Page 16 - Poze Magazine Volume 87

RAINSHADOWER ANNOUNCES DEBUT ALBUM

CHARRED SCARS OUT NOVEMBER 21ST

HEAR THE FIRST SINGLE “COLD COMFORT OF GREY DAYS”
FEAT. ALEXANDRA LOCKHART OF CUMULUS

R ainshadower is excited to “A lot of that music was written organically
with everyone in the room together,” he
announce Charred Scars,
shares, “and I’ve always felt compelled to
the debut LP from the
musical endeavor led by
throw out ideas and make suggestions on
multi-instrumentalist
and
longtime Pacific Northwest whatever music I’ve been a part of
creating collaboratively.
mainstay, A. Ball.
” But it was in 2012 that Ball first started
Over the past many years, Ball has
played an integral role in the fabric of the seriously writing music on his own when
Seattle area music scene, lending his he landed in the hospital with acute
talent to multiple albums, shows, and tours appendicitis less than a month after ”” Rainshadower combines
in bands such as Cumulus, the Cops, Idiot getting home from a tour with Virgin two words with negative
Pilot, the Saturday Knights, Virgin Islands, Islands who were supporting Cursive on connotations to create a
Police Teeth, Dryland, and many others. their I Am Gemini run. “The resulting positive, a guard against and
surgery meant that I couldn’t play drums
Charred Scars represents Ball’s first foray for several months for the first time in my a reprieve from, the
into releasing music as a solo artist. This adult life” he says, “and with the sometimes oppressive
beautiful album draws from his life downtime at home, I really dove into weather. To Ball, the Rhodes
experience and the natural melancholic figuring out how to demo songs in dreamy, beautiful, and
beauty of the Cascade Mountains and GarageBand.” Ball would mess around on melancholic qualities
surrounding forests he grew up exploring. an old keyboard and eventually that emulate the unique natural
developed into writing entire songs. He beauty of the world he grew
Out today with the album’s announcement leaned into the bass guitar, which he had up in around Bellingham,
is the first single, “Cold Comfort of Grey been playing a lot of during that period as WA. A magical place where
Days”, featuring vocals from Cumulus’ well, and bought a Fender Rhodes, which the trees outnumber people
Alexandra Lockhart. The song is a would also become a signature part of 100 to 1, and the surrounding
subdued, ethereal journey anchored by a Rainshadower’s sound. forests, mountains, and
hopeful Rhodes keyboard. Ball describes beaches are within easy
the lyrics as “an examination of societal The Rhodes is found on 7 of the 8 tracks reach to explore and connect
collapse as a result of human on Charred Scars, and is also the with.
shortsightedness and climate change.” instrument Ball primarily writes with when
The song’s bridge steadily increases in it comes to workshopping new ideas. The
intensity as Ball and Lockhart sing the name Rainshadower is inspired by the
mantra “World is burning, world keeps Northwest Washington climate, where rain
turning, when will we learn?” and overcast skies has been a consistent
element and influence for the vast majority
Ball has been an active participant in of his life. “I love the rain and the
creating music with the bands he has beautiful, lush green that it brings,” he
played in since the 90s, primarily as a shares, “yet I also find it to be oppressive,
drummer. dreary and miserable at times.

17