Circa Survive

Circa Survive announce new EP, 'A Dream About Death,' share "Electric Moose" video

Last year, Circa Survive released the new EP A Dream About Love, one of the year’s best punk (umbrella term) EPs and one of the most drastic musical departures Circa Survive had ever made. “We were all sort of acknowledging that we wanted to try something different with the band,” frontman Anthony Green told us in an interview about the EP. “On the last writing cycle, I feel like we got really close to some of this shit, and I don’t know if we had the confidence in ourselves to be able to do what we wanted. And it really came down to: the people who keep the band going and support the band have made it abundantly clear over the years that stuff that we like as a group collectively and that we enjoy playing — they’ll recognize that one way or the other, and it reflects in what people want to hear, and it sort of makes this circular thing happen between us and them. I think we wanted to be a little bit more daring and try to just make stuff that we all really like, and we didn’t really think about whether or not it fit with our catalog. We wanted to all be as hyped to play it as we were to listen to our new favorite band.”

On the decision to release an EP rather than a new full-length album, Anthony later added, “Honestly I feel like I wanted the songs to have more of a chance of getting heard. When you put out like ten songs on an album, there’s maybe three or four tracks that everybody gets to hear, and then some people will just never experience the full thing. […] So maybe lessening the burden and turning the weight up a bit was kind of a nice experiment to have, you know?”

“I think the idea would be to try to make it so the band is putting more music out consistently rather than like big chunks in spaced out gaps,” he added. “It’d be cooler to do less songs but release more often.” When asked if that meant more of these EPs were on the way, he said “Probably, yeah,” and now, just a few months later, Circa have already announced another one, the similarly titled A Dream About Death. The artwork is a variation on the theme of A Dream About Love‘s artwork, and lead single “Electric Moose” continues down the path that began on A Dream About Love. With a mix of reverb-drenched atmosphere and buzzing, glitchy synths, it’s even more of a departure from classic Circa Survive than A Dream About Love was, it’s a great song, and it’s a thrill to hear a veteran band like Circa Survive breaking new ground over 15 years into their career.

“I don’t know if even back in the day I had the capacity to feel as excited as I do now,” Anthony said of the new direction, and you can feel that excitement coming through in the music. Watch the new video for the song, directed by Katharine White and starring dancers Stephanie Kim and Kenzie McClure, below.

Circa recently had to postpone the first half of their Blue Sky Noise anniversary tour with Tigers Jaw (who are fresh off releasing the great I Won’t Care How You Remember Me) and Soul Glo (who just announced their anticipated new album for Epitaph, Diaspora Problems, which you can get on limited splatter vinyl). The tour now begins on February 6 and includes a NYC show on 2/27 at Brooklyn Steel (tickets). The band is working on moving the postponed dates (which include NJ’s Starland Ballroom) to this summer. Stay tuned for more info.

A Dream About Death comes out February 4 via Rise (pre-order).

Circa Survive postponed

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