Electronic music artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Grant Eadie and his solo recording project Manatee Commune have received regional attention across the Pacific Northwest and a growing national profile for a carefully and organically molded electronic sound that pairs natural overtones extracted from field recordings with slick and nuanced electronic production.
Eadie’s latest EP, Thistle, was released earlier this year and the effort marks two new developments in his career — it’s his first release through renowned Brooklyn-based label Bastard Jazz Recordings, the label home of Illa J, Lord Echo and several others; and perhaps more importantly, the effort is the result of Eadie radically changing his songwriting, production and recording process as he opened his studio and gear to friends, collaborators and loved ones, gaining inspiration from the energy of each of those interactions. As Eadie explained in press notes “Learning how to share my creative process with my friends completely revolutionized the last of year of music for me. Inviting those I trusted and loved into my studio to spend even just an hour talking or jamming opened fountains of inventive energy for me, especially from the ones who lacked any musical knowledge. I soon found myself incredibly inspired by the originality of even the smallest interactions with people, and so I pointed my field mic at anyone who had a story, a melody, or a stumbling beat they had been absentmindedly drumming, all in the hopes of capturing their individuality and framing it with my ever expanding insight into audio production.”
Thistle’s first single “Clay” pairs a stuttering yet breezy and coquettish production consisting of twinkling and chiming percussion, a looped flute sample, layers of shimmering synths and swirling electronics with Marina Price’s flirtatious and sultry vocals to craft a song that reminds me quite a bit of Sylvan Esso — but bouncier and with a manically mischievous air. And the recently released (and very charming) music video for the song emphasizes the song’s playful and somewhat manic energy as it follows a woman who wakes up to find the heat in her apartment shut down one winter morning. Naturally, the first thing she does is call her landlord to bitterly complain when she discovers that her lover is frozen completely solid. She spends the better part of the video desperately trying to thaw him — including using a blow dryer, a chisel, an oven, even an NYC steam grate but nothing seems to work. Out of desperation, the woman embraces her lover and they become frozen together with a kiss.
Eadie is finishing up a West Coast tour with Blackbird Blackbird and Chad Valley. Check out tour dates below.
Tour Dates
4.20 San Diego, CA The Hideout
4.21 Los Angeles, CA The Echoplex
4.22 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst
4.23 San Francisco, CA Social Hall
4.30 Vancouver, BC Alexander
