Painted Shield released their new single “Til God Turns The Lights On.” The group, which features Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, acclaimed songwriter Mason Jennings, Matt Chamberlain and Seattle soul prodigy Brittany Davis, has announced the release of their second album Painted Shield 2 for April 22nd, via Loosegroove Records. The album is currently available to pre-save.

“This was originally a Brit track,” writes Jennings about the single. “They had the music and the tag on the choruses. I felt like it needed a ‘low to the ground’ vocal approach from me so I tried some old lyrics of mine on it and it felt right. I’d been trying to make these lyrics work on a song for like 20 years but it wasn’t until working with Painted Shield that the music felt right for them. Channeling my inner John Lee Hooker.” 

The group also recently released the single “Life In Rewind.” Where most Painted Shield songs are fronted by singer Mason Jennings, “Life In Rewind” spotlights non-binary band member Brittany Davis, an incredibly gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and engineer based in Seattle. Davis is also blind, and describes themself as “a vessel of sound” who experiences music in spirit and colors.

Commenting on Davis’ role in the group Gossard writes, “They’re just a phenomenal musician and a charming and energizing human being. They’re an incredible engineer, write the most bad-ass beats and can jam like a complete crazy person. They can fit in on any song and find a spot and be so powerful.”

Painted Shield previously released the riff-heavy single “Dead Man’s Dream.”

The four musicians, several of whom hadn’t even played together in person, tracked Painted Shield 2 at their respective home studios across America. Chamberlain, his tour dates as a member of Bob Dylan’s band brought to a halt by the Covid-19 pandemic, found himself at home in Los Angeles, creating beats, instrumental beds, and looped soundscapes using drums and modular synthesizers. A thousand miles to the north, Gossard — still fresh from the upper reaches of the Billboard Top 200, where Pearl Jam’s eleventh album, Gigaton, had climbed to Number 5 in 2020 — was generating ideas of his own in a Seattle studio. Jennings added melodies and lyrics. Brittany Davis did the same, tossing funky bass parts and synthesized guitar solos into the mix. They both sang, too — sometimes separately, sometimes blending their voices into lockstep harmonies.

The result is an album that takes aim at the head, the heart, and the hips. It’s a mix of the electronic and the organic — a moody rock album that genuinely moves, from the funky fire and industrialized guitar strut that gives “Til God Turns the Lights On” its unique swagger to the garage-rock abandon that supercharges “Falling Out of the Sky.” That sense of movement can be soft and deliberate, too. “Life in Rewind” is a fever dream of a slow-simmering soul song — equal parts gospel grace, 1960s R&B spirit, and dreamy reverb — and “White” is a leisurely piece of left-field folk, laced with watercolor streaks of digital noise. 
“I’m so inspired by working with such inspiring, creative people,” says Jennings. “I’ve been releasing albums for nearly 25 years, but I haven’t done anything like this before. It’s very much an active project, too. We’re halfway through ‘Album Three’ already.”