Ryan Hemsworth loves to collaborate. Even his last solo album, 2018's Elsewhere, had a myriad of guests. Since then, he's worked with Tinashe, Dazy, Avery Springer, Snow Ellet, Shalom, Yurufuwa Gang, and more, and his project Bodysync with Giraffage has been very active. If that's not enough, he's currently a part of Gia Margaret's live band. But now he's back to announce a new solo album called Numbskull, and it features Tegan And Sara, MSPAINT, Illuminati Hotties' Sarah Tudzin, and more.
The new singles "One Step" and "A Display Of Emotion" are out today. About them, Hemsworth expounds:
With "One Step" I started thinking about old Three 6 Mafia tapes, and some old crunchy 90s UK rave stuff. I imagined this would probably only work with a rapper. But I started making more random friends around this time — someone I connected with and had been giving some production ideas to was Sarah of Illuminati Hotties. Kind of at a whim I sent her this one. I'm not sure why exactly because generally I would've sent her something more like her own project. But she jumped at it, and it made me realize this might be my approach with collaboration for Numbskull — only give people wild cards. And honestly it seemed to work for everyone involved.
Making the kind of electronic music that I want to with the guitar front and center is always this challenging push and pull process. It's so easy to lean too far in one direction and it sounds like complete cheese. "A Display Of Emotion" kind of hit my ideal balance of sad guitar and bass that could make my trunk rattle. Some of these songs were starting to be made while my oldest kid was on summer break and my youngest wasn't in daycare, so my association with them is just being daddy daycare all day and then making this music in the middle of the night.
"One Step" comes with an animated music video by MZ. Check it out below along with the moodier "A Display Of Emotion."
TRACKLIST:
01 "Vortex"
02 "One Step"
03 "I Missed You More" (Feat. Nana Lourdes)
04 "Toy No One Else" (Feat. MSPAINT)
05 "Never Leanred" (Feat. Tegan And Sara)
06 "Atypical" (Feat. allie)
07 "Winter Spring"
08 "A Display Of Emotion"
09 "Breed"
10 "Break"
11 "Shifting And Turning"
TOUR DATES:
11/04 - Chicago, IL @ Concord
11/05 - Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy
11/06 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall
11/07 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
11/08 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/09 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
11/11 - New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/12 - Charlottesville, VA @ The Jefferson
11/13 - Richmond, VA @ The National
Numbskull is out 10/21 via Topshelf. Pre-order it here.
