Metal Bubble Trio Announce Debut Album 'Cucumber' For January
METAL BUBBLE TRIO ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM CUCUMBER FOR JANUARY 17, 2025 RELEASE
NEW PROJECT LED BY ANDREW DOST (FUN.) RELEASE TITLE-TRACK SINGLE TODAY
LISTEN + SHARE “CUCUMBER” VIA YOUTUBE
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New York, NY (October 22, 2024) - Songwriter Andrew Dost re-emerge last month with a new project, Metal Bubble Trio, sharing a debut single, “Universal Themes.” Today, Metal Bubble Trio announces its debut full-length album, Cucumber, for a January 17, 2025 release, sharing the title-track single - listen + share here. Metal Bubble Trio will be previewing Cucumber on a short run of dates next month, in Toledo, Grand Rapids and Traverse City, Michigan [details below].
Discussing the “Cucumber” single, Dost notes, "I knew the album would be called ‘Cucumber’ and that there would be a title track long before I knew what that meant. It just felt right - Cucumber. It kept percolating in my head, lyrics gradually formed, and I worked with Chris Hatfield to help bring it to life. The song kind of brings the themes of the album full-circle. It’s about the bits of information that get lost when people die, get divorced, or otherwise lose touch. The recipe only your grandma could make, that’s impossible to replicate. The breakfast spot you went to in Brooklyn that you don’t want to trouble an ex to ask about.
The key moment in conceptualizing the song was watching my mom cut the skin off cucumbers - I reminded her that there are lots of good nutrients in the skin, and said I leave them on. She said that’s just how her mother did it. I thought it was such a sweet, sad, vulnerable moment - making a salad as a means to feel close to someone who has passed. My mother remembering her mother, probably thinking of her every single day, and wishing they’d
had more time together. Plus, she said, sometimes the skins can be bitter. I’ll probably start cutting the skin off of mine someday, too.”
An enchanting indiepop wonderland, Metal Bubble Trio is as much an ode to the natural world as it is a personal witness statement of joy and connection, loss and regret. It was a happy accident; struck by the tenderness of a YouTube clip that unlocked in Dost a hunger to evolve his craft beyond the familiar: a deep dive into bossa nova jazz chords combined with a diet of Mulatu Astatke’s Ethiopian style, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders’ multiphonic technique, and improvisation by pianist Oscar Peterson jump-started the project. “The lights in a dark room went on and it was full of things I didn’t know were in there,” he recalls, “I wanted to pick them all up and admire them.”
Delighting in these deep-dive discoveries, Dost looked to share these moments of inspiration. Enlisting the musical talent of trusted friends old and new to shift and guide Metal Bubble Trio in unexpected directions, the process blossomed, recapturing the sense of community which kept him playing instruments throughout his youth. The result, a cast of artists and instrumental players; the woodwind of Evan Smith (Bleachers) and lap steel of Seth Bernard flowing alongside lyrical uplifts from Chicago rapper TheMIND, with former bandmate Matt Joynt, Chris Hatfield (Love Axe), LA singer-songwriter Jordan Beckett (Bootstraps), Detroit singer-songwriter Woman Believer, co-producer and mixer Ben Cohen, and even one of Dost’s own music students Maia Rowan.
Contrary to its name, whether the Trio consists of twelve musicians or four (never three!), the live experience unites audience and artist in a spontaneous jam style moment; “our shows meander, someone can take a solo, we’ll pull it back; the arrangements exist to be broken up then we steer the ship back.”
Dost has been performing with his evolving Metal Bubble Trio off and on over the past year plus, and has previewed material at multiple Ally Coalition Talent Show events in New York City, an organization he co-founded with Jack Antonoff and Rachel Antonoff in 2013.
Live Dates:
11/01 – Toledo, OH @ Dream Louder Studios
11/02 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Part Time Records
11/03 – Traverse City, MI @ City Opera House
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