The musical force of nature known as Ezra Furman returns this February with his most epic statment yet, Transangelic Exodus (Bella Union), a quasi-conceptual glam-goth-pop odyssey that he describes as “a queer outlaw saga.” Here, he reveals the influences that pushed the record to the next level. “These are songs I was into during 2016-2017 that made me want to turn the way I made music on its head. One develops a certain idea of what music is supposed to be and how it’s made, but the fact is, the possibilities are infinite—possibilities for songwriting, for arrangement, for editing and sound and delivery and combinations of ideas.“I’m not sure why, but a few times every year since I was 12 I’ve just heard something and said, ‘THAT. That is my future. That is what I need.’ It started before I even played an instrument. It was never (solely) about making the music, but about a way of thinking or being I could hear in a song. When you hear music that’s not like something you’ve heard before, you can sometimes intuit a whole different cultural and/or personal ethos from it. That’s what happened when I heard these songs, and I craved to incorporate some element of them into both my music and my life. Sometimes, it even happens with songs you’ve heard a million times, but that you just had never heard in that certain way before.“The Talking Heads’ and Nick Cave’s paranoia. The Mountain Goats’ and Lou Reed’s storytelling. The ear-candy pleasure principle of Vampire Weekend and Sparklehorse. The musical anarchy of Tune-Yards and Beck. It all got folded into my brain and pushed me toward Transangelic Exodus.“I’m so glad people write songs and make records. I’m so grateful for the work they put in to realize their mad visions. It’s like water to me. I need it to live. And I’m so glad I get to make my own as well.”—Ezra Furman
