Human Potential is the brainchild of Andrew Becker, the award-winning filmmaker and drummer for Dischord Records stalwarts, Medication as well as Brooklyn outfit, Screens.
Since 2014, the Los Angeles-based Becker has flown under the radar, doing what he does best: making art and, in this case, through the lens of Human Potential.
There’s a wicked croonability to Becker’s musical endeavours, and it’s all in a good way. Think Grizzly Bear through the psychedelic horrors of acid after someone spiked the fruit punch. And with five albums to boot after last year’s Hoosi, No!, tomorrow Becker will make it six with the aptly titled I Write Wedding Songs. And what a wedding it would be (spiked fruit punch included!)
Today, Becker unveils the last taster from I Write Wedding Songs, with A Witch for Charlemagne. One of the many examples on I Write Wedding Songs that sees Becker moving the project forward to exciting new places, exclusive to Sun 13, be the first to listen to A Witch for Charlemagne below.
Speaking of the track, Becker comments:
“The slow crescendo sections of this song was an idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a long time… maybe 15 years,” says Becker. “For some reason, I always imagined David Thomas from Pere Ubu singing over them. So, in an attempt to solicit his participation, I undertook a completely unnecessary and financially untenable, conceptual communication project during which I travelled to Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Shanghai and Cloudland Canyon and filmed myself covering Caligari’s Mirror at each Ubu referencing location, wearing only a poet blouse and a sarong, while accompanied by local musicians of varying caliber.”
Becker continues.
“Ultimately, I sent the performances to what I thought was David Thomas. However, the email address I had turned out to be David Thomas, a JV volleyball coach at a rural Missouri high school and head of the local Rotary Club. Nonetheless, he was intrigued by the project and offered to sing on A Witch for Charlemagne, having sung in a cover band in junior college that often-performed Ubu classic, All the Dogs are Barking. So, I let him. Funny how things work out.”
I Write Wedding Songs is out tomorrow via What Delicate Recordings. Purchase from Bandcamp.
