On, “Over The Midnight”, Johnathan Wilson says, “I wanted to write a song about a sacred place for lovers to exist and I named that destination, process, mood or feeling ‘Over the Midnight’. It’s a place where nothing is savage.” In one of Wilson’s favorite lines on the album he sings, “This world it is burning, but don’t it feel incredible?/ Whisper in my ear and tell me what you see in the flames.”

North Carolina native Wilson had a busy 2017, producing Father John Misty’s Grammy nominated Pure Comedy and touring arenas around the globe as a guitarist and vocalist for Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters (for whom he also contributed to the Grammy nominated Is This The Life We Really Want? album). Wilson wrap up this year with a short run of shows in Los Angeles in December; performing three consecutive nights – billed as ‘Jonathan Wilson with Band, Friends and Strings’ at The Moroccan in Los Angeles, CA on December 21, 22 and 23. These shows are now sold out with a handful of tickets for press available on request. A newly announced headline tour for March and April includes stops in Chicago, New York, DC, Philly and Boston before heading to Europe.

Although much of the album is comprised lyrically of meditations on a failed relationship and its aftermath, Wilson insists that Rare Birds is not really a concept album. “It’s meant more as a healing affair, a rejuvenation, a reconciliation, for others, and for me. I wanted to balance personal narrative with the need I feel for calming, healing music. I think we need journeys in sound, psychedelic gossamer-winged music, to incite hope, positivity, longing, reckless abandon and regret. It’s all in there.”

“The Neil Young, CSN, Dennis Wilson and Tom Petty comparisons for the first two records were flattering, but I didn’t ever really see it that way myself”, he explains. More genuinely influenced by such disparate artists as Talk Talk, Arthur Russell and a ‘Sleigh Bells-meet-George Harrison kinda thing’, Wilson has made a “maximalist,” high density album more influenced by 80s British production more than anything to do with Southern California in 1970s. It’s a dynamic new approach for Wilson that calls to mind one of Peter Gabriel’s early solo albums or even mid-period Kate Bush. “This album is a hell of a lot more Trevor Horn than anything, you know, Laurel Canyon-related,” he muses. Recorded during the same timeframe he was in the studio with Roger Waters, working on Is This The Life We Really Want?, Wilson felt inclined to expand into certain psychedelic and sound labyrinths. There are voices, sirens, children playing, and more enhancing spatial sounds, while musical compadres Lana Del Rey and Josh Tillman (Father John Misty) appear as backing vocalists on “Living With Myself” and “49 Hairflips”, respectively.

Says Tillman, “Jonathan’s talent – “mastery” may be more apt – places him among a rarefied class of musical auteur. You’d be hard pressed to find a comparison, or contemporary for that matter, that would do his recent work justice.”

Jonathan Wilson
Rare Birds
Tracklist

1. Trafalgar Square ^
2. Me
3. Over The Midnight
4. There’s A Light ^
5. Sunset Boulevard
6. Rarebirds ^
7. 49 Hair Flips *
8. Miriam Montague
9. Loving You +
10. Living With Myself #
11. Hard To Get Over
12. Hi Ho The Righteous
13. Mulholland Queen

^ backing vocals by Lucius
* backing vocals by Josh Tillman/Father John Misty
+ backing vocals by Laraaji
# backing vocals by Lana Del Rey

Jonathan Wilson dates

12-21 Los Angeles, CA – Moroccan Lounge *SOLD OUT*
12-22 Los Angeles, CA – Moroccan Lounge *SOLD OUT*
12-23 Los Angeles, CA – Moroccan Lounge *SOLD OUT*
03-02 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
03-03 Detroit, MI – Third Man
03-05 Toronto, ON – The Great Hall
03-07 New York, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
03-08 Washington, DC – Rock and Roll Hotel
03-09 Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
03-10 Boston, MA – The Sinclair
03-14 Glasgow, UK – Oran Mor
03-15 Dublin, IE – Whelans
03-16 Leeds, UK – Burdened Social Club
03-17 Brighton, UK – Concorde 2
03-19 London, UK – Omeara
03-20 London, UK – Omeara
03-21 Paris, FR – Point Ephémère
03-24 Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
03-25 Brussels, BE – AB Club
03-27 Cologne, DE – Stadtgarten
03-28 Berlin, DE – Privatclub
03-29 Hamburg, DE – Nochtspicher
03-31 Copenhagen, DK – Little Vega Hall
04-01 Stockholm, SWE – Bryggarsalen
04-03 Oslo, NO – Parkteatret

Rare Birds was produced by Jonathan Wilson and engineered by Dave Cerminara at Wilson’s own Fivestarstudios in Echo Park, Los Angeles.