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When the pandemic struck, LA Mitchell and Matt Barus, together known as Terrible Sons, had to wait two years between flights. At the time they had just finished working on an EP with producer/guitarist Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams, Jen Cloher) and their full band of drummer Jo McCullum (Nadia Reid, The Veils etc) and brother, bassist and backing vocalist Jo Barus (Dave Dobbyn). So flushed with the experience of having Tom at the helm that they promptly booked in a session for a full album of yet-to-be written songs. However, with New Zealand’s strict lockdown and travel rules in place, the recordings would take much longer than the songs took to write. Tom, in Auckland, had to book and rebook flights, waiting for gaps in the travel ban before he could return to complete the sessions in Christchurch. Six flights later, followed by six months of back-and-forth mixing, and the album is finally complete. The playlist given to the band before the recording has a few clues as to the sound of the album. Simon & Garfunkel, Dr John, Bill Withers and Bobbie Gentry are there, alongside Blake Mills and Olafur Arnalds. The album looks to the past but is irrevocably modern, with glitches courtesy of Tom and concerns that are equally releTerrible Sons is the moniker for husband/wife duo Matthew Barus (The Dukes) and Lauren Barus (L.A. Mitchell, Fly My Pretties), who work and live with their two children in an intentional community near Christchurch. Having clocked up over 18 million streams on previous singles since 2018, the quietly accomplished band is signed to Nettwerk Music Group. The band’s string of sparse, yet intimate modern folk EP releases include their most recent, and much-lauded third EP Mass. vant now as they were fifty years ago. There’s strings, space and quiet, offset with moments of frenetic joy. Praise for Terrible Sons: “The Christchurch husband-and-wife folk duo have been quietly taking over the world, one stream at a time.” – Karl Puschmann, Viva Magazine “Terrible Sons makes music that’s quite tender, almost fragile. It’s steeped in folk traditions and sometimes, like on their song ‘What a Friend’, it’s quite breathtaking.” – Tony Stamp, RNZ The Sampler “The EP Mass is honest and beautifully crafted.” – James Belfield, Waiheke Weekender “Mass is a stark, quiet collection of deeply romantic songs that hark back to the sweeping indie glory of Kings of Convenience and Feist. It’s the kind of music that feels destined to soundtrack the idiosyncratic indie cinema of the mid-2000s. It’s luscious, organic and so, so intimate.” – Tone Deaf “Terrible Sons craft songs like complex beautiful dioramas constructed from the emotional stuff of life.” – American Pancake
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