We’re packed and ready to head to the west coast in the morning after a week back home. It’s been good to see friends old and new, and to get a snapshot of northern Europe before the volcano and the eastern US in a gloriously rainy spring. Along the way we’ve done plenty of horsing around and some sleepy morning radio sessions – here are some videos from one we liked, filmed around the time of South by Southwest for Radio K in Minneapolis, including a cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Mother of Violence” and a banjo-led “Landscape at Speed” from TGA. Bonus! Here’s some live footage from Mad Planet in Milwaukee in early April. Our friends at High Frequency captured “Hidden Lakes”.
We’re also in the middle of planning out the rest of the year, which will include a return trip to Europe (if the ash cloud ever clears) and, we hope, parts of the US we’ve missed this time around. I’ll leave you with this mysterious clip, from a reading of Thor’s book in Lawrence Kansas…a memorable moment, to be sure (JM).
Available for preorder now at your friendly local record shop, on your favorite internet music service, and/or at our Bandcamp page.
This week's been quite a ride; I'm reeling along with everyone else. Conversations with friends have ended mostly in tears or gallows humor. Or both.
But I couldn't help thinking about how every time we make an album, it seems to anticipate the future, in hindsight—Jet Plane and Oxbow, for example, was finished just before 2016, and we all know how that turned out.
And The Great Awakening, though it was written in 2019/2020, seems like a perfect match for the feelings I'm having right now, and maybe you are too: grand terrors, tempered by small (but profound) mercies. I wonder if it strikes anyone else this way—and if so, if it helps. (The full-album video is here: youtu.be/8eN3s7s9YBM?si=PLuIppLHMJ1jJhF3 )
It makes me wonder what the album taking shape right now will turn out to be. Here's hoping.
Hugs to all of ye.
JM
I am struggling to picture what another album could possibly harbinge. Maybe it’ll be the year aliens finally make first contact, descend from the heavens, take a look around and utter their equivalent of “fuck no” and leave again.
JM, your albums have always been a wonderful gift. Every Shearwater record is just so magnificent. Thank you bringing your talents and art into the world, to share with all of us ❤️
I completely forgot how so many songs on this album seemed “politically inspired”. 🤯Omg. Have we gone full circle? “Look kids, it’s Big Ben.”
I was literally just wondering, what does Jonathan Meiburg make of all this? Shearwater has been a voice of reason among calamity all too often. Love this album and always love your insight!
Just wanted to say psp psp to the kitty. And tell you how much Shearwater albums mean to me
Thank you. It’s been incredibly traumatic.
Writing, composing, creating…all of it is resistance
I love this album so so much! I’ve already told you that though… gonna give it a whole new listen tonight with current affairs in mind. Thank you Jonathan!
Congratulations on your new and timely creation. 🎼
If you're truly portending the future with your albums, you know what your mission is for the next one ❤️
who's the baby? 😃 she's a cutie! i watch cat videos whenever i can to help with this unease
I’ve been listening to a lot of music since Tuesday, to keep me from constantly doomscrolling and obsessing over something that I cannot change. Your music has meant so much to me over the years and I count it among my favorites when I need comfort or validation for my feelings. Thank you for reaching out to your fans and thank you for sharing in such an intimate way. It helps those of us who are struggling breathe a little easier. 🩷
Two amazing albums.
You are a gift to this world!❤️
I listened to this last night on a long drive home in the dark.
This album is a helping hand and a comfort. Thank you for your music and looking forward to the new record (and if there's a Shearwater Plays Lodger reissue on the horizon it'd be just super)🙂
This part right here: youtu.be/AtzevD109xk?t=99
Do you still have any of the vinyl available for the great awakening? I didn't get a copy yet.
I want to add my thanks to everyone else's. As a fellow bird aficionado, I'm not only concerned about our country and what this may mean for the world, but also for all of the world's animals and wild spaces. Keep making music, please. We need you.
Si nous estimons que l'avenir de l'Humanité et de la Planète est entre les mains de quelques dirigeants fous, alors cela peut effectivement être effrayant. Mais je ne le crois pas. Nous sommes tous et toutes les décideurs, les game-changers, chaque jour, dans nos actes, nos achats, notre lien et notre manière d'interagir avec bienveillance plutôt qu'avec de la colère. Nous sommes le changement et il y a des raisons d'espérer.
Get out of your lazy bed and come back to France !! 😂
Thought I'd jot down a few words about last Tuesdays's events. I have a general idea of who might be reading this, and I want to level with you for a bit. I know you're feeling sad right now. Sad and confused. How could this happen? It couldn't be that the average person cares more being able to afford groceries than they care about the opinions of Taylor Swift? It couldn't be that you knowingly, willingly, enthusiastically, put a feeble and very obviously senile man in charge of the free world and switched him out at the last second for a DEI hire after pretending he was at the top of his game for the past four years? It couldn't be that decent, well-intentioned Americans do not appreciate being called "bitter clingers", "deplorables", "garbage", "fascists" or "Nazis"? It couldn't be that when you chose to censor, cancel and deplatform us instead of refuting our arguments with arguments of your own (because, let's face it, deep down you knew you couldn't), we didn't just disappear into thin air? It couldn't be that your candidate ran on the message that Christians were "at the wrong rally", ethnic minorities should stay in line and vote as they're told, and that anyone supporting or so much as sympathizing with her opponent was a dangerous bigot? It couldn't be that people, across the political spectrum and from all walks of life, respect a person who gave up their billionaire lifestyle to be dragged through the mud for a decade, who got shot in the ear to defiantly raise his fist seconds later, and who, for all his faults and for everything one might disagree with him on, clearly has genuine love for the country he serves? It couldn't be that your vitriolic screeching about saving our democracy might sound the tiniest bit hollow when you have used the institutional power you were so foolishly entrusted with, not to improve the lives of the people who gave you the mandate to improve their lives, but to imprison your political opponents, to unashamedly wish them dead, to ruin their lives, to silence them, and to take away their means to defend themselves? Unfortunately, history dictates that you likely will not learn. That you will try to remove or report this comment for hate speech, or opt to respond to it angrily or dismissively in a vain attempt to cope with this loss. That you will spend the next four years doubling down on your vitriolic screeching. Somehow radicalizing further, if that's even possible. Tearing down what we build. Ungratefully resisting the policies that you too will undeservedly benefit from. We know. Hell, we know that in four, eight or twelve years, the tables might turn. That in the long term, a national divorce is the only peaceful solution. But for now, in this very moment, and over these next couple of days, weeks, months and years, there is something else we know. It is that we have the electoral college, the popular vote, every swing state, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. And Twitter, because why not. You, in this moment, have nothing but your own tears. And that feels pretty good, to tell you the truth! :D
My sub rosa 2024 speaking tour—which began ten days ago with several events in (actual) Iowa and one in (virtual) Scotland—concludes this Saturday in London, where I'll be speaking at 2PM at Kings College as part of the mad and marvelous TetZooCon. tetzoo.com/convention
It will surprise no one that the title of my talk is "Why the Caracaras Would Like to Meet You".
For avoidance of doubt: all of the above is 100% true. As is the below:
A week ago, I was reading some new work from the pulpit of a chapel in Grinnell, Iowa, and it hit me: I hadn't made sounds into a microphone in front of real live humans since “A Most Remarkable Creature” was published in 2021. Which was a very strange feeling. I've missed it.
I'd like to thank the very kind folks at Grinnell College—especially Hai-Dang Phan, his students, the Center for Prairie Studies, and the great Grinnell College Birding Club, for making a fella feel welcome out there in the wild wild midwest. And I look forward to finally meeting Darren Naish and his fellow travelers this weekend, and anyone else who cares to turn up. It's a good talk, and I'll take questions. You can ask me anything. (JM)
I loved your incredible book!
Thought I'd jot down a few words about last night's events. I have a general idea of who might be reading this, and I want to level with you for a bit. I know you're feeling sad right now. Sad and confused. How could this happen? It couldn't be that the average person cares more being able to afford groceries than they care about the opinions of Taylor Swift? It couldn't be that you knowingly, willingly, enthusiastically, put a feeble and very obviously senile man in charge of the free world and switched him out at the last second for a DEI hire after pretending he was at the top of his game for the past four years? It couldn't be that decent, well-intentioned Americans do not appreciate being called "bitter clingers", "deplorables", "garbage", "fascists" or "Nazis"? It couldn't be that when you chose to censor, cancel and deplatform us instead of refuting our arguments with arguments of your own (because, let's face it, deep down you knew you couldn't), we didn't just disappear into thin air? It couldn't be that your candidate ran on the message that Christians were "at the wrong rally", ethnic minorities should stay in line and vote as they're told, and that anyone supporting or so much as sympathizing with her opponent was a dangerous bigot? It couldn't be that people, across the political spectrum and from all walks of life, respect a person who gave up their billionaire lifestyle to be dragged through the mud for a decade, who got shot in the ear to defiantly raise his fist seconds later, and who, for all his faults and for everything one might disagree with him on, clearly has genuine love for the country he serves? It couldn't be that your vitriolic screeching about saving our democracy might sound the tiniest bit hollow when you have used the institutional power you were so foolishly entrusted with, not to improve the lives of the people who gave you the mandate to improve their lives, but to imprison your political opponents, to unashamedly wish them dead, to ruin their lives, to silence them, and to take away their means to defend themselves? Unfortunately, history dictates that you likely will not learn. That you will try to remove or report this comment for hate speech, or opt to respond to it angrily or dismissively in a vain attempt to cope with this loss. That you will spend the next four years doubling down on your vitriolic screeching. Somehow radicalizing further, if that's even possible. Tearing down what we build. Ungratefully resisting the policies that you too will undeservedly benefit from. We know. Hell, we know that in four, eight or twelve years, the tables might turn. That in the long term, a national divorce is the only peaceful solution. But for now, in this very moment, and over these next couple of days, weeks, months and years, there is something else we know. It is that we have the electoral college, the popular vote, every swing state, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. And Twitter, because why not. You, in this moment, have nothing but your own tears. And that feels pretty good, to tell you the truth! :D
Once in a while, the stars align. This week, the unique and excellent longform nonfiction platform Alexander (Alxr.com) published a new piece of mine called "Secret Gardens of the Deep Dark"—which will appear in a much-revised and expanded form in my upcoming book on the once and future life of Antarctica. The book is still a couple of years away, but this is what I'm up to these days when I'm not working on music.
I'm glad to have a small taste of the book out in the world—but the real treat, for me, was learning that Alexander managed to get Andrew Scott, (from Sherlock, Fleabag, All Of Us Strangers, The Talented Mr. Ripley, etc) to read the piece aloud.
Hearing his voice reading my words was a bit surreal, to say the least; I can now say with confidence that if you need your writing punched up, a deep-voiced Irish actor will infuse it with a lot more charm and intrigue than yet another revision.
And Alexander is a subscription-only site, but worth it; among the many excellent pieces in its archives is a mind-blowing and wonderful piece on dugongs by J.M. Ledgard (narrated by David Tennant).
www.alxr.com/series/secret-gardens-of-the-deep-dark
