‘Interior Live Oak’: Cass McCombs Blends Past and Present on New Album

Cass McCombs today announces his new album, Interior Live Oak, out 15 August via Domino, and releases a new single/video, ‘Peace’. Interior Live Oak is Cass’s most personal album to date, and, more than any previous record, shows Cass’ vast range as a lyricist and musician. It draws from everything Cass has created over two decades of experimentation to cut through with a direct and clarifying light. Throughout, his attitude is hopeful, which may sound odd for someone who often sings about the more extreme aspects of modern life. Interior Live Oak, however, is the resolve of someone who has lived those extremes.

In creating Interior Live Oak, McCombs was inspired by the return to Domino and the revisitation of his early material in last year’s reissue campaign and the archival release, Seed Cake on Leap Year. This led him to work with some of his earliest collaborators in the Bay Area, including Jason Quever (Papercuts) and Chris Cohen, among others. Additional recording in New York City brought contributions from other perennial collaborators, including Matt Sweeney and Mike Bones, whose guitar work has always been a favourable complement to Cass’ own distinctive style. Interior Live Oak simultaneously expands upon his vision and is a return to more economical form.

Following Interior Live Oak’s ‘Priestess’, released earlier this year alongside a Tiny Desk Concert, today’s single, ‘Peace’, demands compulsive listening with its seemingly straightforward serpentine riffs, revealing more depth with every listen. “Peace is what we say when we say goodbye,” Cass sings, bidding a melancholy farewell.

In a time of temporal anxieties, Cass’ music seeks an alternate route to break through the noise and discover a moment of presence— of beauty. As The Observer puts it, he is a “musical seeker of truth”.