The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser has a new album on the way. This Side of the Island, which follows 2020’s The Loves of Your Life, will be released on March 7 via Glassnote. After sharing the title track last month, Leithauser has today dropped a new single, ‘Knockin’ Heart’. Check it out below.
Leithauser co-produced the new album with his wife, Anna Stumpf, and the National’s Aaron Dessner. He explained:
I worked on it for eight years… yes, 8. Barack Obama was president when I recorded the piano for the first song 😬. I mostly wrote and recorded it at my home studio, and the entire record is produced by myself and my wife Anna, while seven songs are also produced by my friend, the amazing Aaron Dessner.To be honest, after I worked with Aaron I remixed the other two with his input in mind, so his fingerprints are really on the whole thing! I can’t thank Anna and Aaron enough for their input, I couldn’t have finished without them. I bounced ideas off Anna for 8 years and I know I drove her insane. When I had finally gotten to the point where I didn’t know which end was up, and I think maybe Anna was thinking about throwing me out of the house, I drove upstate last Spring to visit Aaron at his beautiful Long Pond Studios. We listened through to all the songs, and he offered immediate, clear and supportive ideas that finally brought the record over the finish line.
Of ‘Knockin’ Heart’, Leithauser added: “I started it with the thought that I wanted to do a power trio song like Nirvana. It is an estranged, stoned lover dying to get a message through to someone who is probably not listening. It is ‘I’ll love you for life if you’ll let me.’ There are three basses on it…one of mine and two of Aaron’s. (His idea…and a great one tbh bc the bass is absolutely banging.) It was written fast and the lyrics portray a lifelong love through time and space. I hope you give it a spin.”