The band’s debut album …And Then The Rain Stopped is released on 18 October 2019.
Birthmarks have shared their beautifully unhinged new track Charcoal, taken from their debut album …And Then The Rain Stopped set for release on 18 October 2019. Charcoal showcases Birthmarks’ intelligent use of dissonance with carefully crafted dynamics, adorned with impassioned and forlorn vocal melodies that scream raw honesty; with each repeated listen of this bitter-sweet cocktail becoming more addictive than the last and revealing its many rewarding layers.
“Charcoal is an introspective look on dealing with the act of separation. It’s the realization that some situations are beyond repair and the growth involved to move on is painful for both sides but necessary. It’s about how any action that you take at that time can feel like you’re hurting the other person and the guilt that follows given that they’ve been the centre of your world for such a long time. It’s about the facts you wish were fiction.
For the video, we wanted to look at change and specifically 2016. I think that it’s fair to say that 2016 was such a strange year for pop culture as a whole given the number of public figures who passed away. It was relentless but created a strange atmosphere of empathy and collective mourning. With the video for Charcoal, we wanted to pay homage to the life of an entity and celebrate how we can connect through pop culture, whether that be through our collective loss or celebrating the powerful impact that they had…” says Daniel Cross.
…And Then The Rain Stopped is co-produced by the band’s vocalist Daniel Cross and engineer/collaborator Lorenzo De Feo. The album was recorded at The Garage Studios, Hertfordshire and mastered by John Davies (Gorillaz, Joy Division, Savages) at Metropolis Studios. Dark, seductive, treacherous and clever, ‘…And Then The Rain Stopped’ is a masterful collection of tales themed around time, sex and obsession with a hefty dose of loss, regret and abandon, perfectly soundtracked by Birthmarks’ unique genre-bending take on discord and electronica.
The writing for the album coincided with the breakdown of an 8-year relationship, with Cross re-writing the majority of his lyrics and continually editing right up until the day he recorded vocals for the record. The brazenly personal lyrical content of the album draws you in deeper, with the album linked by common themes rather than a song by song basis.
Birthmarks are a London based rock band born from the ashes of their earlier moniker Little Death Machine, fusing elements of electronica, trip-hop and rock with an introspective take on songwriting, experimentation and production. The album is full of powerfully emotive songs that are delivered with raw, unapologetic honesty and paint a captivating landscape of the human condition.
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