Psychedelic metal band The Yagas – fronted by Academy Award-nominated actor Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring, Hawkeye, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters) – have announced their debut album Midnight Minuet.
The five-piece will put the record out on April 25 and precede the release with a show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on April 5. They’ve also shared new single Life Of A Widow, which you can hear below.
Farmiga says of her band’s new song: “Life Of A Widow is a song of searing lament. It’s a song of embodying that ol’ prodigious saying, ‘Why has thou forsaken me?’
“The song is aching to feel the presence of a deceased loved one. It’s a soul’s journey of yearning, pleading to crack the unbearable silence of solitude, that Vantablack void, just to hear your love’s voice once again, to feel your love’s touch again.
“The protagonist in our song wanders through her misery, she navigates through mad midnight moments of throbbing despair. She begs to feel less alone. She demands to feel the presence of her lost love. And she won’t stop wailing until he’s there.
“It’s about taking those sudden, violent jabs of red-hot grief, feeling pummelled and clobbered by desperation and crying out to the dearly departed for help and reconnection.”
Of The Yagas’ impending album, keyboardist Renn Hawkey comments: “Producing Midnight Minuet was very cathartic for me. I felt the need to prove to myself that I could make great music outside of [Hawkey’s other band] Deadsy, which, for the past 25 years, had been my only writing/recording partnership. This was a very different creative experience for me.
“I often felt in Deadsy like I was playing in someone else’s playground – I knew the rules, I mastered the slide and the monkey bars, but I felt like a visitor. Midnight Minuet just felt different. The Yagas built a new playground together, made up of our respective life experiences with equal ownership. We are the sum of our parts. When this kind of synergy exists, you grab it, nurture it, and give it a life.”
Midnight Minuet was mixed by Grammy nominee Brian Virtue (Deftones, 30 Seconds to Mars) and mastered by Grammy winner Emily Lazar (Beck, Coldplay). Other singles The Crying Room (The Yagas’ debut song) and She’s Walking Down are currently streaming.
See the album’s artwork and tracklisting below.
The Yagas – Midnight Minuet
01. The Crying Room
02. I Am
03. Life Of A Widow
04. Anhedonia
05. Pendulum
06. Charade
07. Bridle
08. Pullover
09. She’s Walking Down
10. Midnight Minuet
