Sauna today share “Get Strange” from their debut album Dose Yourself which is out this Friday, May 27th. The band are set to launch the album at a special release show at The Monarch Tavern in Toronto this Saturday May 28th. They will also be playing Lawnya Vawnya Festival this June and Hillside in July. Pre-save Dose Yourself now.
Watch/Share: Sauna “Get Strange” (Visualizer)
Sauna comprises Michael le Riche (Fake Palms), Zach Bines (Weaves) and Braeden Craig (Greys). A roster of the trio’s Toronto contemporaries guest on the record, including James Baley who stars on the classic Madonna pop ecstasy of “Get Strange,” led by dramatic piano chording and dreamy synth melody lines, while a palm muted guitar lead lurks alongside.
Speaking on the upcoming release of Dose Yourself, Michael le Riche says, “I'm excited to finally release this record. It was such a different process than anything we've ever done before. We tried new things, experimenting with different sounds and genres and filtering them through what we thought Sauna was capable of. It captures a very specific moment in time, and it's a record that wouldn't be made now. We're different people than who we were when writing this record. But it's a snapshot of who we were for a brief, roughly two year period where nothing was off the table. It was an exciting process working with Chris Sandes at Palace Sounds, having such a great ear for ideas and being open to every whim we had. It wouldn't have been the same without him. I loved making this record and I hope people take it in as a whole.”
Dose Yourself takes its title from a trip to the woods. At the time that guitarist and singer Michael le Riche went to a rented cabin with friends, he was at a personal low point, which kept him locked in a state of uncertainty. When his friends decided to trip, le Riche hesitated. A friend stepped in and said bluntly, “Do it or don’t.”
Those four words took root and bloomed into a new ethic that throbs and courses through the record, wound around their motorik new wave, modern disco, bright-eyed post-punk, and peppy retro synth-rock. It’s a far-cry from the asymmetrical post-punk churn of le Riche’s band Fake Palms; ditto drummer Braeden Craig’s driving, noisy punk with Greys, and bassist Zach Bines’ work with Toronto alt-darling Weaves.
Le Riche, Craig, and Bines recorded with Christopher Sandes at his west end Toronto studio Palace Sound. Sandes produced, mixed, and engineered the record, and guests on the record include James Baley, Luke Lalonde (Born Ruffians), Carlyn Bezic (Jane Inc., US Girls), and saxophonist Karen Ng (Andy Shauf).
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