Banner photo cred: Kelsey Greene
Singer/songwriter/visual artist Emily Blue initially reached out to me in regards to her illustrations. While her sketches and drawings will be featured in the coming days/weeks on the site, she is also a notable solo act as well as the frontwoman for four piece Tara Terra. Juggling all of these creative endeavors, Blue released a split single, and is now prepping a sophomore album rollout with her band. It's the group's first proper album since their debut, Daughter, back in 2014. Before that LP arrives next month, they are first letting loose an ambient and relaxing rendition of "Sunday Candy". Something to set the mood, complete with additional vocals by Kaina and Morimoto. Along with a Sunday premiere (how fitting), I spoke with the quartet (made up of Blue, Colin Altheus, Joey Buttlar, and Nick Soria) about the new song, their upcoming album, and more.
How long has this 'Sunday Candy' cover been in the works?
Nick: There is no exact answer since we started talking about covering it as early as last summer. But with our touring schedule at the time and everything else we each had going on, our plans got delayed. We didn’t actually start going to work on it until last December. If I’m correct, we knocked out all the tracks in about a day or two in the living room of our friend’s apartment in Chicago where Emily was living at the time.
How would you describe your rendition to a stranger on the street?
Joey: We wanted to capture the joy of the original song while putting our own spin on it. It's live, guitar based, and atmospheric.
Emily: Lots of layers! Vocals, guitars, pianos, a bass solo, you name it. Max Perenchio (who produced my latest solo release) put his wacky production skills on top of it all. He really brought it to life.
The first release since your live recordings last year. What's been in the works?
Emily: We’ve got a brand new album coming May 31st. We recorded it at Audiotree in Chicago with an amazing team of engineers (Rick Fritz and Brok Mende) and had the time of our lives! It’s a bigger, more developed sound than our previous record. We cannot wait to show everyone!
What's the rest of the year looking like for Tara Terra?
Nick: As Emily said, we’re releasing our new album next month. We’re currently in the process of booking about a three week tour in August to promote the album. Details are still being hammered out, but our route is tentatively the East Coast and parts of the South. In the meantime, we’re working hard to play as many shows beforehand and practice our butts off. Emily, Joey, and I will also be moving to Chicago indefinitely at different points this summer. The transition will be a little bit of a challenge with Colin still having another year of school, but I think we’re all more than willing to make everything work.
For Emily Blue, is it difficult to mix band releases with solo work?
Emily: It’s not difficult but it does require effort and time management. Having so much music in my head, so many projects, etc., takes up a lot of mental space. I always need to remind myself to take one thing at a time, and that progress won’t happen if I’m overworking myself.
Any final thoughts / words of wisdom?
Lots of wild rumors have been flying around that we might be dropping a new single at the top of May, and it might be the bee’s knees. Follow us for future surprises!
