It’s been eight years since Aqueduct — initially from Tulsa, Oklahoma but now camped out in Seattle — released a full-length debut, the last time being 2007’s Or Give Me Death. That LP follows 2005’s I Sold Gold, which caught the group a new wave of critical appreciation and even an appearance on Conan O’Brien. The wait for a new Aqueduct album is now over, however, as Wild Knights is set to be released this summer.
For both a preview of Wild Knights and an example of frontman David Terry’s pop chops, you can stream the catchy “Simpleanimal” below. The direct yet subtly complex tune is one reason why this description from The Onion makes terrific sense: “[Aqueduct is] like a collaboration between the Beach Boys and XTC.”
Terry says to PopMatters, “I sang this song to myself for a year before I sat down to write out the chords. It seemed so simple, maybe too simple, causing me to retreat back to the confines of my mind to finish the structure and form of the song. A songwriting process that I default to so routinely — one where songs all-too-often get locked away. One day I got the nerve to play this tune for my bandmate Matthew Nader. ‘I love it’, he remarked and snatched the guitar out of my hands strumming this ‘I Fought The Law’-style burst of energy. The song caught instant fire, drum machines go, synth bass drop, running Galaga-esque keyboard lines… ‘Simpleanimal’ was finally alive in the world and finished in an afternoon. A perfect reminder to get out of one’s own head, create externally, and what powerful force that process can result in.”
Wild Knights is out through AqueductMusic on 14 July.