Valley Maker shares new single “Instrument”

Single release: out now
Label: Frenchkiss Records
More info: Valley Maker’s Facebook page

Previous praise for Valley Maker:

“Thoughtful, spectral folk” – AV Club

“(Crane writes) elegant folk songs with airy, atmospheric spaces.” – CLASH

“Crane’s cracked, yearning vocals explore themes familiar to fans of his work: his wandering faith; the weight of your upbringing; the embrace of life’s discoveries.” – Consequence Of Sound

“His language might be metaphorical and rhetorical, but his tender voice and indie-rock songwriting are both immensely grounding.” – Paste

“The folk-leaning brainchild of songsmith Austin Crane, Valley Maker has nurtured a reputation for ruminative excursions through rugged indie-tinged tundra – open-ended soundscapes further explored on his latest slice of Americana “No One Is Missing” – The Line Of Best Fit (Song Of The Day)

Austin Crane also known as Valley Maker, has shared new single ‘Instrument’, taken from his upcoming new album When the Day Leaves out February 19 via Frenchkiss Records. Valley Maker previously shared ‘No One Is Missing’ and ‘Mockingbird’ from the album. 

‘Instrument’ comes with another stunning music video (watch here) filmed and directed by Joseph Kolean and Zach Gutierrez, and incorporates film footage that Austin captured on a Super 8 camera in the North Carolina mountains. They collaborated on the music video for previous single ‘Mockingbird’ – Austin notes, “through mixing mediums and blending human and natural worlds, we wanted the ‘Instrument’ video to visually be in conversation with what we created for ‘Mockingbird,’ and with the landscape of the album cover.”  He continues, “I wrote ‘Instrument’ as a meditation on the challenges of persevering, of loving the world and other people, and of maintaining a hopeful vision for the future in these times we’re living through. The uncertain future of our planet, with climate change and related natural disasters, always feels very present for me in these considerations. So the song and video reflect both upon anxieties and affections for our world; they explore what it means to remain a part of it all, to carry on amidst human and elemental uncertainty.”

Watch the video for ‘Instrument’ here.

When The Day Leaves is out 19th Feb via Frenchkiss Records
Pre-order here

More about When The Day Leaves:

We have all become experts in the imbalance of uncertainty these days, newly accustomed to canceling plans and tentatively rescheduling them for some future we can only imagine. For Austin Crane—the ruminative songwriter, riveting guitarist, and singular voice —such a sense of uncertainty has emerged as his steadfast companion these last few years, a period of profound transition. This flux is the anchor for the gorgeous and felicitous When the Day Leaves. 

Early in 2019, Crane and his wife, Megan, decided it was time to leave Seattle. South Carolina natives, they’d been in Seattle for nearly a decade while he pursued a doctorate in human geography at the University of Washington, and she worked as a midwife. As Summer 2019 ended, they prepared to head east to Columbia, SC, rejoining a deep community of friends and moving into a century-old home in need of big love. Still, major questions loomed: Would they, just then past 30, like it enough to stay, to start a new life? And what did it mean to go home? 

Driven as it is by departure, When the Day Leaves marks the arrival of Valley Maker as a trustworthy narrator for these shaky times. Crane synthesizes these complex feelings into today’s single, “No One Is Missing.” All these thoughts are rendered with newfound lyrical richness, balancing intimate tidbits with universal ambiguity.  

In the months before recording began, Austin convened with producer Trevor Spencer and longtime harmonizing partner Amy Godwin for sessions in Portland and Seattle, teasing out the album’s interwoven arrangements and meticulous vocal harmonies. Then, in November 2019, Crane decamped from Columbia to the Pacific Northwest for a three-week session in the woods outside of Woodinville, a small town northeast of Seattle at the foot of the Cascades. He stayed in the loft of Spencer’s Way Out Studio, the collaborators sealing themselves off in a horse barn-turned-recording space like kids at summer camp, just as winter’s mist closed in. 

The time commitment is a crucial component of When the Day Leaves. For 46 minutes, you feel like you’re sitting with Crane in an intricate, unified sound-world of his design. He offloads his observations about our tangled thicket of hope and fear, aspiration and exasperation. 

When the Day Leaves is an uninterrupted sequence of reflections about the generational limbo of being awed by and worried for this world. The anxiety of uncertainty—always part of life but now seemingly omnipresent—can be vexing, a reality these songs acknowledge. Crane, as he sings at one point, is fully “aligned with my blues.” But these songs also affirm that life is an endless opportunity for renewal, for trying again. 

Valley Maker
When The Day Leaves
Out 19th Feb via Frenchkiss Records

1. Branch I Bend
2. No One Is Missing 
3. Pinetrees
4. Instrument
5. Mockingbird
6. Aberration
7. Voice Inside The Well
8. On A Revelation
9. Freedom
10. Line Erasing
11. When The Day Leaves

Find Valley Maker online: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram