Sign up for our mailing list Real artists creating records on their own terms
Close

Sign up for our mailing list

News

Guitar Hero Delicate Steve Announces New Studio Album ‘After Hours’
Tuesday, April 5th, 2022

Guitar Hero Delicate Steve Announces New Studio Album ‘After Hours’

Delicate Steve has announced a new album today. ‘After Hours’, the fifth studio album from innovative guitarist and producer Steve Marion will be released on July 8. Written and recorded on a 1966 Fender Stratocaster that reignited his love for the instrument, ‘After Hours’ marks a first for Marion: an earnest, easygoing collection of songs that revel in the simple joys of plugging in and playing. 

With today’s announce he’s shared a video for the new track “Street Breeze”. “This song captures the feeling of stepping outside your door and onto the street, walking through a city with no destination in mind,” Steve says of the song’s themes. “When you have no destination in mind, you become open to the possibility of ending up anywhere. Usually that ends up being a good thing. ”  
 
In the clip, Steve initially strolls down a street at night alone after performing a show to nobody, but soon finds himself to be the life of the party. Watch it below. 
 
“Street Breeze”: https://youtu.be/BGcHkNHH4kA 

The songs on ‘After Hours’ are sweet and breezy, pairing vintage soul grooves with mesmerizing, wordless melodies, and Marion’s production work is suitably subtle and restrained, stepping back in all the right places to let the album’s masterful performances speak for themselves. In another first, Marion teamed up with outside musicians on the record, bringing in a group of all-star players including renowned bassist Shahzad Ismaily (Yoko Ono, Marc Ribot) and famed Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms For Peace) to help flesh out the arrangements and stretch his sonic boundaries. The result is Marion’s warmest, most magnetic work to date, an inviting, immediately accessible album that manages to balance thoughtful introspection and carefree bliss in equal measure. 

“I wanted people to find comfort in the music, to find a home in it, because that’s what it did for me,” says Marion. “It helped me finally find a home in the sound of the electric guitar.” 

In the years since Delicate Steve’s 2011 debut album ‘Wondervisions’ he’s accomplished a lot, including being able to record with the likes of Paul Simon, Amen Dunes, and Sondre Lerche; perform live with Yeasayer, Mac DeMarco, Built To Spill, Dr. Dog, and Tune-Yards among others; have his songs sampled by Kanye West not once, but twice; and join the Black Keys on the road as a touring guitarist in support of 2019’s ‘Let’s Rock’.  
 
If that all sounds like a lot for one man, that’s because it was, and by the time 2020 rolled around, Marion needed to step away from the noise. When the pandemic began he spent a year unplugged in the desert of Tucson, Arizona; after that break from music he discovered the vintage Fender Stratocaster that would rekindle his romance with the guitar. 

“Up to that point, I’d always tried to push the sound of the guitar forward into unexplored territory,” says Marion, whose 2019 album, ‘Till I Burn Up’, flirted with experimental electronics and bold sonic manipulation. “But once I got my hands on that guitar, I started to realize that the most adventurous, unexpected thing I could do was just plug it into an amp and play.” 

Browse by Artist

2103All Artists 100Tom Waits 74Mavis Staples 59Neko Case 51Lost In The Trees 50Sean Rowe 48Dr. Dog 45The Milk Carton Kids
41Jolie Holland 40Bettye LaVette 37Man Man 36Son Little 35Tinariwen 33DeVotchKa 33Tim Fite 31Islands 31Grinderman 29Glen Hansard 28Saintseneca 27Galactic 27Wilco 27Delicate Steve 26Andy Shauf 25The Drums 24Michael Franti and Spe... 24Xenia Rubinos 22William Elliott Whitmo... 22Doe Paoro 22Bob Mould 21The Frames 21Nick Cave & The Bad Se... 20Joe Henry 20Christopher Paul Stell... 19Yves Jarvis 19Cass McCombs 19Booker T. Jones 19Sage Francis 18Gary V 18Deafheaven 18Calexico 17Yann Tiersen 17John K. Samson 16Jason Lytle 16The Antlers 16Danny Elfman 16Ramblin Jack Elliott 14Daniel Lanois 14Madi Diaz 14Jeremy Ivey 13Half Waif 13The Dream Syndicate 13Billy Bragg 12Leyla McCalla 12Girlpool 12Combo Chimbita 12Xavier Rudd 12Peter Silberman 11Mose Allison 11Lyrics Born 11Rain Machine 11Ryan Pollie 11Japandroids 11Roky Erickson 11Purr 11The Weakerthans 11Glitterer 11Jade Jackson 10High Pulp 10The Swell Season 10Darrin Bradbury 10Moor Mother 10Christian Lee Hutson 10So Much Light 10The Melodic 10Alfa Mist 9Hey, King! 9Curtis Harding 9Marianne Faithfull 9Wynonna 9Josiah Johnson 9M. Ward 9Cameron Avery 9N.A.S.A. 9Lido Pimienta 8Katy Kirby 8Greg Graffin 8Kate Davis 8Slow Pulp 8The Coup 8Solillaquists of Sound 8Cadence Weapon 7Kelly Hogan 7Ben Harper 7Title Fight 7Dead Man's Bones 7Ben Harper and Charlie... 7Alec Ounsworth 7Richard Reed Parry 7Beth Orton 7Eddie Izzard 7Elliott Smith 6Broken Twin 6Rafiq Bhatia 6Busdriver 6Deradoorian 6A Girl Called Eddy 6MJ Lenderman 6Kate Bush 6Bonny Doon 6James Brandon Lewis 6Os Mutantes 5Foxwarren 5One Day As A Lion 5The Tallest Man On Ear... 5Scott McMicken and THE... 5Ezra Furman 5Beat Connection 5Jasmyn 5Keaton Henson 5Art Moore 5The Field 5Kristine Leschper 4sunking 4Pops Staples 4The Good Ones 4Sparklehorse 4Waxahatchee 4Marketa Irglova 4Ersi Arvizu 4Jackson+Sellers 3Walter Wolfman Washing... 3Plains 3Mothers 3Sierra Leones Refugee... 3Marc Ribot 3Danny Cohen 3Sam Akpro 3Petra Haden 3Mavis Staples & Levon... 2Fleet Foxes 2Various Artists: RANGO 2ANTI- Records 2Jeff Tweedy 1Various Artists: ROGUE... 1Rogue's Gallery 1Antibalas 1Simian Mobile Disco 1Porter Wagoner 1Blackalicious 1Lightman Jarvis Ecstat... 1Joe Strummer And The M... 1Solomon Burke 1Youth Group 1Merle Haggard 1case/lang/veirs 1The Locust 1Taylor Vick 1Tricky 1Kronos Quartet with Br...
See Full List+