Release Day - Windermere
Hello love,
Today is release day! I got to work with one of my favourite humans. Jason, who has played in my band the last few years, has been releasing really mega-vibe instrumental songs under the moniker Yaehsun. A while back, when we were on the tour bus and touring was a thing, he played me a track he was working on. Immediately, a flood of melodies came into my head and I remember quickly making a voice memo of the ideas in my head. Fast forward to mid-pandemic and Windermere became a fun project we could work on together from afar.
I'll put the full lyrics below, but essentially, I thought the pandemic would give us a moment to take it easy, but in fact life seemed to just speed up. Everything was moving faster because nobody had an excuse not to get back to each other. I was just dying to actually just SLOW DOWN. For real. This song feels like floating and driving and dancing and wandering and rolling.
Watch "Dan Mangan is the Least Cool Thing"
I'll take a moment now to apologize for my #HACKED prank last week. I got more than a couple of concerned texts from friends and family that I'd fallen into the hands of hackers, or worse, that I had done something unsettling and was being #cancelled. Anyone who clicked on the salacious clickbait found out quickly that they were watching a mockumentary with myself in the crosshairs.
Back in 2012, my dear pal Brent Hodge made a doc about me called "What Happens Next". The focus of the doc was our sold out show at Vancouver's legendary Orpheum Theatre. As we began planning the roll out of my last album More or Less, we discussed that it might be funny to follow it with a sequel called "What Happened Next" that portrayed me as a washed up dad with no footing in modern music. It felt a little too close to home for me, which meant that it was a perfect fine line to mess with. I adore Christopher Guest's movies, and Best in Show is one of my favourite films of all times. We wanted to capture some of that energy. We spent a day or two together in Vancouver, capturing footage of me being an arse. Every element of this mockumentary was improvised.
The footage sat on the shelf for a few years because Brent was so busy skyrocketing to success. He's recently made official docs about Chris Farley, Freaks & Geeks, Aubrey Plaza's co-rec basketball team The Pistol Shrimps, and the infamous Martin Shkreli (aka Pharma Bro). We had all this footage, but in the context of being 2 years down the road from the release of More or Less, we were at a bit of a loss as how to tie in a narrative that made any sense. Big thanks to my big sister Kate J Anderson for stepping in and surgically constructing a story out of the bits and bobs, and to Jasleen Kaur for her perfectly comedic editing chops.
I'd like to extend a deep thank you to Rainn Wilson, Scott Aukerman, Lauren Lapkus, Mike Castle, and my wife Kirsten Slenning for cameoing in the mock doc. Luckily, they all found it wonderfully easy to make fun of me. Apparently, I'm an easy target. Part of the joke in this is that I'd somehow fathered a cult-like amount of children during my career's decline. I'd like to thank our pals Jill Barber & Grant Lawrence, as well as Ingrid Jensen & Robert Wilson, for lending us their kids for the shoot.
To celebrate the end of my career, my record label Arts & Crafts is playing along and pretending to drop me from the roster. At least, I think it's a joke. Please, someone tell me it's a joke. They are having a 15% off #DROPPED catalog sale so go scoop up the goods HERE.
Dan Mangan #DROPPED - 15% off all catalog
SHOWS
DEAR LORD LET'S CROSS OUR FINGERS
Jun 22. Kitchener, ON @ Centre in the Square | TICKETS
Jun 23. Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall | TICKETS
Jul 31 - Aug 1. Mulhurst, AB @ Pigeon Lake Music Festival | TICKETS
I've got another fun musical collab being released next week! More on that soon...
As always, thanks for your ears and your eyes.
Much love,
x
Dan
Windermere
I think I said enough
I filled every cup
We could just settle up
All I wanna do is...
Was that a shoulder check?
Or just a slow correct?
Is the car ready yet?
All I wanna do is...
Slow down
Down low
Low down
‘Fraid so
Show me what people do
I love the real you
Can we just see it through?
All I wanna do is...
Slow down
All I wanna do is...
Slow down
Down low
Low down
‘Fraid so