- 2023-11-02
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MUSIC
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The Eighty Six Seas Announces New Album “Scenes from an Art Heist”, Shares New Song “Lonely Afternoon”
Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Nick Stevens, aka The Eighty Six Seas has announced his new concept album “Scenes from an Art Heist” will be released on February 23, 2024.
The 11-track album was inspired by the unsolved theft of 13 artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.
The album mimics the experience of walking through a gallery, featuring a guest appearance from Straight Pepper Diet.
From the album, he released the first single called “Lonely Afternoon” on November 1, 2023.
The track was written and produced by Nick Stevens and co-produced by David Anthony.
Nick Stevens said of the song, “Lonely Afternoon is more or less a riff on the first thirty minutes of The Thomas Crown Affair (the Pierce Brosnan version). The whole concept around the Scenes from an Art Heist album is a meditation on why someone steals art, and the idea of a bored businessman just stealing art for kicks seemed to fit right in. I had this idea of a narrator who sees the world passing him by as he isolates himself further and further. Stealing a painting is his way of injecting himself back into the world, albeit as a villain.”- He continued, “The starting inspiration for the music was Andrew Bird’s song Lone Didion. There’s a recurring 'oooh' motif he used that stuck with me and I wanted to anchor my choruses around something similar. I use loops a ton when I’m writing and found a dance beat and arpeggiator combo that I loved and used that to form the core of the song that I would perform during my solo shows.”
He added, “It really took off when my collaborators David Anthony (guitar/production), David Knox (bass), and Chris Anthony (drums) got their hands on it. We spent a weekend in a cabin in Massachusetts transforming and refining it down to what you hear today. Chris added so much muscle with the tom and dance groove, while Knox gave it this quasi-Peter Hook baseline to add to the dance vibe. Dave is the unsung hero on this track. The slide guitar part and the distorted synth lines just completed that dance vibe and it’s not the same without his production.” -
The accompanying music video was directed by Ryan Rivard.
Nick Stevens said of the video, “Ryan Rivard created a perfect companion music video for this. The visual identity of Scenes from an Art Heist is so deeply rooted in the Magritte Son of Man painting and he just took that and ran with it. I love doing things that are tongue in cheek and the idea of a guy dressed as the Son of Man running around New York just made me giggle uncontrollably when it was first pitched. Our lead actor Jordan Bell was such a trooper running around SoHo in 90 degree heat while wearing that suit.”
Photo by Patricia Koo - source : Apple Music
