2021 has now given us two things to look forward to, the second being the release of POSTDATA’s new full album, Twin Flames. Taking not just its name from the album’s first single but also building its major themes from it, “Twin Flames” is, without directly coming out and saying it, a quarantine-inspired track.
Paul Murphy, however, is a veteran musician. Best know for his work as frontman to the Juno award-winning and multi-nominated band, Wintersleep, he knows better than to utter that despicable word, “quarantune.” Instead, like a consummate artist, he sketches around it, he draws from it, he carefully and skillfully builds layers around it as a concept until it is… just so.
At its core, “Twin Flame” is about finding strength in a storm, whatever its nature, but combines it with romantic lyricism and wild instrumentation that comes together like Leonard Cohen meets Bon Iver.
“This was initially an instrumental track,” says Murphy. “I think that’s all I was going for at first. Ali suggested slowing it down and maybe trying to do some spoken word over top. I worked on it that night and made some headway. I took a couple days to really work out the melody and structure of the lyric/song within it.
“It’s a love song but also felt really poignant personally during full pandemic lockdown this idea of weathering storms. Enduring them. Inhabiting them. Becoming them.”
Embracing the isolation lifestyle fully, Murphy explains that being shut away in the midst of chaos, rather than a sense of helpless nice, comes with a sort of dulled comfort.
“You’re navigating this place…you can’t really see super far in front of you,” he says. “I kinda like that place.”
And that’s where the album builds from. This is Murphy’s blanket fort/doomsday bunker, acoustically frothing with introspective poignancy. Welcome to 2021, where things get real and real weird.
Twin Flames is set for release on March 5, 2021 via Paper Bag Records.