Fanatic is a music marketing company established by Josh Bloom in 1997 to build fan-to-fan connections between artists and the media. For 25 years, Fanatic has continued to help launch careers through the strategic advocacy of creative talent.
Monday, September 20, 2021
The High Water Marks to release “Proclaimer of Things,” its second full-length in just over a year on Feb. 4th, 2022; Album’s creation served as therapy.
Hear perfect power pop of “Jenny” by Norway-based band fronted by Elephant 6, Apples In Stereo co-founder, Hilarie Sidney; Pre-save Friday release here. +++
The High Water Marks (L-R): Logan
Miller, Hilarie Sidney, Per Ole Bratset, Øystein Megård. Photo credit: Self-Portraits, Illustration by Per
Ole Bratset. +++ The High Water Marks | In The Press
“An earworm melody.” — Brooklyn Vegan “Clock-stopping, pulse-raising mega-pop.” — UNCUT “Complex and considered arrangements... Sugar-coated
melodies to spare.” — Pitchfork “Beautifully warm, catchy, high-energy... garage pop
for the masses.” — PASTE +++ The High Water Marks | “Jenny”
[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw2w-YZgKys [SOUNDCLOUD]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/the-high-water-marks-jenny +++ “Infectious hooks, crashing drums and guitars, and
delicious harmonies... Punk energy... Music that is made for jumping around
to.” — Glide Magazine Based in her adopted home town of Grøa, Norway, Hilarie Sidney and her band The High Water Marks are prepping to
release a new single “Jenny” on Sept. 24th, the band’s first
new music since the 2020 release of Ecstasy Rhymes, its first album in
13 years. Hear“Jenny” now via Glide
Magazine or the links above. “Jenny”
kicks off a series of singles that will culminate in another all-new album Proclaimer
of Things on Feb. 4th,
2022. “That’s a song that came out super fast,” Sidney says. “I sat on the couch
playing the chord progression and immediately singing, ‘Jenny’s got herself a
friend and she wants to stay out late.’ Per
Ole (Hilarie’s husband and band mate)
said, ‘Hey, I have a chorus that suits that.’ Five minutes later, we’re playing
the entire song, with almost all the lyrics.” And who is Jenny? “Jenny isn’t a real person,” Sidney explains. “I had heard of Jenny, but I never met her. She
was known as somewhat of a legend around these parts. Everyone talks about what
she did and acts as if they know her. The truth is, it’s hard to know Jenny,
but I’d like to.” +++ The High
Water Marks | About
“I am so lucky to have been a musician throughout my
life,” says Hilarie Sidney, currently
fronting The High Water Marks, and
best known as co-founder of the revered musical collective Elephant Six, and one of its three core bands The Apples In Stereo. Based in her adopted home town of Grøa, Norway, Sidney and The High Water Marks are prepping to release Proclaimer of Things, the
band’s second album in just over a year, following-up the 2020 album Ecstasy
Rhymes, its first album in 13 years. Coming back after such a long stretch of being off the
scene with a critically and commercially welcomed new album, and then quickly
coming in hot with another batch of 13 songs, isn’t an accident. In this case,
it’s a coping mechanism. With the United States reaching a milestone of 1 in
500 people having succumbed to COVID-19, it’s tragic news that this statistic
hits home for Sidney. Her mother,
half a world away, passed from the virus earlier this year. “Not being able to see her and knowing that she was
alone, dying in a nursing home, still haunts me daily,” Sidney courageously reveals. Sidney knew that when she began to build a life in Norway
with her band mate and husband Per Ole
Bratset and their son, that she would be just a 12-hour flight from the
rest of her family, but that 12 hours became something completely different
under lockdown. “I never factored in a pandemic,” she says. “At least
my mom got to hear our record before she passed away. That means a lot to me
because she was always really supportive of my music.” The thirteen songs that comprise Proclaimer of Things are
just a drop in the bucket, considering how much Sidney has leaned on songwriting to take her mind off things. “I feel like I can’t pick up the guitar without
writing a little melody. As therapy, we decided to keep recording. We dove into
the project to keep us sane, focused, and from going down the rabbit hole of
depression and self-pity.” Through it all, The
High Water Marks made an album that is positive, light, happy, and
meaningful. “I think my mom would approve of my method of dealing
with the grief of losing her.” Sidney
says with trademark optimism. Proclaimer of Things, the latest album by The High Water Marks, is scheduled for release on Feb. 4th, 2022 on Minty Fresh. +++ More about
The High Water Marks With The High
Water Marks making many waves with new music these days, it’s worth taking
a moment to remember how we probably know Sidney
best. During her pre-Norway years living in Denver,
Colorado, Sidney became the
co-founder of one of the most influential musical collectives of the past 25
years. The Elephant 6 Recording Co.
is a storied group of artists and Sidney
was as at its nucleus as a founding member. It was a “boys club,” she confesses. Indeed, Sidney
was the only woman among her band The
Apples In Stereo and the other two acts – Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia
Tremor Control – that were the most visible members of Elephant 6. “Having been in the Apples and on the road since 1993, I started to have many more
songs than could ever be released on an Apples
record, and being surrounded by a group of men for so many years, one can lose
oneself,” she confides. Sidney eventually found a new musical partnership when she
formed The High Water Marks,
releasing a debut album (Songs About The Ocean) in 2003. The
record was written and demoed through the mail with her now-husband and band mate,
Per Ole Bratset, whom she initially
met at an Apples gig in Norway in
2002. A follow-up album (Polar) arrived in 2007. Life as a mom led Sidney
to officially leave the Apples in
2006 and to put the music business on the back burner soon after. She continued
writing songs, however, and headed in a new direction by beginning to finish up
a Bachelor’s degree, which led to her being awarded a prestigious study abroad
scholarship at the University of Oslo. “Moving to Norway was everything I had hoped it would
be,” she explains. Now, thirteen years after releasing her last album as The High Water Marks, the band is back
with new music that reflects the maturity, perseverance, songwriting, and
performing talent that made Sidney’s
contributions to Elephant 6 and The Apples so integral. If she was marginalized in the early days, those
notions are blown out by the wealth of perfect power pop that The High Water Marks has released since,
one song after another that will take any fan of the songs that Sidney contributed to Apples recordings – her voice is
instantly recognizable – right back to the most potent days of that band’s
career. Ecstasy Rhymes” the first album by The High
Water Marks in 13 years, is out now. See below to see “Annual Rings,” the latest video from Ecstasy Rhymes, and for
listening links and more info about the album. +++ The High Water Marks | “Annual Rings”
The music video for “Annual Rings” by The High
Water Marks was co-created by University of Kentucky students, Wils Quinn and Nicholas Volosky, and produced at the school’s media space The Media Depot. “We were sitting next to the radio on a spring evening
in our small town,” Quinn remembers.
“The next thing we heard was ‘Annual
Rings’ by The High Water Marks
blasting into the quiet Kentucky night. We knew right then and there that we
had to become involved. You could consider it a calling or a spiritual
awakening.”
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