Indie rock mainstay Nick Thorburn (ever heard of MFing Islands? The Unicorns!?) has teamed up with another legend in the game, Ratatat’s Mike Stroud, for a new project called The Creem. The first single from the duo, “Goodbye,” is out now, while a full LP called A Taste of Cherry will arrive on June 5. “Goodbye” is an absolutely delightful pop throwback that incorporates infectious harmonies, a rhythmically enchanting piano melody, and a guitar solo that is the perfect middle ground between Mike’s Ratatat past and his Creem-filled future.
“We wrote and recorded this song in one sitting,” Thorburn shares. “After finishing, we realized we had something special. We’d taken two very different approaches to songwriting and pushed each to the point where neither felt recognizable anymore. There’s an evocation to the timeless music that came before us without having us resort to cheap nostalgia.” Regarding the evolution of the collaboration, he adds: “I’d actually emailed the Ratatat account back in 2006, asking if Mike would be willing to play guitar on an Islands tour. I had assumed Ratatat had broken up and was in need of an extra guitar. I was a fan of Ratatat from the beginning and even referenced the melody to their song ‘Cherry’ on the first Islands album.”
Almost a decade and a half later, the duo connected. Stroud had reached out this time about collaborating. “I went to Mike’s studio in the Catskills where he produced an Islands song. We got along so well, musically and otherwise, that when Mike shared some incomplete songs, asking if I’d be interested in collaborating, I jumped at the chance.” That, my friends, is how The Creem came to be.
Check out the video for “Goodbye” below, and pre-order A Taste of Cherry here.
