to Spill. The Times named it an Essential Track and called it an "agreeably low-slung piece of alt-rock." It was followed by "Jesus Died A Young Man," a song the band described as "far from being a dig at religion or Christianity, is more about bad teachers and good faith."
Clash Music called it "guitar pop of real depth and nuance." Their previous single "Quiet Life" is also out now, a charming, slow-building lament that broadens out like a rolling landscape. The accompanying video shows the band wandering around a deserted Venice Beach boardwalk right before fleeing the US ahead of the pandemic lockdown last March.
