Zac Lawrence Shares ‘Man Overboard’ from Upcoming Album ‘The Hate’.
In his day job as DEADLETTER’s mercurial frontman, Zac Lawrence has crafted a reputation for a scathing commentary on the world that hits you with the force of a punch where each finger wears a ring. With his solo material, this commentary still exists in his lyricism but the delivery is softer. The arguments are designed to win you over with empathy and not through their force of reason.
New single ‘Man Overboard’, takes inspiration from the greats – The Waterboys, Van Zandt, and Dylan – but maintains Zac’s character in multitudes. The hook is infectious, beautifully supplemented by Misty Miller’s backing vocals; you’ll find yourself harmonising along with the chorus – “Find a way aboard the wagon, cling to the chastise if you must” – but never losing the meaning and depth of emotion behind it.
Inspired by his re-reading of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, ‘Man Overboard’ uses, in Lawrence’s words, “setting of depression-era America to emphasise the despair and abandonment that a drinking problem prompts.” With that knowledge the chorus’s hook takes on so much extra weight. It’s a truly beautiful song with an openness you can’t help but be stopped by.
Despite having already announced that he’s played the last ever live solo show with his backing band The Hate, his first full length album notably carries the same name. Described by Zac Lawrence himself as “If DEADLETTER is me howling at the moon in a far away valley, then this is me making small talk with a lamp in my bedroom.”, it’s this sense of intimacy that makes this solo project so enthralling and what made his live shows with The Hate such spectacles, for all those lucky enough to have seen them.
Photo by Joe Mulville
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