Will Sheff – The Spiral Season Available to Stream And 2022 Tour Dates

Will Sheff – Watch “The Spiral Season” Video and Stream the New Album

Nothing Special Out Now via ATO

Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff has released his debut solo album, Nothing Special, today via ATO. Now he has shared a video for the album’s opening track, “The Spiral Season.” And you can also stream the album and read our review of it. Below, watch the video and stream the album. Read our short review here.

Sheff had this to say about “The Spiral Season” in a press release: “‘The Spiral Season’ went through many incarnations. It was a fantasy narrative, and then an autobiography of myself, and then it turned into an autobiography of a 16th century magician, and then I opened the window and all of those ideas flew out and the California landscape came crashing in with all its grandeur and its vulnerability, and fireworks went off and the moon rose overhead and Benjamin Lazar Davis and I wrote a big shouty chorus and everything finally started to make sense. And then we went into the studio and everybody played it wonderfully, and Will Graefe jumped in with that soaring guitar solo that we just let run out as long as it needed to be because it felt so good.”

Previously Sheff shared the album’s first single, “Estrangement Zone,” via a video for the song. “Estrangement Zone” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared the album’s title track, “Nothing Special,” via a video for the song. Then he shared the album’s third single, “In the Thick of It,” which features Cassandra Jenkins.

Nothing Special features musical contributions from guitarist Will Graefe, bassist Benjamin Lazar Davis, Christian Lee Hutson, Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and Death Cab For Cutie pianist Zac Rae. The album also features guest vocals from Cassandra Jenkins and Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and Bonny Light Horseman. It was engineered by John Congleton, Matt Linesch, and Marshall Vore.

In a previous press release, Sheff had this to say about the new album: “When I was just a kid, I got caught up in the dream of being a rock and roll star. Like so many other young people, I fell in love with the idea of being called to this glorious path outside of ordinary life. And I ended up in a band with people who felt this same call – especially our brilliant drummer Travis Nelsen, who was like a brother to me. We would trade tales of hilarious antics and outrageous excess and tragic death like they were almost scripture. Travis and I fell out painfully, and he died in the early weeks of lockdown. I think a big part of Nothing Special centers around grieving for him, grieving for everything my friends have lost, grieving for the rock and rock and roll myth, and trying to open my eyes to a more transcendent reality.”

Okkervil River’s most recent album, In the Rainbow Rain, came out in 2018 via ATO.

Will Sheff Tour Dates:

10/07 — Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge @ Hollywood Forever (Release Show)
11/03 — Iowa City, IA @ Englert Theatre
11/04 — Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
11/05 — Chicago, IL @ Old Town School of Folk Music
11/06 — Milwaukee, WI @ Collectivo
11/08 — Bloomington, IN @ Buskirk-Chumley Theater
11/09 — Grand Rapids @ Pyramid Scheme
11/10 — Toronto, ON @ Great Hall
11/11 — Ferndale, MI @ Otus Supply
11/13 — Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
11/14 — Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
11/15 — Washington DC @ Black Cat
11/17 — Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
11/18 — New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
11/19 — Woodstock, NY @ Colony
11/20 — Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
11/21 — Portland, ME @ SPACE

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