For Immediate Release:
August 23, 2024
AMERICANA-INFORMED AVANT POP PERSONA GEORGE STEEL
ANNOUNCES DEBUT RECORD DESIRE ON THE RANGE
DUE OCTOBER 4, 2024
NEW SINGLE “NOT A COWBOY” ESTABLISHES
MYTHOLOGY OF THE CHARACTER - LISTEN
ARRIVES WITH OFFICIAL UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL DIY VIDEO
FEATURING A BEAU TRAVAIL REFERENCE
AND A NEVER-ENDING CIGARETTE - WATCH
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Photo credit: Blake Nelson [Download Hi-Res] | |
Today, Brooklyn-based artist Michael Quint enters from the shadows, arriving as George Steel, the Americana-enriched persona with a dash of theater and a heaping cup of truthful passion. Out now is “Not a Cowboy,” the debut single and DIY music video from George Steel’s debut album Desire on the Range, due for release on Friday, October 4, 2024. The track hears Steel show off his smooth, resounding vocals while embracing the confidence of an avant-pop auteur with lyrical absurdities. The track is one of ten from the soon-to-be-released record, which is produced by main collaborator Ernesto Grey and features the work of over 20 musicians from Austin, TX (including members of Font, Lady Dan, and Loveme). The record presents Steel discovering hidden ecstasy in the follies of Americana and an honesty grown from life lessons and travels of identity, sure to be previewed in today’s single.
“'Not a Cowboy' investigates how we choose to wear certain myths,” says vocalist Michael Quint. “It is also (and primarily) a song to dance to. The chorus came from the voice that became George Steel's voice, before I really knew who he was, and so it makes sense that lyrically in 'Not a Cowboy,' George choses to define himself by what he is not. The song spends most of its time in repetition, because it is good to dance in the negative space of who George is not, leaving room for the possibility of who we can be."
Ernesto Grey, who produced the track, says “The lyrical content heavily influenced the production style on ‘Not a Cowboy.’ You encounter the absurd on the first downbeat, but by the end of the track we subvert that absurdity, pushing it into repetition and 80's pastiche. This movement from one point to the other, sits at the core of the song."
LISTEN TO “NOT A COWBOY”
WATCH THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO FOR “NOT A COWBOY”
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BTS from the “Not A Cowboy” music video [Download Hi-Res]
Also premiering today, the music video for “Not a Cowboy” was filmed in the streets of New York City with director Blake Nelson. “I wanted a camera strapped to his chest. I wanted DIY sloppy and in the world. I wanted Beau Travail sweat. That’s what we got,” says Nelson. The video obviously starred George Steel himself, in which he donned a black leather coat and shades while holding a never-ending cigarette and beer in his steel hands. The viewer is in the hands of Steel, as the camera moves with him through subway cars, bodegas, storefronts and the New York City streets. The combination of Steel’s dead-pan expressions and Beau Travail referential dance moves showcases a meld between the sincerity of his lyrics and the playful nature of the character explored in the track.
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BTS from the “Not A Cowboy” music video [Download Hi-Res]
While discovering his voice as George Steel, Quint reached out to producer Ernesto Grey, who, intrigued by Quint’s new ideas, invited him to begin recording in Austin, Texas. In early 2023, with the help of more than 20 different Austin musicians, Quint and Grey began to shape the backstory of George Steel, making it an important part of his voice and sonic landscape. Inspired by the singing style of Scott Walker and the theatrics of Orville Peck, Quint and Grey rooted Steel’s avant-pop sound in traditional folk and Americana storytelling. Steel became a rugged folk-singer turned American rock star, whose career is set to begin in the heart of New York City. Quint, who resides in Brooklyn, New York, transforms himself on stage, bringing George Steel to life with intense and earnest performances.
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“Not A Cowboy” single artwork [Download Hi-Res]
With the release of “Not a Cowboy,” Quint and his band: pianist and arranger Nico Fennel, cellist Evan Rycebusch, guitarist Jack Rush Kelly, basisst Alex Kan, drummer Seamus Holland, and vocalist Frances Hoggard, are able to actualize the character of George Steel and establish themselves as a live band. Now they continue to prepare for the release of Desire on the Range, with many more character-driven performances to come. For information on George Steel's upcoming performance, see below.
GEORGE STEEL LIVE
September
19 - Cassettes - Ridgewood, NY
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GEORGE STEEL
DESIRE ON THE RANGE
Release date: October 4, 2024
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Desire On The Range artwork [Download Hi-Res]
1. The Next Great American President
2. Pleasure Is The Place
3. Not a Cowboy
4. Wrong (feat. Lady Dan)
5. Times Square Nuclear Zone
6. Sunday Service
7. Tease The Horse
8. Not A Saint
9. Irene
10. The Range
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George Steel started as a voice. While working on a nondescript pop song with a friend, an improvised bass riff gave way to a style of singing Michael Quint had never explored before. The voice had a weight and depth, a theatrical heft, that birthed the persona of George Steel. Quint entered into a contentious relationship with Steel, attempting to figure out who he was and what he had to say. To facilitate the process Quint reached out to Ernesto Grey, a producer he had previously worked with in Austin, Texas. During a phone call outside of a Blink Fitness, a raucous Quint explained his vision of George Steel to Grey, and Grey, willing to entertain him, invited Quint to fly out and record. In early 2023 Quint and Grey began to establish a new sonic world that built character-based avant-pop out of folk and Americana roots. The duo took inspiration from the richness of Scott Walker’s voice and the theatricality of Orville Peck and Walt Disco, while drawing from (and subverting) the sonic and lyrical absurdities of Kirin J. Callinan and Father John Misty.
With the help of over 20 musicians from Austin (including members of Font, Lady Dan, and Loveme) George Steel’s debut album, Desire on the Range, became real. Steel’s life took shape—a snake-oil selling American rock star, a mythic man born outside of a Gun Barrel City strip mall— Steel is a totemic purveyor of music to die joyfully to. Starting his career as a run-of-the-mill folk singer, divine punishment for his hubris left Steel with hands of steel. Now less than human, Steel sings with an unmatched conviction about love in a world collapsing under its own exuberance.
The space between Steel and Quint allows for earnestness, and Grey’s experimental and open production plays with this. These are songs that find ecstasy in the follies of Americana: the wild pop anthem “Pleasure is the Place" gives us a glamorous Steel desperately wishing that Pleasure could cure us all, and on the country song “Wrong” Tyler Dozier of Lady Dan points to a falseness in Steel’s heart. “Sunday Service,” an aggressive pop track, exposes and explores the dark sides of Steel’s ego. “Irene” a Black Country New Road inspired ballad, has Steel singing to Saint Irene about his confused memories of once being her, and his desire to go back and heal Saint Sebastian, whom she is fated to save. It’s a gleefully diverse sonic portfolio, held together by Grey’s production and Quint’s bold vocal style and lyrics.
Quint, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, brings the character’s tensions to the stage as he embodies Steel and delivers truthful, intense performances with his “backing band:” pianist and arranger Nico Fennel, cellist Evan Rycebusch, guitarist Jack Rush Kelly, bassist Alex Kan, drummer Seamus Holland, and vocalist Frances Hoggard. As they get ready for the release of Desire on the Range, Grey and Quint have enlisted Fennel (who has also produced for Quiet Light) to begin work on a self-titled sophomore album.
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