(Los Angeles, CA – November 16, 2023) – Singer-songwriter and Producer James Bishop releases the latest single “More____” from his boundary-pushing debut album BODYBOUND, a remarkably inventive project recorded entirely on his iPhone while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.
An upbeat, electric production with an anthemic chorus, “More____” combines modern production, pop structures, and the depth of the best indie folk songwriting in this tale of self-exploration and the search for meaning. It’s a fitting representation of the album on the whole, a stark challenge to what “folk” music can be – and what “nature” really is, an opened vein that bleeds dried leaves and binary code.
Back in 2017, Bishop set out on a 1,400-mile hike across the Pacific Crest Trail, spending five months in the dense forest and towering peaks of the American West with only his iPhone. Recording everything from birdsongs to thunderstorms, Bishop then spent the next five years doing the “laughably tedious” work of transforming his field recordings into an epic and experimental record of indie electronic folk music.
“Turning pine cones into drums, creaking gates into orchestras,” Bishop has crafted a record that sounds as exceptionally hifi and inventive as any Bon Iver record – with none of the fancy microphones.
Opening with what sounds like elegiac choir vocals, Bishop drops biblical references while opening up about his progression into uncertainty and doubt, vulnerability, and, ultimately, a search for “something more than this.” Bishop’s voice is textured and misty in his lower registers and moves more into a Yorke-ian cry as he leaps masterfully into the upper registers.
Processing pain, loss, and loneliness, Bishop sings through clenched teeth of the many existential questions that seem to pain his continuation of a life that has only led to melted expectations. That pain feels generational, a symptom of life in the hustle culture of the 21st century that Bishop sought to escape with his journey into nature.
Here he’s harnessed that escape into something full of emotion but ultimately hopeful. While he sings hauntingly “every step is feeling more like death,” he’s still searching, not giving up, and the accompanying music – while pulsing, challenging, and haunting – is undeniably uplifting, with pounding “piano” chords punctuating big, major chords that underscore the contradiction at the heart of Bishop’s creation: the blend of pain and existential questioning that’s led to such a life-affirming creative expression.
It’s in these contradictions, fastidiously mined with tremendous intention, that Bishop brings us his most compelling portrait of modern existence: a song that is nature, of nature, entirely recorded by, for, from, and with nature – but sounds nothing like it.
And it’s all a part of a greater whole, the full album itself an exploration of nature, nurture, technology, and the boundaries we may or may not be limited by.
Listen now to “More_____” and get ready for the album BODYBOUND OUT February 9, 2024 via KZZ Music, the production company co-founded by Kirk Pasich, Zackary Darling, and Zachary Ross.
Connect with James Bishop:
TIKTOK | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE | SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC
