Yesterday on VanyaRadio, we blasted out 24 straight hours of the Stone Roses’ “I Am The Resurrection”, part of an ongoing Easter tradition that’s taken on a life of its own. Unsurprisingly, the marathon also served as a jump-off for a day spent listening to the Roses, and as we ran through classics like “Love Spreads” and “Fool’s Gold”, our brains started connecting the beat and groove with “With You”, the debut single from Cambridge-based project General Crush.
The track, which we are premiering this morning on Vanyaland, had been swimming through our heads since early last week, taking a Madchester beat and running it through modern and ’90s filters that mix in traces of Odesza, the Black Keys, and pretty much all of Damon Albarn’s career, from those early baggy Blur singles to his work in Gorillaz.
But for General Crush, led by Ray Ward, formed late last year, and set to release the Glistening EP on April 10, the process started long ago.
“I come from a musical family and was named after Ray Charles,” Ward tells Vanyaland. “I grew up watching my dad play in bands, and I learned the bass when I was around 12. Everyone always seemed to need a bass player, so that’s why I gravitated towards it. I played in reggae and funk bands in high school, but then learned guitar and started writing my own songs. After a bit of time focusing on acoustic folk songs, I began experimenting with electronic sounds and learning more about audio production.”
He adds: “I wanted to write songs that were meaningful to me but also brought together rock, folk, and downbeat electronica sounds in an authentic way… ‘With You’ is a song about being separated from the one you love. It’s a song about the pain that comes from being apart, but it’s also a confident assertion of love and affection. It’s about finding a person that makes you feel like you belong, and then holding onto them as best you can.”
Listen to “With You” below, then check out a live cut of another Glistening track, “Glistening In The Sun”, via Youtube.