Golden Vessel’s highly anticipated debut LP ‘SLOWSHINE’ has finally arrived and it boasts a stellar cast of guest artists including DUCKWRTH, E^ST, Woodes, The Nicholas and Emerson Leif, who all compliment Golden Vessel’s signature production style of textured, intelligent beat-making and catchy lo-fi pop.
From the onset, the 10-track record plays with the ease and familiarity of a loungeroom party with some of your closest mates.
On the creation of SLOWSHINE, Golden Vessel, aka Maxwell Byrne, says it was in the works for around 12 months and produced mostly in his bedroom. He shared that he would open each song that was a contender for the album nearly every day during this time and either dance to it or continue to work on it. As a prolific songwriter and a lover of collaboration, it made sense that his debut album be made with all his friends and fellow artists and centre around the theme of friendship and relationships. A lot of the songs on the album came from experimenting and capturing an idea quickly during a session, then taking it home and tinkering with it for months.
“I’d spend most days trying to piece together different synths and vocals until it worked. I really loved the idea of having multiple voices inputting their own experiences and stories into a broader song topic and got to explore this with a lot of the songs; BIGBRIGHT being the lead example of this having myself + 3 others (Elkkle, E^ST & DUCKWRTH) all bringing our individual styles under one song.” – Golden Vessel
On the album’s focus track ‘TONIGHT’ featuring Sydney rap duo Cult Shotta, Maxwell reveals; “TONIGHT is about feeling introverted and anti-social but still trying to make an effort to go out and see people.” It’s also the last song he wrote for the album, but it was one of those songs that came together really quickly and easily earned it place within the collection.
TONIGHT is the fifth single on the record after teasing with singles ‘BIGBRIGHT (feat. Elkkle, E^ST & DUCKWRTH)’, ‘MOONSTONE (feat. Elkkle & Akurei)’, ‘DIZZY (ft. Oscar Key Sung)’ and ‘HIGHWAY (feat. Emerson Leif)’ over the last 6 months.
It was important to Golden Vessel that he create a strong visual identity for the album artwork and videos, so he called upon friends Sean Pyke, Lola Irwanto, Kate Halling, Harry Deadman and Matthew Howard throughout the process to help bring his aesthetic ideas to life.
“We played a lot with reflective fabrics and materials and used a lot of film. It was a lot of fun to collaborate with really talented friends I respected as closely on the visual side as much as I collaborate on the music side.” – Golden Vessel
SLOWSHINE is out Friday 17 May via Ultra Music and Exist. Recordings, and North American fans can catch Golden Vessel around the country throughout July as he embarks on a 21-date SLOWSHINE album tour – GET YOUR TICKETS HERE
Artist Connect:
https://www.instagram.com/goldenvessel | https://soundcloud.com/golden-vessel
https://www.facebook.com/goldenvesselau | https://twitter.com/goldenvesselau
Credits:
Production by Max Byrne
Mixing by Tristan Hoogland
Mastering by Matthew Agoglia
Artwork by Sean Pyke & Max Byrne
Press Photos by Sean Pyke
Artwork:
