Los Angeles-based, Canadian-born composer, producer, songwriter, and singer Casey MQ releases his new album Later that day, the day before, or the day before that via Ghostly International. With the new album he questions what is true entirely, understanding our mind’s tendency to bend and project onto pictures of the past. Across vivid pop balladry, Casey MQ reorients his recording project and point of view under the notion that memories are malleable. Last night Casey performed his album in full for the first time alongside a string quartet with Daniel Aged on guitar at Brain Dead Studios.
Later that day, the day before, or the day before that includes the focus track “Asleep At The Wheel” along with the previously shared singles “Grey Gardens,” which arrived with a video conceptualized and animated by Saradibiza and was highlighted in Richard Brody’s column in The New Yorker for its “fantastical, Proustian imagery.” The album also includes “Me, I Think I Found It” and “The Make Believe” featuring Oklou, which arrived with an ethereal video directed by Gaadjika and that PAPER Magazine described as “gorgeous, fluttering.”
1. Grey Gardens
2. Asleep At The Wheel
4. Dying ‘Til I’m Born
5. Is This Only Water
6. See You Later
7. Baby Voice
8. Words For Love
9. Tennisman9
10. The Make Believe (feat. Oklou)
Later that day, the day before, or the day before that came about as Casey MQ spiraled into unconscious and subconscious-led writing sessions at the piano. “It’s a memory album,” Casey puts it simply, winding up for the deeper unpacking, “and it might be a breakup album, too…there are more questions than answers.” Engaging his dreams and sitting with sheet music at his newly acquired piano, he looked to new and old inspirations including the works of Claude Debussy, Joni Mitchell, and Joe Hisaishi’s beloved Studio Ghibli film scores. “Since I was young, I always wanted to write a piano album.”
On Later that day…, Casey combines his electronica expertise with his love for piano compositions to create an atmosphere, giving Casey’s more spacious, minimal arrangements a distinct luster and sheen. The textures and tones shift from song to song as if mirroring the way our minds constantly recontextualize, remember, and forget. All the joy, pain, love, and loss housed within remembrance is open to interpretation and deconstruction, which he does deftly, with curiosity and complete artistic freedom.
Casey is known for his 2020 breakthrough album babycasey, which gave voice to songs seen through the lens of childhood, various film score work and collaborations with artists such as Oklou (who returns here), Eartheater, and Vagabon. His gifts as a producer and songwriter are rooted in textural world-building and the excavation of personal truth. babycasey includes the popular songs “Candyboy” and “Walls Could Talk.” Last year, Casey also teamed up with Cecile Believe for the track “I Got a Bike.”
Later that day, the day before, or the day before that https://lnk.to/casey-mq-laterthatday
Photo credit – Jason Al-Taan