January 29, 2024

Chances Are – Asleep At The Wheel Of Love: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day

Chances Are share their latest single Asleep At The Wheel Of Love, the title track to their forthcoming debut, out digitally on April 11 via Sunreturn.

Here’s the blurb with more:

Alexander Grant, Lliam Powell, and Maté Vella make up the recording project Chances Are. Spread between Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, Tāmaki Makaurau and London, Chances Are create contemplative and poetic post-punk, filled with motorik drum machines, alternative guitar tunings, synthesised strings and collaged field recordings. The band’s members have a long lineage in Aotearoa’s recent musical history featuring in Trust Punks, Cool Cult and Long Distance Runner.

At its near ten-minute run time, Asleep At The Wheel Of Love rewards with repeat listens, revealing layers of percussive piano, emotive strings, spluttered synths and lyrics contemplating one’s ingrained complacency. The was track mixed and mastered by the legendary Mikey Young (the revered musician and engineer known for his work with Australian groups Total Control and Eddy Current Suppression Ring).

“I recall that the idea behind Asleep At The Wheel Of Love was to write a song differently to how we previously had (i.e. small room, guitars, bass, drums, riffs, melodies etc),” says Grant. “Ideologically when writing we took a maximalist approach, throwing all the ideas we had possible at the songs and seeing what stuck.”

“Lliam had been writing a lot in Ableton based on field recordings he’d made so we took one of his demos and attempted to write something that incorporated that. As an additional challenge we all wrote on instruments we usually wouldn’t too (Lliam keys, Maté drums, me bass). Somehow – quite unsurprisingly – we came out with this weird convoluted song.”

Reflecting on the track Grant notes that “I’m surprised we finished it (let alone any of the songs honestly), because the recording was so fragmented. I’m relieved it’s finally out. Took a while…!”

CHANCES ARE
Asleep At The Wheel Of Love
Released digitally on April 11, 2024