Animal Collective's Avey Tare Introduces New EP & Shares "Midnight Special/Red Light Water Show" Video

Following up this year’s Cows on Hourglass Pond album, Animal Collective musician Avey Tare is announcing his next major solo project, Conference of Birds/Birds in Disguise. A five-song EP, Avey Tare’s forthcoming release is a curated collection of studio recordings of live-only solo compositions that were initially performed during the tours in support of Avey Tare’s 2017 album Eucalyptus and Cows on Hourglass Pond. To introduce Conference of Birds/Birds in Disguise, the acclaimed Animal Collective artist is serving up a Natalia Stuyk-directed vignette in support of the EP’s two opening salvos, “Midnight Special” and “Red Light Water Show.”

“It’s more nerve-wracking to play alone. I get way more nervous. It’s also because I haven’t done it that much. I’ve only done one kind of short tour for Down There some years ago, and I’ve only played a few other solo shows since. I’m not a huge fan of having a lot of backing tracks and stuff like that. It’s just not my thing,” Avey Tare shared with PopMatters earlier this year, opening up about the differences between performing with Animal Collective versus performing as a solo act. “When it comes down to playing solo, it becomes more of a challenge in how to make it feel live and organic, considering the music.”

“You just have to pick and choose the core elements of the song,” Avey Tare added. “We’ll play them as a band and see what feels like needs to be there and what feels like it doesn’t need to be there. It’s honestly a lot easier to play with other people and not have to follow a click track or have to pay attention to some backing track that’s always there. That always feels stale to me.”

You can check out Avey Tare’s new “Midnight Special/Red Light Water Show” visual above. Avey Tare’s Conference of Birds/Birds in Disguise EP will be released on December 5 via Domino.

For more, revisit Avey Tare and Geologist’s “Summer Blaze” single, which dropped in August.