Video Interview: King Buffalo Announce Three Albums Coming in 2021
Rochester, New York, trio King Buffalo will release three full-lengths throughout 2021.
Repeat: three.
The band — comprised of guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay, bassist Dan Reynolds and drummer Scott Donaldson — recently oversaw the release of Live at Freak Valley (review here) as a follow-up to their early-2020 EP, Dead Star (review here). By now the narrative of group-who-should’ve-spent-all-of-2020-touring-but-didn’t should be well familiar, but King Buffalo made exceptional use of the time. As Donaldson explains in the interview below in discussing their project, they actually had enough to use for four albums and decided to whittle it down to three.
This does nothing less than set King Buffalo up to potentially own the year, especially with the way they’re going about it. Each of the three albums will be recorded in a different manner and setting, so that while they’re using songs written during the same span of lockdown months, the presentation of each LP will inherently be different because the experience behind it will be different. In talking to Donaldson, I brought up a kind of second-installment syndrome, thinking of examples from Earth‘s Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light and Ufomammut‘s Oro two-parter projects, wherein the second piece came out and brought more of what the first had on offer. King Buffalo‘s methodological thinking seems like not only a clever workaround, but a way to continue to grow the band each time out.
And, it needs to be said, to take the place, momentum-wise, of touring. One would figure that if King Buffalo put out one album in alternate-reality-2021, they’d tour to support it in Europe and the US. Instead of those two tours, the band makes the jump through albums three, four and five in a span of months. Even if you’re a King Buffalo fan, it might seem like a lot to take in, but if the band have proved anything yet in their tenure, it’s that their work stands up to being digested over a longer time. That is, just because album four has arrived doesn’t mean you’re not still allowed to listen to album three.
Many details about the recording projects are still to be unveiled, but Donaldson talks a bit about the timing below — it may be 2022 before that last LP arrives, and if it is, fine — but his excitement is infectious. I hope you enjoy the interview.
The text of the band’s announcement also follows below:
King Buffalo, Interview with Scott Donaldson, Feb. 17, 2021
Hey Friends,
That’s not a typo, and we know it sounds crazy, but yes, we will be releasing THREE FULL-LENGTH RECORDS in 2021!
It’s all new material and we’re really excited to finally be able to tell you. Since Covid stopped all touring, we’ve been hard at work and made the commitment to not waste this time.
We can’t give you all the details, but each record will be distinct. We’ve chosen different methods to record and produce each one, and we will share that info with you in the coming months.
The artwork and single from the first record will be announced in a few weeks. So sit tight. There’s going to be a lot of new tunes coming and we can’t wait for you to hear them!
For a deeper dive, check out Scott’s interview over at theobelisk.net.
All the best,
KB
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Tags: King Buffalo, New York, Rochester, Stickman Records
This was a great, loose, fun interview. I rather appreciated the vague, ‘talking about talking about the goings-on’ approach Scott took because frankly, with King Buffalo, aside from Philly tour dates, there’s nothing newsworthy I wouldn’t find adding some happiness to my day. 3 (!?) albums, full lengths at that? Yeah, color me amped. I don’t care where it’s recorded or by whom or who what wrote when or the theme or any of the details. It’s King Buffalo. I’m pre-ordering it. I’m spinning it many times through my journey. And hopefully, I’m hearing the new songs live, safely and soon, over and over again. They’re a top 3 must catch live act for me at this point (along with ATW and Ecstatic Vision). Very cool news, thanks JJ!
Very excited to hear this. I had tickets to see KB for the 2nd time in Pgh last March and Covid squashed that show and any others I hoped to see. 3 new albums, each one distinctly different? Sounds amazing and looking forward to them all. Still can’t wait to see them on the road, but this is terrific.
The Quarantine Sessions were without a doubt the highlight of my audio and video pleasure in 2020.
Longing for these albums to come out! I discovered this amazing group this year and I LOVE EVERY BIT OF IT!!!
Keep it up!!