‘Shore’ Album Art
Robin Pecknold and Jody Denberg talk about how Richard Swift, a near death experience, and Brian Wilson influenced Shore, the new album from Fleet Foxes.
YOUTUBE/KUTX – Robin Pecknold and Jody Denberg
KUTX at Home: Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes 10.16.20
Host: Jody Denberg; Producer: Deidre Gott; Songs: \"Can I Believe You\" \"Sunblind\" \"Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman\" Album: Shore
Since their debut EP in 2006 (!), Fleet Foxes has created songs with unique sonic landscapes that build upon and eclipse the work of other harmony-driven folk-rock groups. The group’s visionary, songwriter Robin Pecknold, has taken a great leap forward with Fleet Foxes fourth full-length Shore by building upon their formidable catalogue and making a leap forward in sound and emotion.
Inspired by his musical heroes and joined by guests including Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear, Hamilton Leithauser, Kevin Morby and a sampled Brian Wilson, Pecknold has come up with something “bright and hopeful” in the midst of uncertainty and personal anxiety.
Recorded in New York, Los Angeles and France before and during the pandemic, “Shore” takes its title from a harrowing incident:
“The title came kind of came to me,” Pecknold remembered. “I had a surfing accident where I snapped my leash and I was kind of caught in this big set of waves and then I was pretty far out to sea and you know if you snap your you know you’ve lost your life preserver and you’re just swimming to safety, and I think I started hyperventilating, and I that was kind of the closest I’ve come to feeling like maybe I was going to die, and the feeling of relief I had when I did make it back to shore…I think that that kind of that feeling really stuck with me because you know, that sense of – and this is something we’ve experienced all year – just, you know, appreciating life.”
Appreciation and gratitude also play into Pecknold’s writing on Shore – the death of his musical comrade Richard Swift and Fleet Foxes ability to regroup after Pecknold’s five-year musical absence as he worked on a degree at Columbia University in his newfound home of New York.
And yes, Fleet Foxes reconvened after 2017’s Crack Up album, but circumstance led to him being the only member of the group present on this latest album. In 2021 he plans to co-write with the other band members for the first time, and hopefully play live again when the time is right. In the meanwhile there’s a 16-mm road movie that accompanies each song on Shore. Watch below or attend a drive-in screening October 19
FLEET FOXES
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ABOUT THE FILM: Shore is a road-movie depicting Northwest American landscapes and the people and animals that inhabit them. Kersti Jan Werdal is an artist working in film, photography, installation, and collage.
