Mitch Rowland has released the new track, “Standard Size Knife.” This is the latest offering from the acclaimed California & UK-based musician and GRAMMY-winning songwriter’s sophomore record Whistling Pie, out September 12th. 

Rowland released his first album at the end of 2023 to critical acclaim and chart-topping debuts, as the first signee to his collaborator Harry Styles’ Erskine Records/Giant Music. Since then, he has performed sold-out shows across the U.S., played to crowds of 80k+ internationally, relocated to the British countryside with his growing family, and now prepares to release his new album. Whistling Pie was once again made with producer and multi-instrumentalist Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith), but this time at the iconic Rockfield Studios in Wales, which has hosted everyone from Oasis to Coldplay to Iggy Pop to Black Sabbath and was the primary studio for Queen’s recording of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” 

On “Standard Size Knife,” Rowland shared: “This one is about the question ‘Are we dying alone?’ My wife’s good friend, who we used to hang out with in London, obsessed over the thought ‘do we just die alone in the end?’ I guess it stuck. The concept went from the brain to the paper after all those years. It was a song that was sort of like a bonus song for me. I went back to Rockfield on my own and cut ‘Really Ready’ & ‘Standard Size Knife’ with Joe Jones. We brought it back to LA & got Jerry on it. Rob helped me realize that this was the closer, and we realized this is the way out. It’s upbeat, it’s ending on a high.”

Whistling Pie finds Rowland in a new stage of life. Not only was he preparing his second album, but he also had his second child with his partner and musical collaborator Sarah Jones (who plays drums on the album). Becoming a father for the second time meant grappling with a lot of scary truths about the world we live in. Some of the songs find Rowland coping with the loss of a close family friend to an aggressive cancer and processing the reality of school shootings with two young children. But they also find Rowland savoring life’s beautiful little moments, whether he’s demoing songs with his father-in-law in the studio where his wife first learned how to play drums, or simply watching his children grow. 

When he started working on the record, Rowland worried about a sophomore slump and wondered if it was even possible to crank out an album while tending to a family both at home and on the road. “Everyone has their whole life to make their first record. While I was making my second, it felt like time was slipping away.” But watching his kids grow had the opposite effect; their constant transformation forced him to transform his approach to music making. Whistling Pie digs its heels into the present, capturing flickering moments before they fade.

Photo Courtesy: Autumn Kelly