Terrible Sons – Easy Love: New Song Of The Day

Terrible Sons, Ōtautahi/Christchurch husband-and-wife; share new song and video ‘Easy Love‘. New album The Raft Is Not The Shore out April 28 on Nettwerk.

Here’s what The Label has to tell us about it:

Ōtautahi/Christchurch husband-and-wife, Terrible Sons has released the final new track ahead of their anticipated upcoming album The Raft Is Not The Shore out on April 28th on Nettwerk. The band has also announced a special and intimate album release show in Lyttelton at Loons on May 13th. Tickets can be purchased from Undertheradar.

New song ‘Easy Love‘ is bright and wistful, having come together while examining the ins and outs that make a relationship work. Matt Barus of Terrible Sons says: “I think it’s a song that contends with this bandied about idea that love is about getting your own way, getting ‘my best life’. That’s probably one of my most hated lines. I think we were looking at a relationship and thinking about how much communication and conversation there was to get somewhere, how hard that is and yet how good that can be. It wasn’t about getting your own way, but through conversation, and probably compromise, finding a new way together. And maybe it would end up feeling like your own way!”

 ‘Easy Love’ is accompanied by an official video directed by Kirk Pflaum. 

The Raft Is Not The Shore was recorded in their home studio, with producer Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams, Nadia Reid) featuring a host of exceptional Ōtautahi musicians: Jo Barus, Joe McCallum, Cam Pearce, Chris Wethey. With truly stunning art work by Spanish Illustrator, Cinta Arribas. Pre-order for the album is available HERE and at terriblesons.com

When the pandemic struck, LA Mitchell and Matt Barus, together known as Terrible Sons, had to wait two years between flights. At the time they had just finished working on an EP with producer/guitarist Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams, Jen Cloher) and their full band of drummer Jo McCullum (Nadia Reid, The Veils etc) and brother, bassist and backing vocalist Jo Barus (Dave Dobbyn). So flushed with the experience of having Tom at the helm that they promptly booked in a session for a full album of yet-to-be written songs. However, with New Zealand’s strict lockdown and travel rules in place, the recordings would take much longer than the songs took to write. Tom, in Auckland, had to book and rebook flights, waiting for gaps in the travel ban before he could return to complete the sessions in Christchurch. Six flights later, followed by six months of back-and-forth mixing, and the album is finally complete.

The playlist given to the band before the recording has a few clues as to the sound of the album. Simon & Garfunkel, Dr John, Bill Withers and Bobbie Gentry are there, alongside Blake Mills and Olafur Arnalds. The album looks to the past but is irrevocably modern, with glitches courtesy of Tom and concerns that are equally relevant now as they were fifty years ago. There’s strings, space and quiet, offset with moments of frenetic joy.

“Terrible Sons makes music that’s quite tender, almost fragile. It’s steeped in folk traditions and sometimes, like on their song ‘What a Friend’, it’s quite breathtaking.” – Tony Stamp, RNZ The Sampler

“The EP Mass is honest and beautifully crafted.” – James Belfield, Waiheke Weekender

“Terrible Sons perform songs that are deeply humane and replete with compassion and solidarity. This was one of the year’s exquisite gigs.” -Robin Kearns- 13th Floor

“Mass is a stark, quiet collection of deeply romantic songs that hark back to the sweeping indie glory of Kings of Convenience and Feist. It’s the kind of music that feels destined to soundtrack the idiosyncratic indie cinema of the mid-2000s. It’s luscious, organic and so, so intimate.” – Tone Deaf

“Terrible Sons craft songs like complex beautiful dioramas constructed from the emotional stuff of life.” – American Pancake

About Terrible Sons:
Terrible Sons is the moniker for husband/wife duo Matthew Barus (The Dukes) and Lauren Barus (L.A. Mitchell, Fly My Pretties), who work and live with their two children in an intentional community near Christchurch. Having clocked up over 18 million streams on previous singles since 2018, the quietly accomplished band is signed to Nettwerk. The band’s string of sparse, yet intimate modern folk EP releases include their most recent, and much-lauded third EP Mass. 

Terrible Sons – The Raft Is Not The Shore

Out April 28th via Nettwerk

1. Birdsong
2. Sunset Swimming
3. Easy Love
4. Asperatus
5. You Can Choose
6. Yelling In The Wilderness
7. Alright, Alright
8. Hold Your Light High
9. Tomorrow Always Comes
10. Watching and Watching
11. Young Blossom