Far Caspian

Far Caspian—the project of Leeds, UK-based Irish musician Joel Johnston—today announced his expansive and enveloping new album The Last Remaining Light will be released on July 14th via Tiny Library Records. He also shared its spacious, reflective title track as an auspicious preview. Far Caspian’s prior releases earned him regular airplay from BBC Radio 1 and KEXP, as well as rave reviews from Clash and The Line of Best Fit, but The Last Remaining Light feels like an illuminated reinvention—one that evokes the moody worlds of Grandaddy and the intricate pop sensibilities of Pinback. “My initial songs were part of a healing process that I went through at an early age, so I don't really identify with them as much anymore,” says Johnston. “I've drifted very far from that—not just emotionally, but also stylistically. I feel like I've made an album now that I wish I could have made back then.” Stream the title track at all DSPs here; pre-order the album here.

“I had a nightmare that my mum passed away and when I woke up I felt terrible. It made me think of what life would be like if she wasn’t here and I wrote this song to symbolize how much she means to me and to capture the feeling of inevitability with all of our own mortality,” Johnston says of “The Last Remaining Light.” “The line ‘The Last Remaining Light’ represents the point in which you’re ready to move on and let go. After being diagnosed out of the blue with Crohn’s disease I’ve caught myself thinking about life and death more, and I've found myself writing about it in my songs recently. It made me realize that although life may seem to be going one way, it can change very quickly. I don’t want to shine a light on death in a miserable way but as I learn to make peace with it myself, I hope that if I touch on it in my songs, it can feel more like a natural rite of passage rather than something to fear.”

Anchored by Johnston’s dogged attention to detail—he writes, performs, records, and mixes everything himself—Far Caspian’s music consistently feels like its own self-contained world, full of densely packed hooks and guitar-based atmospherics. With The Last Remaining Light, he’s made his most cohesive and compelling work yet. The album is the result of Johnston streamlining his approach in the studio, finding inspiration in peeling back his tracks’ layers in a way that’s both rewarding and immediate in its simplicity.

Work on The Last Remaining Light began right after Johnston turned in mixes for his 2021 debut LP Ways To Get Out. Whereas that previous album was the result of almost two years of tinkering and finding his sound, Johnston decided to set clear limits and a hard deadline for its follow up. “This process was more about following my intuition rather than getting in my head and rewriting everything over and over,” he says, noting that he made sure the album would have consistent drum and guitar sounds throughout. Just take the gorgeous title track, which maintains a pensive mood and fully engages listeners despite not having a chorus. “That’s probably my favorite song on the album,” he says. “I like the space in it. It was one of the first times I really practiced peeling things back and not having some huge crescendo in a song.”

“The Last Remaining Light” and album announcement follow last month’s release of the all-encompassing, pummeling lead single “Arbitrary Task.” Markedly more intense than any of Far Caspian’s previous work, the song’s lyrics serve as a thematic focal point for the album: being aimlessly stuck in routines, and the quest for some solitude and serenity in an erratic, monotonous, and unfeeling world.

With ~2MM Spotify streams a month globally and over 522K monthly listeners, and well over 100MM streams across all platforms, Far Caspian has already earned himself a committed international following. He recently sold-out his first-ever three shows in the U.S. (at NYC’s Baby’s All Right and LA’s Moroccan Lounge) and made his SXSW debut with a packed schedule of showcases, including Paste’s Day Party. He’s also confirmed to perform at Primavera Sound Barcelona next month, and will be touring Europe and the U.K. this fall; see below for a current itinerary of dates.

I started writing for album 2 the day after I handed in the mixes for 'Ways To Get Out'. I felt exhausted from trying to piece together the first album but when it was done I was inspired to start the next thing and learn from my mistakes. I knew straight away that I wanted to write a 10 track-40 minute album after making a long debut.

I moved into a derelict basement in the city centre and got inspired by the daily commute. Commuter repeating was written on the first day of moving in and the last remaining light followed the next day. I had forgotten to bring my headphone adapter on those first sessions so the drums on those songs were recorded without a click. You can hear them slow down and sped up throughout the first song. I think that works really well as it feels a bit hectic and unorganised. Very similar to my view of the city in the mornings.

This approach led me to keep the mindset of not chasing perfection. Instead, I decided to only record my parts once or twice and keep that initial hesitation. I moved out of the studio after recording was finished and moved my studio back into my loft for mixing. I bought a Tascam 244 4 track the year before to demo on but was gathering dust in the corner of the room so I thought I'd get it going again. Most of the elements in the tracks were printed to cassette and back into Logic. It was pretty cathartic to send a nice recording into the Tascam and destroy it with tape saturation.

Throughout the final part of recording and mixing I was listening to alot of The Microphones and Brian Eno. On every trip into the studio I'd listen to 'Discreet Music' by Brian Eno. And the experimental nature of Phil Elverum's music encouraged me to be comfortable in the imperfections. I think with this album I'm starting to become comfortable with myself and my art and I'm looking forward to expanding on the next record.