watch Josh T. Pearson's "Straight at Me" video from new solo LP

Lift To Experience’s Josh T Pearson released The Straight Hits, his first solo album in seven years, in April via Mute. The record began life as a creative exercise were Pearson gave himself five songwriting “pillars” he had to follow:

1) All songs must have a verse, a chorus and a bridge.
2) The lyrics must run 16 lines or less.
3) They must have the word “straight” in the title.
4) That title must be four words or less.
5) They must submit to song above all else. (“You do as she tells you, whatever the song tells you,” Pearson explains. “You bend to her, and not her to you.”).

Pearson made the album with Lift To Experience drummer Andy Young, and Daniel Creamer and Scott Lee Jr. of The Texas Gentlemen on keyboards and bass guitar. We’ve got the premiere of the “Straight at Me” video which was directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker of filmmaking collective American Standard Film Co. who told us a little about it:

With “Straight at Me,” We wanted to capture the humor and sardonic tone of Josh’s song and personality. After chatting with him a few times, we came up with a video that would play out as a phantasmagoria of love across Texas history. We wanted to play with the iconography of Texas to exploring how Texas and relationships both romanticize themselves. It was important to Josh that the video be a love story and stay true to its Southwestern roots. Fidel having grown up in San Antonio, saw it as a fun opportunity to poke fun at the Texas dream. With that, we created a tale that showcased a life of love flashing before Josh’s characters eyes after falling for the local bartender. We see them go from revolutionaries and cowboys to bank robbers and car dealers, to two-stepping in heaven after wrestling off cupid’s intervention, but ultimately ending up fat in bed eating TV dinners watching their dreams pass them by on TV. As we saw it, a truly romantic love story.

Adds Josh, “I’ve always dreamt of wrestling a redneck Cupid and I finally got my chance.” Keep an eye out for homages to David Byrne’s True Stories, Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Watch that video, and stream the album, below.

Having just wrapped up a short North American tour with Heartless Bastards’ Erika Wennerstrom, Pearson is currently on tour in Europe. While there, Lift to Experience are playing Barcelona’s Primavera Sound on June 2 and it’s now announced that Josh will be playing his own set as well. All dates are listed below.

Josh T Pearson – 2018 Tour Dates
May 16 – Birmingham, England – The Glee Club
May 18 – Dublin, Ireland – Whelans
May 19 – Glasgow, Scotland – Art School
May 20 – Manchester, England – Gorilla
May 22 – London, England – Shepherd’s Bush Empire
May 24 – Paris, France – La Maroquinerie
May 26 – Brussels, Belgium – Rotonde Botanique
May 27 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Bitterzoet
May 28 – Cologne, Germany – Gebäude 9
May 29 – Hamburg, Germany – Knust
May 30 – Berlin, Germany – Quasimodo
June 1-3 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Shound
June 4 – Stockholm, Sweden – Kagelbanen
June 5 – Copenhagen, Denmark – DR Koncerthuset Studio 3
June 6 – Oslo, Norway – Parkteatret
August 24-25 – Totnes, England – Sea Change Festival
August 30 – September 2 – Tollard Royal, England – End Of The Road Festival