The brilliant new album by Shayne P Carter - called Offsider - is out today in New Zealand! The album was recorded over the past few years, most notably with longtime collaborator Gary Sullivan on the drums.
So far the album has received excellent reviews in the NZ Listener, North and South, Metro and other publications. Gary Steel at Metro gave the album five stars and wrote "Please excuse an uncharacteristic and unscheduled swerve into gobsmacked, awestruck wonder, but this is something really special." You can read the full review here.
There is also a very interesting and in depth interview with Shayne P Carter here on Kim Hill here.
Grant Smithies also writes an excellent feature on Carter and the album in the Sunday Star Times here.
Carter sums up the album himself as follows:
I'm about to release a new album of piano based songs called "Offsider". I like the title because it seems to suggest being out of step or out of kilter with the times which it probably is. I decided to write the songs on piano - despite having never played the instrument before in my life - because I liked the idea of naivety and discovery and having a new angle on songwriting after so many years doing it. I explored the classical music solo piano music canon before embarking on the project because I wanted to see what had been done with the piano before I sat my useless self in front of it. Schubert's lieder, Chopin's Nocturnes, Debussy's neo psychedelia, Mozart's pristine classicism, Beethoven's cosmic exploration - it was an amazing journey of discovery of a whole universe of music I'd previously known nothing about.
The album is available on CD from the Flying Out shop here, iTunes here and you can listen on Spotify below.
Shayne P Carter is on tour around New Zealand with Don McGlashan this October - details here.