26-year-old Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Austin Feinstein has spent the past decade or so following his own arrow, doggedly reinventing and honing his work across a diverse array of material with Slow Hollows: 2015’s Atelophobia and 2016’s Romantic saw Feinstein and his bandmates exploring the fringes of indie rock, and caught the attention of Frank Ocean, who recruited him to sing the chorus of Blonde track “Self Control.” 2019’s Actors saw the band’s sound further expanding through the incorporation of R&B, dance music and production from Tyler the Creator. (Feinstein has appeared on Tyler the Creator albums since 2016.)
Despite enjoying a breakthrough moment, Feinstein and his bandmates decided the project had run its course, and announced that the band split up. A few years have passed and Slow Hollows returns as Feinstein’s solo recording project with his fourth album, Bullhead. The album reportedly sees Feinstein stripping things back to an element place. There are shades of Neil Young and Elliott Smith at the core the album’s material but the arrangements are lush and reveal an artist afraid to pair big guitar riffs with rich strings, moody synths.
Slated for a March 8, 2024 release through Danger Collective, Bullhead captures the young artist at his most confident and self-assured to date, while marking a new chapter for Feinstein both personally and professionally. “The last album felt like an effort to shed any identity Slow Hollows may have formed with our previous music,” explains Feinstein, “When it comes to Bullhead, making a sonic shift towards the sounds of early Slow Hollows records felt like something I needed to do for myself.”
“Soap,” Bullhead‘s latest single is a woozy yet smolderingly anthemic track built around whirring and jangling guitars, a propulsive rhythm section driven by off-kilter syncopation paired with power chord-driven hooks and hooks and Feinstein’s yearning delivery. “Soap” manages to be a slick synthesis of 2000s indie rock with some old-fashioned craftsmanship.
“I was staying at a friend’s house by myself for a few weeks right before recording this new record,” Feinstein recalls. “I remember feeling like I wanted to write a song that paid homage to the music that excited me as a kid. Most of that was guitar music, and I’ve fallen out of love with guitar lots of times but really wanted to force myself to explore that world again. Around that time I was starting to fall in love with someone so the words came pretty quick. Ultimately, this song is my homage to Modest Mouse.”
