Los Angeles, CA band, Blackwater Holylight, have announced that their new EP, If You Only Knew, is coming out April 18, 2025 via Suicide Squeeze Records. The band has also just shared their new single, “Wandering Lost.” Hear it in the article below and read more from Blackwater Holylight.
Pre-order/pre-save If You Only Knew here: https://lnk.to/bwhl
On “Wandering Lost,” singer, guitarist, and bassist Sunny Faris shares: ““Wandering Lost” came to us in pieces throughout a handful of weeks in Los Angeles. The four of us intentionally wanted this song to have multiple parts to tell a story that takes you on a journey throughout. This song is very special to us because it represents us as musicians individually and is a perfect reflection of what we’ve created as a group. It’s a song about wandering through the chapters of life, curiosity, and the connection we all have to each other through the unknown of how it will all unfold.”
Though it clocks in at just four tracks, the EP traverses countless cosmic peaks and sludgy valleys. “Wandering Lost” gradually evolves from atmosphere to heaviness. Over the course of almost seven minutes, metal, shoegaze, and psychedelia coalesce. The song was slowly conceptualized while Blackwater Holylight was working with acclaimed producer Sonni DiPerri (Animal Collective, DIIV, Suzanne Ciani) in Los Angeles, and mimics the mysterious, sometimes painful chapters of life by shifting between multiple movements. Like all of Blackwater Holylight’s material, there is an ample dose of beauty to be found beneath “Wandering Lost”‘s snarling exterior.
Since their inception and across the span of three full-length albums, Blackwater Holylight have consistently conjured an aura of both power and vulnerability, as if the members of the band have found both the space and the vehicle for lowering their emotional defenses by fortifying their position with pure sonic strength. Yet that persistently haunting and enchanting quality has manifested in a variety of approaches. Equally adept at devil’s note doom riffs, narcotic neo-folk melodies, lysergic psychedelic forays, and jagged art-rock abrasion, Blackwater Holylight have used their limited arsenal of guitar, bass, drums, synth, and voice to cover a broad swath of aural terrain. On their forthcoming EP, If You Only Knew, Blackwater Holylight continue to follow a path marked only as further, mining new tactics and timbres across four songs while continuing to address the uncertainties that come with transference and transition.
If You Only Knew opens with “Wandering Lost,” a track singer/guitarist/bassist Sunny Faris describes as being about “feeling community in sorrow and remembering that everyone hurts, everyone changes, and that no one knows what’s next.” Fueled by the interwoven melodies of Sarah McKenna’s mournful electric piano and Sunny’s lilting vocals, then driven into high gear with Mikayla Mayhew’s amplifier-worshipping guitars and Eliese Dorsay’s earth-shaking drums in the chorus, the song thrives on the contrast between sublime beauty and seismic menace, underscoring the song’s dichotomous theme of acknowledging pain and harnessing the power of shared experience in life’s trials and tribulations.
From there, the EP segues into “Torn Reckless,” a song that combines the wall-of-sound distortion of shoegaze with dream-pop vocals and prog-rock synth flourishes. Once again, the song’s lyrical themes center around vulnerability, with Faris describing the song as being about a private relationship quandary veiled in the broader universal experience of “standing in the doorway of something that feels so hugely mysterious and bigger than you…and I think we’ve all been there in that doorway, and I think we’ve all felt the doubt.”
Side B finds Blackwater Holylight continuing to explore new opportunities. While Side A was recorded and produced by Sonny DiPerri, the flipside was captured in the studio by Dave Schiffman. “Fate Is Forward” is a song about stasis and realizing that some things are fixed in place and the only way to move beyond an obstacle is to stop leaning on it. Much like the other songs on If You Only Knew, the lyrics are rooted in specific incidents in the lives of the band members but eschew diaristic impulses in favor of highlighting the communal similarities in the spectrum of personal struggles. Never content to rest on their laurels, the band tackles the loud-quiet-loud dynamics and roaring power-chord choruses of early ‘90s alt-rock while maintaining their signature ability to render mesmeric vocal melodies out of a foundation of ominous and oppositional instrumentation. The EP closes with an absorbing cover of Radiohead’s “All I Need,” taking the original’s almost claustrophobic closeness and opening it up into a grandiose swirl of undulating drones and desperation.
Ultimately, If You Only Knew is a brave step into the unknown that mirrors the uncertainty of the band member’s personal lives. Where Blackwater Holylight could’ve easily continued to tread on familiar ground, they’ve opted to make bold and brave steps, all while retaining the evocative power that put them on the map.
If You Only Knew tracklisting:
01 Wandering Lost
02 Torn Reckless
03 Fate Is Forward
04 All I Need (Radiohead cover)
Live dates
4/25 – Austin, TX @ Austin Psych Fest
w/ Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Black Mountain (Tickets: https://wl.seetickets.us/wafform.aspx?_act=eventtickets&_pky=634244&afflky=LEVITATION)
Check out our past interview with Sunny:
Follow Blackwater Holylight
https://www.blackwaterholylight.com/
https://www.instagram.com/blackwaterholylight/
https://blackwaterholylight.bandcamp.com/music
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2fqEhs5dZBrDLUqHvWRtBc
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/blackwater-holylight/1332149043