Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, Jason Anthony Harris, returns as Public Speaking, following up from the excellent 2023 long-player, An Apple Lodged in My Back.
New single, Lapse, is the lead track from Public Speaking’s forthcoming as-of-yet untitled LP, set for release in November via Already Dead, and ahead of tomorrow’s release, exclusive to Sun 13, be the first to listen to Lapse below.
Featuring Johnny Butler on baritone saxophone, with shards of noise pushing against Harris’ melodic croons, Lapse is a mediation on dementia and aging. The disease, affecting Harris’ family, following the death of his maternal grandmother, his grandfather slid further and further into dementia while his mother struggled to care for him.
Speaking of the track Harris comments:
“The last time I visited my grandfather before he passed, he was unrecognizable, gaunt and frail,” says Harris. “For a man who was always so full of life and energy, it was absolutely heartbreaking to witness. He looked at me and said, ‘It’s like being… It’s like being…’ I was devastated by this sloppy erasure of his mind – of his selfhood, and by his impossible struggle to express himself. As we age, we inevitably change and we lose parts of our abilities. This song is about mourning. It’s about the connection we have with each other and our shared histories. All of it is vulnerable. All of it is impermanent. And yet, we keep going.”
Having grown up in a trailer in central Florida, then moving to New York City in 2004, Harris began performing as Public Speaking in 2012, embarking on countless solo tours across the United States, while releasing albums on Already Dead, Fabrica Records, Tape Drift, and Floordoor Records.
Lapse is out tomorrrow via Already Dead. Purchase from Bandcamp.
