Buck Meek has signed to 4AD and announced his new album, Haunted Mountain, The Big Thief guitarist’s debut solo effort for the prestigious label drops on August 25th. along with the news, Meek has shared a video for the lead single and title track. The song was co-written alongside his friend and longtime hero Jolie Holland. Following his beloved 2021 album, Two Saviors, Haunted Mountain marks Meek’s third solo album and first for his new label-home. Haunted Mountain is about love and… something other. Something bigger than love, something that doesn’t challenge love exactly but stands in contrast to it. A soulfulness, or a soul-seeking fullness. Meek says that love songs are the hardest to write. “Not break-up songs, but an actual love song written in earnest? That is taboo now,” he says. “Sometimes it can feel like all the great love songs have already been written.”

Lead single “Haunted Mountain” is anchored by sweet lyrics penned by Meek and Holland, who is also from Texas and shares co-writing credits on five of Haunted Mountain’s 11 songs. The first two verses and chorus of “Haunted Mountain” were written by Holland as a love song to Mount Shasta in northern California, with the final verse written by Meek, together seeking reciprocity with nature. “It’s about being humbled by the thing you’re drawing power from only at which point an actual, fair relationship begins,” he says. Propelled by the pristine chemistry of his band, “Haunted Mountain” is presented alongside a Riley Engemoen-directed video that captures the group’s in-studio magic.

560 miles from Meek’s hometown of Wimberly, TX, the Franklin Mountains — or more reverently named, Sierras de los Mansos — rise over the tops of the endless acres of pecan trees that surround Sonic Ranch in the border town of Tornillo, where Haunted Mountain was recorded. The songs were written in mountains: by cold springs in the Serra da Estrela of Portugal, on the submerged volcano of Milos in the Cyclades, Valle Onsernone in the Swiss Alps (where Haunted Mountain’s cover photo was taken), and the Santa Monica range where Buck now calls home — all where his new love was born.

Since Buck’s self-titled full-length album, his band has remained consistent — Adam Brisbin (guitar), Austin Vaughn (drums), and Mat Davidson (pedal steel, bass on Buck Meek and Two Saviors). In the year or so leading up to recording Haunted Mountain, they were joined by Ken Woodward (bass) as well as Meek’s brother, Dylan Meek, who joined them for the session on piano and synths. Produced by the band’s own Davidson, Haunted Mountain was recorded and mixed in two weeks by Adrian Olsen, who also performed the sound manipulation via modular synthesizer that can be heard throughout the album.

Buck Meek
Haunted Mountain
Tracklist
4AD

1. Mood Ring
2. Haunted Mountain
3. Paradise
4. Cyclades
5. Secret Side
6. Didn’t Know You Then
7. Undae Dunes
8. Where You’re Coming From
9. Lullabies
10. Lagrimas
11. The Rainbow

Pre-order Haunted Mountain by Buck Meek HERE