JOHN VANDERSLICE Announces New Album The Cedars

In 2014, the acclaimed songwriter and producer John Vanderslice stepped away from touring and making his own music to focus on Tiny Telephone, his Bay Area recording studio where he has worked on music for indie rock heavy-hitters including Death Cab For Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Spoon, St. Vincent, and the Mountain Goats. Five years later, Vanderslice is returning with an album that he considers to be his most ambitious work yet. The Cedars, to be released on April 5 on Native Cat Recordings, is a collection of 12 adventurous tracks inspired by an idyllic piece of land in Northern California.

“I own a small piece of land in very rural West Sonoma and from the tippy top of this land you can see a strange, Mars-like serpentine canyon called The Cedars,” says Vanderslice. “Roughly 11×11 square miles in size, it’s a land-locked geological anomaly that has over a dozen endemic trees and plants. It’s only 6 miles away but it takes up a mythic space in my mind, like the perfect sound, the perfect lyric. A lot of this record was written on this land, under the spell of this place.”

Vanderslice shared The Cedars‘ first single “I’ll Wait For You” today; the song features John McEntire of Tortoise and Stereolab on drums and synth and premiered onStereogum, who write, “Vanderslice has been one of the most quietly awesome forces in indie rock for more than two decades now… ‘I’ll Wait For You’ finds Vanderslice’s unmistakable vocals darting across a shapeshifting landscape marked by spindly guitars and reverberating keyboards.”

LISTEN “I’LL WAIT FOR YOU” HERE

The Cedars is out April 5 and is available for pre-order digitally and on vinyl. John Vanderslice will be touring in support of the album this spring with Pedro The Lion. All dates are below and on sale now.