One of dark music's fastest rising indie artists, TRAITRS new single seduces with gothlike moods.
Canadian post-punk rising stars TRAITRS present their new single 'Mouth Poisons', foreshadowing their much-anticipated album 'Horses In The Abattoir', to be released in mid-November via Freakwave. This single follows moody 'Oh, Ballerina' with its accompanying art-house horror film meets 80’s new wave music video, directed and edited by frontman Shawn Tucker.
Recorded by and produced with Josh Korody (F*cked Up, Japandroids, Dilly Dally, Beliefs, Nailbiter) at Candle Recording Studio, the new output was mastered by Pete Maher (U2, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Prince, Linkin Park, Katy Perry).
Based in Toronto, TRAITRS was formed in 2015 by Sean-Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker. With a cinematic blend of post-punk, goth, alternative and post-rock, their emotive melodies, propulsive rhythms, angular guitars and dark cinematic electronics quickly led to the duo becoming one of the dark music scene's fastest rising independent artists.
“The core sketch of this song was written late at night at a very good friend’s place in Frankfurt, Germany. ‘Mouth Poisons’ is an extremely personal song and lyrically I set myself up as the main target. It carries an air of ‘come see what’s going inside of me that wants to burn down everything in sight’. Definitely my favourite single we have ever released to date," says Shawn Tucker.
“‘Mouth Poisons’ was initially supposed to be a fast, angular punk track and it remained in this form for several months until Shawn wrote the bass guitar part and completely changed the way I heard the song. His melodic bass line brought out a sadness and vulnerability in the track that I didn’t know was there. All of a sudden this frantic punk song sounded more like The Smiths or New Order, so I completely rewrote my synth part to tease out those elements even more. The break before the outro is one of my favourite parts on the album," says Sean-Patrick Nolan.
Early demos, recorded with Josh Korody, led to TRAITRS' 2016 debut cassette 'Rites And Ritual' with Pleasence Records. After gaining traction in Europe and North America, TRAITRS released their critically acclaimed 'Butcher’s Coin' LP via Pleasence Records / Manic Depression Records / Alchera Visions in 2018. Bolstered by lead single ‘Thin Flesh’, the duo embarked on several lengthy tours overseas, performing in over a dozen countries with showcases at Wave Gothik Treffen, Castle Party, Extramuralhas, Nocturnal Culture Night, Wavefest, Canadian Music Week and Pop! Montreal.
Their relentless touring schedule and work ethic caught the attention of Thomas Thyssen and Eric Burton of Schubert Music Publishing and, in October 2020, they announced TRAITRS as the first signing to their brand-new record label Freakwave Records.
With the preceding limited 10’’ vinyl ‘The Sick, Tired And Ill’, which practically sold-out before its actual release, TRAITRS were able to triple their Spotify monthly listeners to >33k. In addition, lead single 'Magdalene' spent 5 consecutive weeks at #1 on the German Alternative Charts (DAC).
'Mouth Poisons' is out now everywhere online, including Spotify and Apple Music. On November 19, the full-length 'Horses In The Abattoir' LP will be released on vinyl, CD and digitally. It can be ordered here.
Like, share, comment!