At the very beginning of the year, Matt Messore’s Cathedral Bells project returned with a one-off single in collaboration with like-minded bedroom-pop songwriter Rew, with “Clinging to the Ground” proving to be the perfect middle ground between both artists’ repertoires. It comes as less of a surprise, then, to hear another new collaboration from Messore’s band today—this time alongside Beach Vacation, the Washington-formed project of Tabor Rupp equally inspired by the early-’10s output from Captured Tracks. Following Cathedral Bells’ third LP Everything at Once released at the onset of the summer, and ahead of their extensive set of tour dates promoting that record, the collaborative track “Blurred Out” is the end result of both artists being immersed in the other’s output since day one.
“I worked from one of Tabor’s rough ideas that he had demoed out,” Messore shares of the collaboration, which leans into the hypnagogic lull of Beach Vacation’s sound while maintaining Cathedral Bells’ penchant for bedroom-confined shoegaze. “Tabor did all the guitar parts and I wrote the rhythm section and synth parts. We kept building off of each other’s ideas and before we knew it the whole essence of the song was captured. It’s an honor to have collaborated together and be a part of Beach Vacation’s upcoming album.”
To that, Rupp adds of Messore: “It’s been awesome to see his growth and improvement. The songs always stand out to me and get stuck in my head, so to be able to collaborate and finish a song together from scratch was amazing. I’m super excited and honored to have this song on my album and am looking forward to the future of both our projects.”
The track comes paired with a visual courtesy of YouTube creator i’m cyborg but that’s ok, who sets the music to soundtrack clips from Hsiao-Hsien Hou’s visceral turn-of-the-millennium classic Millennium Mambo. Check it out below, or listen to the track here. Additionally, you can find dates for Cathedral Bells’ upcoming tours beneath the video.
