Avers’ new EP, available Friday, is a collection of songs that emerged from an intimate writing and recording session, but didn’t fit the Richmond rock band’s next album, planned for 2016.
Fans who preordered tickets to Avers’ Nov. 27 show at The Camel received a download code, but the EP, Wasted Tracks, will be available this week through a variety of digital platforms including, Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify and Amazon. The price may vary from vendor to vendor, but guitarist and vocalist Adrian Olsen says $4.99 should be enough to purchase the five new tracks.
“This particular EP was born out of a weeklong writing session we did last year,” says Olsen. “We went down to [guitarist] James Mason’s family’s beach house and we brought a couple carloads worth of recording equipment. We demoed out what turned out to be most of our upcoming record; not this EP, but our next full-length [album].”
Avers has played festivals including South by Southwest, Austin City Limits and Hopscotch in North Carolina. Wasted Tracks is Avers’ second release after the full-length Empty Light in 2014.
“This particular group of songs, we really like, but it kind of represented a different side of the band which we weren’t necessarily sure was the current direction,” says Olsen. “It’s a little more chill, it’s pretty vibey, and we liked it, but it didn’t really fit with the rest of the material.”
Olsen explains that bands often record and write more songs than will actually be put on a record. Avers used this writing session to do just that and turned out 10 songs in about four days.
“We would wake up and work on a different person’s song until we felt good about it,” Olsen says. “We kept that rotation going.”
Though most of the songs will go toward an upcoming full-length release expected around March, the handful of songs left over became Wasted Tracks.
“We just had these recordings sitting around and kind of wanted to finish all of the songs we started,” Olsen says. “They are all in a place where they seem like finished songs.”
He explains that the recording process was limited because of the equipment the band members brought to the writing sessions. These limitations and the seclusion of the beach house helped shape the upcoming album and Wasted Tracks.
“There’s only one electric guitar. One Amp. A keyboard. There was a drum set with no cymbals, a lot of shakers, and some of the kick drums are just a floor tom with a mallet,” Olsen says. “Instead of it being like, ‘Here is a rock band,’ the limitations lend to a vibe; the chiller side of the EP is because of the limitations we had to make it.”
Go to aversmusic.com to find out about upcoming tour dates, watch music videos and find links to download the new EP “Wasted Tracks” and the 2014 release Empty Light.
