Although the modern era of musical collaboration has largely been defined by opposites attracting, there’s still plenty of room for like-minded individuals to push out a tune together. Such is the case with the new single from Florida’s shoegaze-by-way-of-bedroom-pop artist Cathedral Bells (a.k.a. Matt Messore) and his fairly-specific-genre peer Andrew Fusca, who records as Rew up the coast in Philly.
According to Fusca, it was here that the pair first connected while Messore was on tour, where a conversation about collaborating was much more than just pleasantries. “Since I’m nocturnal I would write my parts and record ideas at night and send them over for Matt to work on during the day,” Fusca shares of the resulting collaboration, titled “Clinging to the Ground.” “Working over the internet was a more focused process and we were able to make it sound exactly how we wanted.”
Arriving today, the single—as can be expected—steeps dream pop textures in Orchid Tapes–esque bedroom-recording sensibilities and hypnagogia so visceral the VHS-quality lyric video almost feels redundant. “I’ve been a fan of Rew’s catalog and previous projects,” adds Messore. “As I came back from tour we started tossing ideas back and forth ’til we had it fleshed out to its completion. Rew started off with just a drum beat and then I made some bass parts. From there we finished the sequence and took a few weeks to get all the layers.”
Check out the results below.
