
Noah Gundersen Brings the Noise
Preview: Noah Gundersen Live @ The Neptune
November 17 and 18, 2017
By Kristen Gill
Photo by Charlie Shuck
Noah Gundersen gets ready to hit Seattle this weekend with two back-to-back shows at The Neptune in support of his latest album, White Noise.
The album features 13 brand new tracks, including hit singles “The Sound” and “Bad Desire” that are taking over local radio charts and Spotify/Apple Music playlists, and was written and recorded in Gundersen’s home state of Washington.
White Noise, the artists’s third studio album to date, tends to be a little louder and edgier than his former efforts. According to Entertainment Weekly, Gundersen is “Moving away from the confessional, singer-songwriter fare that made up his first two LPs and began treading in more ambiguous, metaphorical waters.”
According to Gundersen, White Noise almost didn’t happen.
“At the start of 2016, I walked on stage and was met with a feeling of overwhelming emptiness. I imagined a career playing music I didn’t believe in and was terrified.” After his set, Gundersen heard a fellow songwriter quote choreographer Martha Graham: “No artist is pleased…there is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
Shortly after, Gundersen expedited the concept of White Noise and spent a summer writing almost 30+ songs for the album and recording 26 of them from his 1600 square foot homemade loft studio at a marina in the Ballard region of Seattle.
Gundersen has grown his style in a new direction from his previous canon of albums and EPs, such as his Family EP and his full-length albums Ledges and Carry the Ghost.
Released in 2011, Family garnered Noah’s songwriting skills acclaim on the national stage, when the title track was featured on the TV shows Sons of Anarchy and The Vampire Diaries, while the song “David” was featured on the show The Following.
Noah was also nominated for an Emmy for co-writing the tune “Day is Gone” for Sons of Anarchy.
Recently, he’s opened up for internationally acclaimed, genre-spanning artists like Emmylou Harris, Beck, City & Colour, and Josh Ritter.
This weekend he’ll be back on his home turf, so be sure to check him out at the Neptune and see for yourself what the “noise” is all about.
White Noise was produced by Nate Yaccino and features long-time band-members and collaborators Abby Gundersen, Jonny Gundersen, and Micah Simler. It was released via Cooking Vinyl on Sept. 22, 2017.