Cut Worms, moniker of Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and multi-disciplined visual artist Max Clarke, presents a new single, “Veteran’s Day” b/w “Walk With Me,” and an accompanying video directed by Caroline Gohlke. That single is off of his forthcoming double LP, Nobody Lives Here Anymore, out next Friday, October 9th on Jagjaguwar. Clarke has released a string of tracks for Nobody Lives Here Anymore, and “Veteran’s Day” b/w “Walk With Me” continues to champion Clarke’s timeless pop charm. “Veteran’s Day” flows with unhurried guitar and Clarke’s soothing voice while “Walk With Me” is enchantingly sparse, with twinkling keys and vocals that slowly build and layer throughout the track.
“Veteran’s Day” was started on the road in 2018 and finished on and off the road in the following months. “I think it was close to 7 minutes or so at one point but I didn’t want to get rid of any of what I’d written,” says Clarke. “Somehow I got it down to 5 and half minutes by the time we recorded it, as a merciful gesture to the listener. It came together quickly and easily in the studio. Matt Ross-Spang got some great sounds on this one. He must have had them (the sounds) in his pocket ready to go or some other such quick-draw wizardry because it immediately sounded like what you hear on the final recording.”
“‘Walk With Me’ came right out of my head one day (the melody anyways). I wasn’t even playing guitar or anything,” says Clarke. “I struggled with finding the right words for it–nothing in the english language that I could come up with seemed to be doing it justice. Eventually a story of sorts revealed itself. In the studio it was also a bit of a struggle to perform – it’s a difficult one to sing because there are long strings of words close together and not a lot of breathing room. We eventually got a decent take and then Noah overdubbed drums which, to my oscillating time-keeping is no small feat. Speaking of feet, the big booms you hear at the end of the song are (partially) me stomping my foot in the tiled lobby of Sam Phillips.”
Watch the Video for “Veteran’s Day” and Listen to “Walk With Me”
Following 2017’s Alien Sunset and 2018’s Hollow Ground, Nobody Lives Here Anymore is the haunted reverie of an American landscape in-and-out of Max’s mind. Mining his life-long devotion to the lost American songbook for inspiration, Max stockpiled nearly thirty new songs by the time he flew to Memphis to work with producer Matt Ross-Spang at Sam Phillips Recording Studio. Unlike his earlier works, Max opted for rough drafts to capture something more immediate and honest, building lush arrangements around the initial takes. A skeleton crew of friends and Memphis all-stars were called in to lay down pedal steel, sax, and strings. The resulting album is a snow globe of the mid-twentieth-century’s popular music filled with jangling guitars, honkey tonk pianos, and Telstar organs – 17 new cosmic Americana gems.
Watch/Listen/Share:
“Sold My Soul” Video
“Castle in the Clouds” Video
Stream “Every Once In A While”
Stream “Unnatural Disaster”
Stream “Baby Come On”
Stream “God Bless The Day”
Stream “The Golden Sky”
