Today, Toronto-based musician Homeshake, born Peter Sagar, shares his new album Under The Weather. Written in 2019,Under The Weather, is out via SHHOAMKEE / Sinderlyn / Remote Control Records and is Sagar’s fifth studio album under the Homeshake moniker. The album is an atmospheric, 12-track reflection on life and depression, and documents a long, unrelenting period of sadness for the artist.
Under the Weather follows Sagar’s life and the depression that consumed him in 2019 — after a brief album intro, it jumps right into ‘Feel Better,’ a reflection on attempting to buck up when the weather outside is grim. The album is hazy and moody, the pace slow as syrup, and from beginning to end, a fog falls over every synth and guitar line. In ‘Inaminit’, Sagar cancels plans when he’s feeling low; the closing track, ‘Tenterhooks’ sees Sagar’s deliverance into the depths of despair: “Feel myself drying up / feel myself turn into dust,” he sings over a funhouse mirror synth. “Oftentimes when you’re in a dark place, you’re supposed to journal and that helps release the pressure,” Sagar says. “For me, it always found its way into the music.”
Capturing the cloudy sound of a depressive funk was no simple feat, especially in the headspace Sagar was in for over a year. For that reason, he decided to enlist his friend, Jerry Paper’s Lucas Nathan, to help with production on the record. Having Nathan contribute helped Sagar dial back some of “dry, pristine digital sound” that defined his fourth studio album, Helium, and add back personal analog touches that drew people to the Homeshake project in the first place.
