Christian Lee Hutson Releases New Album ‘Quitters’ Today
Los Angeles’s Christian Lee Hutson is releasing ‘Quitters’ today, his sophomore record of short story-like songs that evoke the complicated feelings we all face when getting older. These songs both reflect on the cringeworthy moments of our past and contemplate with dread and loneliness what might preoccupy the future. Produced by his friends Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, listen to the album in full HERE. Hutson has also released a new video for the track “State Bird” today, watch it below; directed by Waley Wang, the clip completes the two-part journey in Washington Square Park that began with the video for “Strawberry Lemonade”.
“State Bird”: https://youtu.be/0f0-XaIBkGw
Across ‘Quitters’ 13 tracks, Hutson crafts a portrait of the Los Angeles that he’s from, with characters who carry this golden light and sinister geography inside them. It’s a place where everything in the end gets blown away and paved over with something new, where even the ocean and fires are always whispering, “One day we’ll take it all back.”
Quitters is also a departure from the digital recording of his debut. Hutson stated, “When we made [debut album] ‘Beginners’ the aim was to make simple digital recordings of how I would play the songs in the room. With this record, Phoebe and Conor had an idea that it would be fun to make it to tape. Phoebe is my best friend and making ‘Beginners’ with her was so comfortable and easy. So I wanted to work with her again.”
He then added: “We made ‘Quitters’ all at once. We hadn’t seen each other for sixth months and this was the first time being in the room together again. It was a real familial feeling, working with the same people, playing with the same people where everyone gets so good at knowing one another’s tricks and are complimenting one another’s weird mistakes. My favorite records are when the guitar gets fucked up and then that becomes the recorded version. And it’s those accidents that make them special.”
This record is Christian Lee Hutson’s world: a California filled with the fuzzy haze of a dream, and the half-remembered moments of a forgotten life. Songs that say, “That was so long ago, but I still remember you.” A world where the past is never past, and the old people we once were still live inside the new people we are.
Hutson is currently on tour with Bright Eyes, performing in Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia and more in the coming weeks. After that he will headline Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn and Highland Park Ebell Club in Los Angeles. In May he will head to Europe for a run of shows with Elanor Moss, including two sold out London dates. He will also perform at The Great Escape Festival on May 12.