photo: Marc Gabor

Tashaki Miyaki announce new album 'Castaway' (watch the "Gone" video)

January 27, 2021

photo: Marc Gabor

Los Angeles trio Tashaki Miyaki will release their second album, Castaway, on April 23 via Metropolis Records. (Their debut, The Dream, came out in 2017.) The album was produced by singer/drummer Paige Stark (who has also produced records for Cherry Glazerr and L.A. Witch), and the band set out to change up their signature dreampop sound just a little this time. “We decided no wah pedal for most of the record,” Stark says. “We tried to incorporate new soundscapes. Like, what if there isn’t as much reverb on everything? What would be the less obvious sonic choice here? What if everything isn’t as fuzzy and smeary?”

Castaway features a few notable guests, including The Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench and Jon Brion who both plays on it and ended up mixing the album with Greg Koller and Eric Caudieux. “After tracking Castaway I was having trouble mixing,” Paige says. “I attempted to mix the record twice with different but it wasn’t feeling right. Jon played on a bunch of the record so was somewhat involved at that point and wanted to help me finish it. He invited me to come to his studio to mix it myself (which I had never done) and then he was going to ‘check my work.’ This ended up being me doing rough mixes of everything and then he and the two guys he works with — Eric Caudieux and Greg Koller — kind of schooling me about recording…showing me exactly what was wrong and causing problems but not in a bad way. It was very helpful. Here and there Jon would add little things — often felt percussive things — and they would completely fix the problem I was having. I learned a great deal and they improved the record in a massive way. Those guys are the kings of sound. I have so much respect for them and am ever grateful for the experience.”

The first single from the album is the dreamy, string-laden and decidedly less smeary “Gone.” Paige directed its video, which was shot on 16mm and premieres in this post. It stars Tashaki Miyaki bassist Sandi Denton and was made during COVID with a small team of trusted friends. “Our crew was me, our DP Arlene Muller, her boyfriend Felipe assisting her, and our guitarist Luke drove the van,” Paige says. “It felt really good to have the whole band there especially since we have never been much involved in the video process. This song is about loss and is very direct. People come and go in our lives and that grieving process can be painful. Often the people are quite literally gone. For the video I knew I wanted to incorporate dance and I knew I wanted to see Sandi moving in and and out of spaces. I wanted the dance to convey a release of emotion…like the emotion leaving the body, which can often come in waves. And then at the end it’s a burst and she’s running. We knew we wanted to do a sequence like that but I wasn’t sure how we were going to shoot it, and it all came together on the spot. We worked with Sarah Marquelle Kruger on choreography but Sandi improvised the ending based on some things we had talked about and a last minute suggestion from Arlene. It was magic.”

“Gone” will officially be released on Thursday and Castaway is out April 23 (pre-order). Check out the “Gone” video below.