Alaskan Tapes will be releasing the title track, ‘View From Sixteen Stories’ from his fourth full-length album, via AT Recordings. The track will be officially released on the 15th of August as a taste of the album which will be released on the 19th of September. This is following the release of his ‘Times are Tired’ single, which was premiered by Son of Marketing and Youtube channel Ambient. The music of Alaskan Tapes has seen multiple playlist adds and millions of hits across digital streaming platforms (with over 20 million hits on Spotify alone) and has been used in multiple commercial projects. Alaskan Tapes releases conventional albums, tracks and EPs, however, the project is also involved in soundtrack work for film and other visual media. Written and directed by Andrew De Zen, the music video for their 2018 track ‘Places’ was nominated for the Juno Awards Best Video of The Year in 2019 and was featured on NOWNESS and Boooooooom’s list of the 15 Best Music Videos of 2018. Music from Alaskan Tapes can also be found in a variety of short films, including “Childhood Trauma” and “Mag Sein” by Director Eliot Rausch, and “ABADDON” by Director Rogerio Silva, just to mention a few. He also received continuous plays on KEXP’s Pacific Notions.
Despite no one in his family being directly involved with music, Alaskan Tapes received his first set of drums at age 12, after which he spent the next four years of his life fully embracing them. After that, he began teaching himself online how to produce music. Since then writing and producing music has been his main focus. The ambient producer is currently based out of Ontario, Canada, where he also grew up.
Views From Sixteen Stories, the title track of the album, comes from a recent reading of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Survivor. In the book a character describes dancing with a partner on a ship as the ship is sinking. This concept grabbed Brady as he read it, and knew that he had to explore the emotion that would come through an experience like this. The inspiration for the name of the track translates well into its mood, with a strong surrealist tone coming off of it. The Canadian artist joins concepts across platforms, with a dark, satirical novel meeting ambient music and manages to create a track that would appeal to any artistic mind. It is a baroque aesthetic, reminiscent of the work of Eluvium and William Basinski.
Alaskan Tapes says about the single, “Views From Sixteen Stories was one of the last tracks I made for the album, and one of my personal favourites. It was mostly made up of multiple extra studio recordings, the drums were from the ‘The Times Are Tired’ Session, the horns were from the first french horn session, and the guitars, and extra elements were added in afterwards. It’s often that I use this tactic for songwriting since by the end of the writing process I’m so familiar with the recordings, I know how I want them to sound, and know what elements can go with what. This track also went through multiple forms, originally the drone at the end was supposed to be at the start with a different guitar melody as it slowly built up to the drums, but I ended up shortening it, and putting a shorter version of the drone at the end. The remains of that version are found on the last track of the album.”
Pre-order Alaskan Tapes’ upcoming album, ‘Views From Sixteen Stories’ here.
