Lamplight

Lamplight (aka Ian Hatcher-Williams) today released his evocative, slow-burning new single “Lamplight,” the title track from his self-titled debut album out this Friday via Western Vinyl. Of the poignant song, he explains, “Elizabeth and I were lying in bed, naked, way too stoned. Paranoia shape shifted into one of the most intense experiences of longing I’d ever felt. We’d been together for 12 years and known each other for 20. Whether we live long healthy lives, or happen upon an early end, or we break up tomorrow, there is an end to this. In that moment, sobbing and inconsolable, no amount of time together was enough. Desperate, maybe there was consolation in reincarnation--maybe we would meet again and again and again and again. Weeks after I finished writing the song, Elizabeth showed me the poem ‘Love Silhouetted by Lamplight’ by Mark Strand, which she found by nothing but kismet. That day I decided to name the project Lamplight as well.” 

Hatcher-Williams has also shared an accompanying snapshot-filled video for the track, about which he adds: “The poem also became the blueprint for the video. We often take selfies of our shadows, on trips and things; one even made it to the cover of the record thanks to Braulio. Each part of making this record and putting it out has been following little trails of intuition and seeing them to their end.”  “Lamplight” follows additional pre-release singles “Confrontation,” “House Rules,” and “Call Your Mom,” which earned press attention from Stereogum, Northern Transmissions, Austin Town Hall, and more. Lamplight is now available for pre-order, and the band’s March tour begins tomorrow night with a record release show at New York’s Mercury Lounge. A current itinerary is below.

In the sway of a rural breeze, Hatcher-Williams’ vocals soothe and enchant the listener on Lamplight, which recounts his odyssey from a child raised in a Virginia cult, to a burned out tech worker in New York, and then back to Virginia, happily married to his childhood friend. Throughout the album, he explores identity as it relates to where a person is from and evolves with where they live, and how that facet of self is further compounded by the amount of agency one has over where they call home. To some extent, Lamplight is about learning when to take the reins, and when to let go—discovering what parts of yourself should be pruned, so new branches can grow.  

Though the album has moments that hint at the antique lace and creaking floorboards of traditional folk, Lamplight skews modern, in part thanks to producer Kevin Copeland's (Lightning Bug) deft production. Hatcher-Williams met Copeland while living in Brooklyn, and as they got to know each other, he revealed that he’d spent years playing in bands before his career took over his life. Copeland's encouragement, in tandem with the concurrent changes in Hatcher-Williams’ career and domestic life, gave him the confidence to revisit this part of himself that felt unfinished.