FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2024
New from Dedstrange
A Place To Bury Strangers release “Bad Idea”, the third single from their upcoming album “Synthesizer” out October 4, 2024 To Kick Off UK/European Tour
LISTEN TO “BAD IDEA”: HERE
WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR “BAD IDEA”: HERE
A Place To Bury Strangers' new single "Bad Idea," out 9/17, showcases the raw creativity of John Fedowitz. He came to the studio with a simple looping drum beat, thinking he didn’t have any good ideas—thus, the song was his "bad idea." We each penned some lines on paper, and he sang the ones that resonated. After a few instrumental passes, the recording was complete. The result is an innovative track born from spontaneous collaboration and a touch of self-doubt, turned into something uniquely captivating.
“Bad Idea’ is out September 17 — only on Dedstrange.
“The “Synthesizer” on this song created the most fucked up abrasive noise track that I punch in and out to change the dynamics of the song. At times, it obliterates the song which sounds awesome.” – Oliver Ackermann
About Synthesizer
Synthesizer is the title of A Place to Bury Strangers' seventh album. It is also a physical entity, a synthesizer made specifically for A Place to Bury Strangers’ seventh album. A synthesizer that you too, can own (in part), if you buy the record on vinyl. “It’s pretty messed up, chaotic,” says frontman Oliver Ackermann, “But it feels really human.” In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, to never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point. Synthesizer is a record that celebrates sounds that are spontaneous and natural, the kind of music that can only come from collaboration and community.
The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in 2022 in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of See Through You. A Place to Bury Strangers re-formed with a new lineup, Ackermann still at the helm, now featuring friends John and Sandra Fedowitz. This new iteration of the band was inspiring for Ackermann, “It felt like a fresh new thing,” he says, “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.” Indeed, the sense of connectivity is everywhere on the record. Synthesizer very much feels like a record of reinvention, of taking a carefully honed aesthetic and sound and cracking it wide open, gutting it, reimagining it. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also build a new instrument, thus again the synth in question. The resulting record is one that is romantic, colorful, loud as hell.
In practice, Synthesizer is a study on walls of noise and sound. It explores what it means to twist and bend gear to its limits, to search for what Ackermann jokingly and also not jokingly calls the “most epic sound journey.” Take “Fear of Transformation,” as one such offering, a snarling gothic techno punk track that feels like getting body slammed by a wave out at sea. Here, the synthesizer has an almost alien effect. It is sweaty and strident. Ackermann views the song as a conversation with the devil, to break out whatever cage of fear that you’re inhabiting and do something kind of artfully evil. Elsewhere, like on “Have You Ever Been in Love,” the vibe is hypnotic, easy to get swept away. The song was written by everyone in the band, born out of its tribal drum beat, its open spaces. It was written quickly, “In a moment, in an afternoon,” Ackermann says, “Maybe even in an hour.” It felt exciting to write, exciting to make. And it is beautiful to listen to, the spotlight on Sandra’s beautiful vocals. It is unsteady like new love is unsteady. Scary like taking a chance on someone is scary.
Synthesizer, which is out October 4 via Ackermann’s Dedstrange label, is one of A Place to Bury Strangers’ most live sounding records to date. This is a band that is meant to be witnessed in a live setting, where the songs take on a new energy in the presence of a crowd. “Disgust,” the record’s lead single, captures that live essence perfectly. The song is all open strings, so that way Ackermann can perform it with his fist raised in the air, so he can play it live with one hand. It’s a tongue-in-cheek move, almost as tongue-in-cheek as the decision to start the song with a high-pitched battle cry from the guitars, which Ackermann jokes is to “turn people off from listening to the record.” That playful approach to making music and intentionality around live performance makes sense in the historical context of the band. Ackermann founded the storied DIY space (and now effects pedal factory) Death By Audio. DBA, as a venue, had a collaborative, creative spirit of chaos and collectivity. That essence appears all over the band’s work. “We’re artists,” Ackermann says, “Going to shows and bringing that imperfect and beautiful DIY ethos is important.” Imperfect and beautiful — that’s a good way to sum up Synthesizer. It is a raw collection of songs, wild and loud and fucked up just like the instrument itself.
Synthesizer World Tour:
UK/Europe Tour
September 21, 2024 - Saturday - NL Groningen - Vicefest V
London Residency Presented by Bad Vibes”
September 23, 2024 - Monday - London, UK - The Shacklewell Arms (Loud & Quiet)
September 24, 2024 - Tuesday - London, UK - No90 Live Hackney Wick (Sonic Cathedral)
September 25, 2024 - Wednesday - London, UK - No90 Live Hackney Wick (Fuzz Club)
With Stella Rose:
September 26, 2024 - Thursday - Manchester, UK - Manchester Deaf Institute
September 27, 2024 - Friday - Dublin, IE - The Grand Social
September 28, 2024 - Saturday - Belfast, IE - Oh Yeah
September 29, 2024 - Sunday - Glasgow, UK - Stereo
September 30, 2024 - Monday - Bedford, UK - Esquire
October 1, 2024 - Tuesday - Bristol, UK - Strange Brew
October 3, 2024 - Thursday - Berlin, DE - Metropol (Record Release Show)
October 4, 2024 - Friday - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen
October 5, 2024 - Saturday - Oslo, NO - Goldie
October 6, 2024 - Sunday - Goteborg, SE - Fangelset
October 7, 2024 - Monday - Stockholm, SE - Slaktkyrkan
October 9, 2024 - Wednesday - Wroclaw, PL - Lacznik
October 10, 2024 - Thursday - Warsaw, PL - Hybrydy
October 11, 2024 - Friday - Poznan, PL - 2progi
October 12, 2024 - Saturday - Brno, CZ - Kabinet Muz
October 13, 2024 - Sunday - Jena, DE - KuBa Jena
US Tour:
October 25, 2024 - Friday - Washington D.C., VA - Black Cat &
October 26, 2024 - Saturday - Raleigh, NC - Kings &
October 27, 2024 - Sunday - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle &
October 28, 2024 - Monday - Atlanta, GA - The Earl &
October 30, 2024 - Wednesday - Houston, TX - White Oak &
October 31, 2024 - Thursday - Austin, TX - Levitation Fest &
November 2, 2024 - Saturday - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar #
November 3, 2024 - Sunday - Los Angeles, CA - Teragram with Oog Bogo #
November 4, 2024 - Monday - San Francisco, CA - GAMH Psyched Fest #
November 7, 2024 - Thursday - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios #
November 8, 2024 - Friday - Seattle, WA - Freakout Festival ^
November 9, 2024 - Saturday - Vancouver, BC - Pearl
& With YHWH Nailgun
# With Pop Music Fever Dream
^ With The Black Angels, Martin Rev, The Black Lips & Shabazz Palaces
About A Place To Bury Strangers
Fans all over the globe know: Oliver Ackermann always brings surprises. The singer and guitarist of New York City’s A Place To Bury Strangers has been delighting and astonishing his audience for close to two decades, combining post-punk, noise-rock, shoegaze, psychedelia, and avant-garde music in startling and unexpected ways. As the founder of Death By Audio, creator of signal-scrambling stomp boxes and visionary instrument effects, he’s exported that excitement and invention to other artists who plug into his gear and blow minds. In concert, A Place To Bury Strangers is nothing short of astounding — a shamanistic experience that bathes listeners in glorious sound, crazed left turns, transcendent vibrations, real-time experiments, brilliant breakthroughs.
And just as many of his peers in the New York City underground seem to be slowing down and settling in, Ackermann’s creativity is accelerating. He’s launched a label of his own: Dedstrange, dedicated to advancing the work of sonic renegades worldwide. He’s also refreshed the group’s lineup, adding bassist John Fedowitz and drummer Sandra Fedowitz, and the band has never sounded more current, or more courageous, or more accessibly melodic. The Hologram EP is the first release from the new lineup — and the first on Dedstrange — and it’s no overstatement to say that the reaction has been ecstatic. Ghettoblaster wrote that the band’s racket outpaced everything to emerge from New York City in the past decade. Brooklyn Vegan praised Ackermann’s “terrific, emotive” singing, and lauded the group’s recent commitment to foregrounding its melodies and lyrics. Pitchfork, Flood, AllMusic: they’ve all lined up to call Hologram an example of the best work of a tireless band with a deep discography and an unquenchable drive to create challenging, unprecedented music. A Place To bury Strangers released their highly anticipated sixth album See Through You February 4, 2022 to on their newly formed label Dedstrange to critical acclaim and have been touring incessantly since then. 2024 brings the release of ‘The Sevens’: four 7”s featuring unreleased tracks from ‘See Through You’ released monthly starting in February with Album #7 due in the fall.
Press For "Disgust":
"'Disgust' feels chaotic...complete with energetic bass lines, frenetic drums, and a lot of guitar feedback." - Stereogum
Paste - This Week’s Best Songs (Lead)
“Oliver Ackermann froths and jitters through a spastic, industrial and chaotic bed of synthesizer circuitry and piercing, ankle-deep riffs. The drums feel particularly haywire, and the basslines pummel your eardrums... 'Disgust' sounds as pleasurable and danceable as it does revolting and mangled." - Paste
"...a typically fuzzed-out blast of white noise psych." - Brooklyn Vegan
"...a lead single that is more akin to a blast from a shotgun than a punk record." - Glide
LISTEN TO BAD IDEA HERE
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