Known for her critically acclaimed band Alyeska, Alaska Reid is stepping out on her own for the upcoming Big Bunny EP, a collection of short stories in songs out December 11 on Terrible Records. Today the Montana-bred, Los Angeles-based artist shared fuzzed out title track and video for “Big Bunny,” produced and directed by A. G. Cook (Charli XCX, Jónsi, PC Music). Following singles “Boys From Town” and “Oblivion,” Alaska explains the new song: “When I was younger I wanted a bunny so bad that I would chase after wild rabbits, trying to catch them. I was obsessed and convinced myself that if I could just catch one that I would have this magical connection with it like Lyra and her daemon in ‘The Golden Compass.’ We filmed it during a freak snow storm a few weeks ago. Trust me, the snow was real — it was hard to play guitar in a blizzard in 12 degrees.”
Alaska’s Big Bunny EP tells the story of her life growing up in Montana chasing rabbits, singing in local bars and rodeos – and her partial move to Los Angeles, playing the scene as a teenager and grappling with a sense of displacement between the two places that feel like home. Her music also comes from different worlds – a little Joni Mitchell meets Dinosaur Jr. and Paul Westerberg, the singer-songwriter joins poignant lyricism with fuzzed out alternate tunings, merging organic and electronic elements to create captivating stories of her and her sisters (like in her “Oblivion” video, directed by actress/artist Lilliya Scarlett Reid) & other young women characters.
Before going fully solo, Alaska’s band project Alyeska recorded an EP entitled Crush. Produced by John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile, Dinosaur Jr.), it was the final album recorded at The Magic Shop legendary studio, following a lineage including David Bowie’s Blackstar, Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, plus Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, Blondie and beyond. From a converted one-room schoolhouse in Park County, Montana to playing dive bars on the Sunset Strip in LA and eventually recording in New York City, Alaska’s journey is just beginning: “I’ve been scuttling around the scene since I was 14, first as an Americana/country chick and then as a band chick, and now I’m arriving at a more unfiltered self. Some of these songs have grown up with me. I’m excited to release them because the lyrics mean something to me, but also because it has been a long time in the works. It’s a diary of my life.”
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