Premiere: Seattle's Watch Clark channels Martin Gore on 'Choose', teasing new 'Couch' LP

Ahead of Friday’s release date for ‘Couch’, the third full-length album from electronic artist Watch Clark. Here mastermind Paul Furio presents 12 original tracks, which were written between September 2017 to July 2019. The mix of piano and vocals with such melodicism is somewhat reminiscent of Depeche Mode royalty Martin Gore, while the overall feel is closer to Camouflage and some of Wayne Hussey’s solo work. The backing instrumentation is very cleverly arranged from the string orchestration to minimalistic synths and even cymbals. This new offering from Watch Clark is both haunting and deserved of a hundred enjoyable repeats.

This album was produced, mixed and mastered by friend and fellow Seattle-based musician Kasson Crooker (Freezepop, Symbion Project, ELYXR), whose work we have been following for several years now. Here Watch Clark demonstrates his love for artists such as Depeche Mode, OMD, Erasure, De/Vision, Cut Copy and Digitalism.

Watch Clark is the solo musical project of Paul Furio, who serves us a delectible menu comprised of retro 90’s-style mesh of industrial and new wave electronica. Founded in 2012, Watch Clark‘s sound is kin to that of the heyday of the Seattle indie goth/industrial scene of the early 2000’s. Formerly of Static Engine and Invisible Records artist SMP, Furio honed his music writing craft for two decades before releasing the first Watch Clark album ‘Perfect Imitation’, followed by the ‘First Week of Winter’ LP in 2017.

Focused on crafting songs that are danceable, political, relatable, and harshly honest, Furio tells a story with every Watch Clark album, although one whose context changes based on the perception of the listener. Furio lives and records music in Seattle, WA.

“Couch is a reflection on relationship, political, and life turmoil. I went through a series of dramatic changes while working on this album, from ending a long term relationship, to ending a career, and dealing with a political environment that seems to be spiraling into an authoritarian nightmare based on lies and deceit. Even the best moments of the past few years were fraught with self-reflection, captured most solidly in ‘The Act of Wanting’: Is there ever a limit to what will make us happy, or will we always be looking for something new, something more?” says Paul Furio.

“I was super excited to work with Lark Remy on the track ‘Weakness’. She has this amazingly expressive voice, and I’m so happy that we could work together on this song about longing and regret, that was written specifically for her as a co-collaborator. The final album also owes a lot to Kasson Crooker, who mixed and produced our previous album as well. Kasson has amazing talent and really brought the songs across the finish line with little tweaks that added so much polish and kept everything interesting.”

Watch Clark delivers an album that is cleverly layered in pronounced modular synthesizers and a heavy melodic aesthetic between light and darkness. This is a melodic kaleidoscope that sounds fresh while echoing classic synthpop artists such as Depeche Mode, not surprising considering that these British pioneers number among their main creative influences, along with Nine Inch Nails and Duran Duran.

As of September 6, ‘Couch’ is available via online stores and streaming platforms such as Spotify, as well as Bandcamp at https://watchclark.bandcamp.com/album/couch.

While you are here, why not also catch two other tracks newly uploaded to Soundcloud.

CREDITS
Published by VTwin Media
All lyrics and composition performed at Studio Corvus, Seattle, WA
Weakness features additional vocals by Lark Remy
Vocals were recorded at Moscozzi Studio, with Adam Burd as co-engineer
Production, Mixdown, and Mastering by Kasson Crooker
Graphic design and illustration for Couch by Paul Furio

TECH DETAILS: ‘Couch’ was composed using an Apple iMac, Propellerheads Reason 10, Adobe Audition, MOTU 1248 and 16A audio interfaces, MOTU Microlite MIDI interface, Nektar Panorama P6 controller, DSI OB-6 analog synthesizer, Behringer Neutron semi-modular synthesizer, Moog Mother-32 semi-modular synthesizers (x2), Lexicon MX300 effects, Epiphone Les Paul Standard Pro Guitar, R0DE NT-1 microphone, Shure 55SH microphone, Alesis Samplepad Pro drum pads, Alesis RA-100 amplifier, Alesis Monitor One studio monitors, and Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones.

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