Ahead of the release of their album Before The Future, Rebecca Schiffman has shared new single, “The Mercenary.” The track was inspired by a book club assignment. On the the single, Schiffman shares: “A friend invited me to join a rare Los Angeles-occurrence of the Bushwick Book Club: a Brooklyn-based group where members not only read a book each month but write a song about it. The chosen book was Jonathan Ames’s novel, You Were Never Really Here.

I had already been performing the song solo for a while, and written that sitcom-like chorus guitar riff. The reggae feel was not introduced until the studio, I can’t remember exactly how it came about, but I would guess it was Luke and the rhythm section experimenting.

We started the recording by live tracking the band at Altamira Sound in Alhambra with Rob Shelton engineering. Luke Temple, producing, put on a beat on his triton synth for everyone to play along to – Kosta Galanopoulos on drums, Doug Stuart on bass, and Steve Marion on guitar – Steve played a certain melody with a certain guitar sound that I loved, it reminded me of Scritti Politti’s ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’ which is one of my all-time favorite albums.

This is my first time making one of my own music videos. It’s a collage of iPhone selfie footage of me singing, heavily cropped and edited scenes from the movie, and stock footage.”

For the album’s recording sessions, Schiffman invited Deerhoof’s Chris Cohen, Tim Carr (Perfume Genius, Hand Habits), SASAMI, and Luke Temple (Here We Go Magic) to collaborate with her as producers. She credits the demystifying and welcoming nature of these friends, and friends-of-friends, as a driving force in Before the Future’s sonic palette. The sound was shaped with help from LA-based players including Steve Marion (Delicate Steve); Gregory Uhlmann; Davin Givhan (Detangler); Oliver Hill (Kevin Morby, Sam Evian, Vagabon); Zac Sokolow; Joshua Crumbly; Sam KS (The War on Drugs, St. Vincent); Kosta Galanopoulos (Cassandra Jenkins); Doug Stuart (Luke Temple, Meerna); Clinton Patterson; Jay Israelson; and Emily Elkin (Damien Jurado, Angel Olsen). Mixed by Sean O’Brien (The National), Jarvis Taveniere (Woods) and Rob Shelton (Meerna, Shannon Lay), engineered by Kyle Thomas (King Tuff), Cohen, Carr, and Shelton, and mastered by Mike Nolte, Before the Future is a testament to community and receptivity.

Rebecca Schiffman
Before The Future
Tracklisting

1. Before the Future
2. Little Mr. Civility
3. Rudy’s Song
4. Bubble of Love
5. The Mercenary
6. Dear Gwennie
7. Guy Pascal Guy
8. Beach Vacation

pre-order Before The Future by Rebecca Schiffman HERE