Night Tides is a journey through what for me was the tumultuous year of 2024. Raucous, noisy, weird, scary, and heartbreaking times make for art that reflects those emotions.
The idea for Night Tides came about half-way through the process of making it. We artists like to create with intention but that’s not always the case.
As I was finishing my previous album Fata Morgana I lost my eldest brother to cancer. This pretty much destroyed me but one way I held off the grief was focusing on the work and getting Fata Morgana out the door. Once I ran out of that source of distraction, it all came crashing down and I was completely empty. My creative well was dry and my will to make music was pretty much gone.
I spent the first few months of 2024 collecting field recordings and trying out various experiments in sound design in an attempt to keep something going. I had to stay busy and engaged on some level even if what I was doing wasn’t composing per se.
What came from those experiments was a lot of stream of consciousness screaming into the void. In terms of art, it was probably some of the most raw and authentic material I’ve produced. It was not something anyone, including me, would want to listen to but creating it was cathartic.
By May 2024, I realized I had something to work with in spite of myself. My edges were less jagged and I was able to start engaging with my work again. As I told one of my first listeners, I had created a batch of pig iron I could use to forge something I would be willing to share. In the months that followed, Night Tides and I went on a journey together. Noise became music, music became compositions, compositions became the album you hear today.
Grief is a journey. That journey is surreal, it’s crushing, and it leaves us with feelings of dread, loneliness, and loss. Thanks to my family, my friends, and the creative community I’m blessed to be a part of, I was able to travel that road without falling by the wayside. By the end of our journey together, Night Tides had become the sound track to a surreal horror film that doesn’t exist, a film less fictional than it would seem on the surface, the soundtrack to a journey I would wish on no one but ultimately we will all have to travel at one time or another. For my part, Night Tides was the gift that helped me grow as an composer, navigate these times, and find my artist self again. I’m incredibly proud of this album, I give it to you now and I hope it gives you… probably not solace, it’s too raw for that. If nothing else, I hope it reminds you that you are not alone on a journey like this.
‘Night Tides’ will be released on March 21st, 2025. You can listen to the whole thing right here:
or stream it on Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.
If you want to throw me some support, there’s always Bandcamp (believe me, I’d appreciate the support).
John M Davis 