RIG 1
Out August 23, 2023, “Kindest Brother” is the 3rd single from the forthcoming album, Separation Illusion, by Rig 1 (Ian McElroy), out November 3rd on Flower Moon Records.
“Inspired by the work of Taita Edwin. This pathway position of listener winding through the mechanisms of culture and conditioning to understanding and acceptance. With the essential seed planting, Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova, Bright Eyes), achieved deep grooves, and head bob textures with the hook that took us a couple years to find in his voice, “its just love.” Alongside Mike Bloom (Jenny Lewis, Richard Edwards, Julian Casablancas, HAHA) and I are among the everyone, a road walking through itself together is love,” says Rig about the forthcoming single.
“Kindest Brother” will be available as a limited run, double A-sided 7” with the album track “Real Hot Boy,” which includes features from Maria Taylor (Azure Ray, HAHA), Mike Bloom, and Josh Rawson (Felice Brothers, Phillip Goth). Additional album credits include Todd Fink (The Faint), Nik Frietas (Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Broken Bells), Blake Sennet (Rilo Kiley, The Elected) and Kirby James Fairchild (Granddaddy, Modest Mouse).
"With the celestial assistance of Jake Bellows and Mike Bloom, Rig 1 has constructed a starbound spacecraft made of natural materials in “Kindest Brother”. Circling and weaving through the cosmos, observing details on all of our minds, seldom articulated. In a long line of Rig 1 songs distilling our existence down to riddles both asked and answered, this one feels most at ease in its enormous comfort.” – Kirby James Fairchild (Granddaddy, Modest Mouse)
“Quantum” and “The Fabric” were previously released as stand-alone digital singles earlier this summer. “Quantum” is a blistering G-force journey with Rig 1 piloting the mother ship, your faithful Kafka-on-Ayahuasca tour guide. “Sometimes we’re blind to the signage of code, unfolding roads, boundless surrounds driving into unknown,” McElroy chants. “The Fabric,” an incorporeal headtrip through celestial-sonic clouds. It’s the sound of someone laughing with their last breath, the epiphany that it’s never too late coming too late, the soundtrack of a dead man tenderly touching the EMT on his way up as if to say, It’s okay to let go. In "The Fabric," you will see "every aspect, every last little stitch." What is behind the veil, the clouds we travel through? Rig ponders the question, and leaves us with: “The them is us mirrored.” Indeed it is, and when Rig 1 sings it, it sounds like freedom.
Rig1 is Ian McElroy, an emcee born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and currently residing in New York City. “He fashions intense narratives that straddle the line between independent hip-hop and spoken word, tackling existential questions with vivid wordplay, dramatic elocution and sometimes acid-tongued aplomb. It’s a modern take on the Beat Generation,” (Buzzbands LA). He has been writing & recording music since childhood, as a member Desaparecidos (ft. Conor Oberst) and Rig 1. Separation Illusion follows Rig 1's 2016 self-released EP Tasting The Mothership. Previous releases include North of Maple and Above the Treeline, West of the Periodic Split, previously released by Team Love, and now on Flower Moon Records.
Management: ryan@flowermoonrecords.com