Skateland Grapples with the Modern World on Transcendent EP "Joyce Howell, How are You?"
Austin-based artist Skateland is taking his bedroom-pop daydreams to new heights. His newly released EP Joyce Howell, How are You? highlights his unique propensity for vocal abstraction and crafting sparkling vignettes of nostalgia. The project is a time capsule of Skateland's past year as an artist that grapples with insecurity, metamorphosis, and all-too-familiar brain rot. The ear-catching melodies and vividly ethereal soundscapes strike a nerve that satisfy the indie-kid's sentimental cravings.
Joyce Howell, How are You? radiates with sublime strings, effervescent synths, and whimsical vocals that tap into a visceral collective of unconscious emotion. His opening track "Sunset Cinema" features haunting howls that reminisce on hypothetical love stories that unravel in his imagination. "Autobahn!" captures the stark dichotomy of dating in the modern world; how feelings can swing on the pendulum from torturously casual to devastatingly devoted in the blink of an eye. Closing song and title track "Joyce Howell, How Are You" combines a mesmerizing array of sonics from church bells to sun-drenched riffs that capture the blissful nature of the EP as a whole.
Skateland is surfing the momentum of his recent bill alongside Two Door Cinema Club and Day Wave. He's also opened for Foster the People and swept away multiple showcases at SXSW this year. Joyce Howell, How are You? bites at the heels of an impressive live circuit and gives Skateland a platform to take it all in and reflect. The outcome is a romantic, celestial love letter to the characters in his head, the muses that strike him unexpectedly, and most importantly, himself.
