Dan Bejar’s previously announced that he’s following up his 2011 Destroyer album Kaputt, with an EP, Five Spanish Songs, which is just that – the louche guitar-pop (almost, but not entirely) jettisoned for a set of covers of Antonio Luque of the band Sr. Chinarro, sung almost entirely in Spanish.
Says Bejar: "It was 2013. The English language seemed spent, despicable, not easily singable. It felt over for English; good for business transactions, but that’s about it. The only other language I know is Spanish, and the only Spanish songs I really know are those of Sr. Chinarro, led by Antonio Luque. I’ve been a decades-long fan of how he conducted his affairs, his strange words, his melodies that have always felt so natural (this is important), his bitter songs about painting the light. Something about them, I knew I could do it…"
The EP’s out on Dead Oceans on December 2, and, ahead of a quick dart round Europe that month (set to be Destroyer’s last live outing until 2015, apparently), we’ve got a first look at the new video for EP cut ‘Bye Bye’ – have a watch above, with tour dates below:
DECEMBER
Sun 1 – Le Guess Who? Festival, Utrecht, Netherlands
Mon 2 – Bush Hall, London
Tue 3 – Jazzhouse CPH, Copenhagen, Denmark
Wed 4 – Skwer, Warsaw, Poland
Thu 5 – Hau1, Berlin, Germany
Fri 6 – Musicbox, Lisbon, Portugal
Sat 7 – CCVF, Guimaraes, Portugal
Mon 9 – Sala Apolo, Barcelona, Spain
Tue 10 – Gazteszena, San Sebastian, Spain