Erisy Watt – Not Either Or But Everything
Erisy Watt has announced her new album not either or but everything produced by Luke Temple (Adrianne Lenker, Hand Habits), to be released October 4th on First City Artists.
Erisy’s music often harkens comparisons to 60s singer-songwriters. But on her third album, she shakes the sound loose from the tenets of decade or genre—from the cosmos to the kitchen sink, Erisy’s art is in connection. First single “Anywhere With You” arrives with a stunning official video directed by Justin Kohlberg.
Erisy connected with Luke Temple in the first week she moved to LA, at a nude figure drawing night that he was hosting weekly. They made a plan and went on to record live over five days at drummer Kosta Galanopoulos’s home studio in Long Beach, along with Will Graefe (Maya Hawke, Okkervil River) on guitar, an experience Erisy describes as “a total dream and absolute joy.” She found freedom in a new cohort and fresh philosophy. “I started feeling an opening up with the guitar, putting a finger somewhere at random on the fretboard, building a chord around it, and from there, allowing a song to come through,” says Erisy. “I was faced with all this empty space to fill, which felt scary but also gave me the opportunity to explore my edges, and in turn, be more open and expressive.” With additional engineering by Riley Geare and mastering by Heba Kadry (Björk, Sufjan Stevens), the resulting album ranges from earthy to cosmic, strikingly spare to deliciously textured, contemplative to outright playful.
Currently based in LA, with past residences in Portland and Nashville before that, Erisy also considers remote wilderness a home. An environmental scientist, much of her career takes place on the other side of the world. “My life can feel very patchy sometimes with the work I do in Asia, but through song, I’m learning to connect dots that otherwise might not seem obvious.” The album track “Sandhill Crane” is a stunning illustration, as she aligns worldly wonders from the Muslim call to prayer to the sight of sandhill cranes soaring over the plains of central Florida. Erisy draws on her profession on the song “Rachel” as well, inspired by Rachel Carson, a writer and biologist, who represents the bridge between worlds Erisy so often crosses in her own life. “I imagined us walking together on the beach and her teaching me about the animals of the intertidal,” Erisy says. “All the special adaptations they have to thrive, all the shit they have to deal with—from drowning to drying out, to getting eaten by both land and ocean predators, this toggling between worlds and what lessons we can take from that.” Throughout the album, Erisy leans into the profound perspective the natural world provides, a tracklist glimmering with the tenacious mystique of evolution—personal and universal.
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