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Today, Ezra Bell, one of the 21st century’s most organically successful folk/Americana bands, has released their ninth studio album, Chin Chin, via ONErpm. PRESS HERE to listen. Chin Chin serves as a tribute to the band’s lead singer and lyricist Ben Wuamett, who passed away in October 2024. The 11-song, self-produced collection – fully written and recorded before his unexpected death – includes the singles “cannonball wingman,” “let me in” and “tommy’s lullaby” as well as new focus track “it looks like love.” PRESS HERE to watch the new music video for “it looks like love.” Chin Chin honors Ben’s life and musical legacy, while also paving a way forward for Ezra Bell, an eight-piece band that has created its own sound featuring an unusual mix of street-hard lyrics with folk-pop and Americana sounds sprinkled with elements of rock, blues, jazz, and R&B.
“This album has been growing in importance as the days go on,” shares Ezra Bell. “We spent three years recording these tracks and sitting on them while shopping this album to many labels. The deals we were offered were not in our favor; we like owning our own songs, our own band name, and our merchandise. For three years, we shot down bad deals from record labels but continued recording. We would write a song one day, and three days later, book studio time and record it. That’s when the songs are relevant, that’s when the message is urgent, that is before the song becomes drab. We’d hustle the 8-person crew together across two studios, the Red Barn (outside Portland) and Archive Recordings (outside Salt Lake City), and we’d hang up our souls on these tracks for a while until they were done. Then we’d never play them again, cleansed of the spirit, demons faithfully exorcised. As such, many of these songs have never been played live.”
“Written in the living room, where piano, guitar, violin, upright bass, drums, and saxophone played cheerfully as Ben penned what would be his last group of poems delivered as songs. This album marks a turning point in songwriting for Ben,” the band adds. “Ben’s syncopation and lyricism, his internal rhyme, meter and syllable placement, all give these songs the gravity and clairvoyance of folk music with the allure of more popular musical genres. His lyrics, among the best anyone is writing in the 2020s, mean something different to each of us each time we listen. These songs are personal and universal. The layers of meaning are only matched by the layers of music. Finally, we began speaking with Eric Herman, A&R for ONErpm. Eric is amazing and ONErpm made us the right deal. Ben, who is typically highly scrutinizing of record labels who seek to ‘exploit us,’ was very kind and warm to Eric. Eric was the right guy and ONErpm was the right partner. We agreed as a band to go into business with these folks and release this album. But, before we could sign the contract, Ben wound up in the hospital as his liver was failing. This hit us like a brick. No one saw it coming, least of all Ben. His health rapidly declined and eventually he was on hospice care at home. It was October 25, 2024. Ben lied in bed. He was surrounded by his band, his friends, his family, and loved ones during these moments. Piano, violin, guitar, and saxophone played melancholy music a room away from where Ben laid. Time slipped through our fingers too quickly because within minutes he passed away. ONErpm and Ezra Bell changed the agreement, which was initially a two-album deal, to a one album deal. They have been very supportive throughout this process. And now, on October 24, 2025, to commemorate the death of our dear collaborator and to honor his legacy, we are releasing this album we have toiled over for years.”
Ezra Bell teased the new collection in the summer of 2024 with the single “tommy’s lullaby,” released just weeks before Ben’s passing. PRESS HERE to watch the official music video for “tommy’s lullaby.” They followed that with “let me in” earlier this year, which sums up the living contradiction that is the life of a man and the fate of a band, with lyrics that reflect Ben’s turn toward guarded optimism in the last years of his life. Recent single “cannonball wingman” captures a day in the life of someone spinning stories that may or may not be true. The gangster tale reflects Ben’s beginnings in the hip-hop world with that genre’s internal rhymes and syncopations finding their way, subversively or not, into his lyrics, while channeling Ezra Bell’s signature mix of raucous Americana, folk, and indie grit. PRESS HERE to watch the official music video for “cannonball wingman” featuring live footage. New focus track “it looks like love” echoes the theme of an unfulfilled love story and failed relationships. Full track listing for Chin Chin below.
The eight-member “folkestra” – Ben Wuamett (lead vocals), Aaron Mattison (horns, backing vocals), Elizabeth Anderson (violin and strings, backing vocals), Tommy Mortensen (bass, tap dancing, backing vocals), Jonathan Myers (drums and percussion), Jeremy Asay (pianos and organs, backing vocals), David Asay (guitars and banjo), Maurice Spencer (guitars, backing vocals) – first formed in Portland, Oregon in 2013, before later relocating to Salt Lake City. Ezra Bell has since released a gusher of albums and EPs, generated tens of millions of streams, built up over a hundred thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, and played and sung its way into the hearts of countless loyal fans all over the US and beyond. While a Super Bowl commercial in 2015 featuring Ezra Bell’s cover of the Sam Cooke hit “Wonderful World” pushed them further into the limelight, organic growth has always been the main fuel for the collective’s journey. So much of that centers on the songs, with Ben’s distinctive keening, scratchy vocals delivering his often dark lyrics with a heart-on-sleeve honesty that fans find empathetic and even, according to some, lifesaving. Ezra Bell’s gritty, homegrown, eclectic approach to instrumentation and arrangements has also been part of its DNA from the start.
Chin Chin Track Listing
1. ghost
2. brave men
3. tommy’s lullaby
4. cowards
5. cannonball wingman
6. let me in
7. picnic
8. dada
9. it looks like love
10. try again
11. magical pill
