Former Toddlers frontman Nathan Toben will release 1, the first music from his new project Weller on July 1st. Engineered and co-produced by Wesley Wolfe, the album features 13 tracks of spirited indie rock inspired by the four elements.
“Weller is a music project rather than a live band, so I am putting the attention I would be putting in to a release show in to having the online release be pretty focused and fun,” writes Toben from the road where he’s been on a guerilla spree. The flyers he’s plastered from Asheville to Raleigh ask “What is Weller?” in hopes that the secrecy and anticipation will help drive interest.
Toben found his musical inspiration while reading T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. “[In those poems,] he uses the different elements—wind, water, fire and earth—and tries to fashion the phonetics of his words to the sounds of those elements,” explains Toben, “I really liked that idea because when it came time to write say the synth part for a song, I could ask myself, ‘what part is this on the album? Oh, that’s wind, so I’m just going to make a synth sound like it has a little more white noise to it.’”
The album, along with making-of materials, photos, demo tracks and collaborator links, will go live at midnight on the 1st. Fans interested in a hard copy can pre-order the album or pick up a copy in local record stores. In the meantime, you can stream a couple of the tracks below.
