John Carroll Kirby releases the song “Mates”, taken from his new solo album Blowout (Stones Throw), out this coming Friday, June 30th. The album was inspired by a period in Costa Rica spent playing with local musicians and imagining “failed utopias”. Blowout teeters between two definitions of its title – a moment of destruction and one big party. In Costa Rica, Kirby contemplated episodes of collective madness or delusion, such as Fyre Festival and the Heaven’s Gate cult, imagining “a festival where everyone gets beamed up to utopia or heaven instead of starving or dying unfulfilled.” “Mates” is the ecstatic soundtrack to Kirby and friends rolling deep to the festival, and follows singles  “Oropendola” and “Sun Go Down”. 

Like charisma, a signature sound can’t be faked. Over six solo albums and dozens of collaborations, Kirby has finessed one recognizably his own, no matter what genre he’s working in. Once a dutiful student of ‘50s and ‘60s piano jazz, Kirby found a sound that felt true to him when he allowed spontaneity, improvisation, and error into his playing: “I love a good ‘miss’ in music. Reverence is good for building a foundation, but you have to miss a bit for it to be truly your own.” With a stripped-down band accompanying him on Blowout, Kirby gives himself permission to miss, and so taps into something glorious and ineffable. 

John Carroll Kirby on Tour:

June 28           San Francisco, CA     The Chapel †

July 30            Niigata, JP                  Fuji Rock †

Aug 5              Shanghai                     YongFoo Elite †          

Aug 18            Los Angeles, CA         Lodge Room

Aug 24            New York, NY             Bowery Ballroom 

Aug 26            Port Townsend, WA   Thing Festival

Sep 13            Chicago, IL                 Sleeping Village

Sep 15            St Paul, MN                Turf Club

† with Eddie Chacon