Matthew E. White’s long-awaited solo album, K Bay, will be out on September 10, 2021 via Domino. The American singer-songwriter also shared the album’s first single, ‘Genuine Hesitation’, with a music video.

‘Genuine Hesitation’ is the first single from Matthew E. White’s upcoming solo album, K Bay. The track features a music video which previews the LP and introduces the musician’s friends and collaborators across Richmond, Virginia.

Directed by White and Shawn Brackbill, the Super 8-shot trailer features Spacebomb’s trusted house band (bassist Cameron Ralston, drummer Pinson Chanselle, and orchestral arranger Trey Pollard), along with multi-instrumentalist Alan Parker, keyboardists Devonne Harris and Daniel Clarke, and engineer/mixer Adrian Olsen.

K Bay was recorded in White’s home studio (which is where the album takes its name from) in Kensington Avenue, Richmond’s Montrose Recording and his own local institution, Spacebomb Studio.

He comments,

“For me, one of the most exciting production techniques from this record was this idea where I’d record the song twice,” explains White of K Bay and “Genuine Hesitation.” “First, in a more traditional, band-in-the-room, work out the parts and sounds, nail it, kind of way. Secondly, I would distill the concept of the song one way or another into an instrumental composition. I had a much larger band (based off of Miles Davis’s On The Corner bands) play this kind of new-music/improvisational piece at the same tempo as I had recorded the first, more ‘normal’ take. The goal was to be able to cut across between the two pieces, and/or layer them and have them fit together in wild ways. To a large degree it worked, which was pretty exciting for me. The intro to ‘Genuine Hesitation’ is an excerpt from the much longer improvisation based instrumental.”

The new record is White’s first solo album in six years, following 2015’s Fresh Blood and 2012’s Big Inner as well as 2017’s collaborative effort Gentlewoman, Ruby Man with Flo Morissey.

K Bay focuses on the ideal that we can forever strive for something better, no matter how flawed or blessed we have already been.

K Bay Tracklisting:
1. Genuine Hesitation
2. Electric
3. Nested
4. Take Your Time (And Find That Orange To Squeeze)
5. Let’s Ball
6. Fell Like An Ax
7. Only in America / When The Curtains of the Night are Peeled Back – feat.  Joseph “JoJo” Clarke
8. Never Had It Better
9. Judy
10. Shine A Light For Me
11. Hedged In Darkness

K Bay is available to pre-order on exclusive limited Dom Mart vinyl (2 x LP orange), indies exclusive vinyl (2 x LP transparent light green), standard vinyl, CD and digitally. A t-shirt bundle is also available via Dom Mart. Pre-order here.

Photo credit: Cameron Lewis