Electronic pop project St. Nothing crashed our city’s music scene in a big way in 2014, wooing and wowing audiences from the nightclub and dance party circuit to that big-ass bi-annual outdoor music festival at City Hall Plaza. A run of brilliant black-lit live shows and fawning local press (consider us very guilty) culminated with a “New Artist of the Year” nomination in the Boston Music Awards, as well as a nod in the “Electronic Artist of the Year” category.
But the songs that put St. Nothing on the map originally weren’t even St. Nothing songs. In February 2013 under the moniker Hall Of Mirrors, chief songwriter and composer Marco Lawrence unveiled the Begin EP, a collection of chilled out, post-romantic bedroom-pop singles that started to get properly noticed about a year after its release, right around the time Hall Of Mirrors was abandoned and St. Nothing was born.
Lawrence carried over his songs into the project’s new identity, then in September of this year, released one-off single “Deals” to commemorate St. Nothing’s Boston Calling appearance, which was the first taste of new music under the new name. This week, St. Nothing offer up the Cherry Tree EP, and what we have here is more than just a bedroom pop project from Lawrence, but a well-rounded and solidified collaboration with contributors Sophia Carreras (guitar), Jenna Calabro (cello), and Meredith Nero (viola). It feels like another rebirth, and a true declaration of identity.
We’re even told there will be a live drummer, a St. Nothing first, at their record release party this Thursday, December 4, at Great Scott in Allston. Joining them on the bill is Boston electro-pop queen Casey Desmond and the experimental pop wunderkinds the Symptoms.
The first single off Cherry Tree is the emotive-yet-seductive synth-pop track “Echoes,” which continues the gorgeous sound of St. Nothing while also exuding a more refined sense of confidence.
Listen to “Echoes” via Soundcloud below, or download it directly off Bandcamp.