At long last, I’m proud to announce the new Antlers album Blight, out October 10 on Transgressive Records. You can pre-order / pre-save the album here.
And you can listen to the first single “Carnage” here.
“Carnage” is a song about a kind of violence we rarely acknowledge — violence not born of cruelty, but of convenience. Innocent creatures are swept up in the path of destruction as their world collides with ours, and we barely notice.
There is also a lyric video, created by Ryan Hover (who designed the cover). You can watch that below.
We’ll be releasing a couple versions of the physical album:
Standard LP on clear pink vinyl
Deluxe LP on ocean blue vinyl, which includes bonus LP
Uncover New Colors: Singles ‘22-’23 on meadow green vinyl — available on vinyl for the first time.
Preorder vinyl, CD, or pre-save the digital album here.
For those in the New York area: we’ll be doing a special release show on October 22 at Le Poisson Rouge.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10am ET here.
Blight took a few years to materialize. I spent much of that time working on it alone in my small home studio and out in the nearby sprawling hayfields. So much of the record was conceived while walking these massive fields… I felt like I was wandering around an abandoned planet.
I began to get in touch with all the ways that nature is under threat. The smell of wildfire smoke on a sunny afternoon, the sound of chainsaws on a hike through the woods— these contradictions became impossible to ignore.
I grew more aware of the cost of convenience, how the choices I make as a consumer seem insignificant, but can add up to something disastrous. These songs were born out of an attempt to come to grips with my guilt.
Whereas my past lyrics dealt in extended metaphors, Blight takes a more direct approach. The consequences of accelerating technology and environmental neglect feel imminent; that sense of urgency made me want to speak more candidly. The present-day specifics are so unsettling, and tomorrow’s possibilities are so surreal... there’s no need to mince words.
Producing the album was a fairly reclusive experience for me, but I opened up the creative process on a few occasions: early on, to record the grand piano that anchors much of the album at Utopia Studios, expertly engineered by Pete Caigan as I played for several hours in the dark.
And then back home later on, recording drums with my longtime collaborator and comrade Michael Lerner, who graciously supported my need to go on a bit of a solitary journey this time. His drumming across Blight features some of my favorite performances I’ve ever had the pleasure of capturing, especially on “Carnage”, where he let loose to push cacophony to the forefront.
By the time I brought these sessions to my brother and trusted mix engineer Nicholas Principe, hardly anybody had heard them. It felt like revealing some delicate, volatile discovery that had never before been exposed to daylight. Across several weeks of mixing, he brought warmth to the surface, made colors more vibrant, and summoned the ghosts from the machines.
I’ve never before made an album quite like this one. You’ll surely recognize certain signature elements from past Antlers albums, a kind of musical and emotional vocabulary that spans all our past releases.
But with this new focus on our endangered ecology, I find myself entering uncharted territory, and I’m equally proud and nervous to share it. I genuinely have no idea what you’ll think of Blight, but I’ve held it tightly long enough. From the moment I began working on it, I felt pulled by some force of necessity, that this is a story that needs to be told while there’s still time to tell it.
Thank you for reading, listening, watching, pre-ordering, considering,
Peter
Once again, here are links:
Pre-order / Pre-save the album
Listen to “Carnage” and watch the video
Blight tracklist:
Consider the Source
Pour
Carnage
Blight
Something in the Air
Deactivate
Calamity
A Great Flood
They Lost All of Us
Uncover New Colors: Singles ‘22-’23 tracklist:
Need Nothing
Tide
Rains
I Was Not There
Ahimsa
“Carnage” lyrics
Off the side of the road,
branches trimmed and grasses mowed,
there is a snake with his head disposed.
Toad hops out of the briar
and underneath my spinning tire,
there he remains emulsifier.
Accidental damage,
casually maimed.
Incidental carnage,
collateral pain.
Bird smacks into the glass,
shaking, heaving heavy gasps.
Settling down, she heaves her last.
Fawn gets caught in my fence,
trying to clear but slams against,
with every leap, a bloodied mess.
Accidental damage,
casually maimed.
Incidental carnage,
collateral pain.
Credits
Written between 2021 - 2024 by Peter Silberman and Michael Lerner
Produced and engineered by Peter Silberman
Recorded at Field’s Edge in Ulster County, New York
With additional engineering by Pete Caigan at Utopia Studios in Bearsville, NY
Mixed by Nicholas Principe at People Teeth in Kingston, NY
Mastered by Gus Elg at Sky Onion in Portland, OR
Vocals, piano, guitar, bass and synthesizers by Peter Silberman
Drums by Michael Lerner
Artwork and design by Ryan Hover
Management by Brian Hultgren
This sound, this project itself overall, is the easiest way to know you’re doing what you should be doing.
It’s so you—so good. Seriously.
This is great, Peter! This reminds me of your 'Making Hay' short story. Green to Gold remains a unique and special space in music that I'm glad you filled. Looking forward to see what becomes of this project!