FOR RELEASE JULY 27

LOS ANGELES (July 22, 2020) – “Westberg,” the Gen X duo of Ariel Westberg and Scott Bruzenak (aka Noisecastle III) explore anxiety and depression through a bittersweet lens with the release of the second single, “Anxiety” on July 27. Off their latest EP due out this fall, they examine Boomer souls and GenX culture to inform their sound. 

The songs on the album come off as unhurried. But don’t be fooled. Only half of the songs they started with finally made the cut. Westberg and Bruzenak, both former classical music majors, are steeped in jazz, rock, electro-folk, and trip-hop experimentation. They decided to bring in producer Tom Biller (Fiona Apple, Jon Brion, Karen O), whose approach is markedly different in the studio from theirs. While Biller leads his productions from the heart, Westberg agonizes over meaning and delivery, a state they describe as “terrifying but exhilarating.” To strip down to essentials this time, they chiseled away at a familiar piece, “Anxiety” – the culmination of musical changes and rewrites begun back eight years ago. The song blossomed with Biller’s help, and “grew like a bonsai plant.”

With disarming honesty, Westberg’s lyric evokes the symbol of a homing pigeon’s unerring return to the nest. And as she typically does, she never turns away from the specter of life’s inevitable low points…  

        If the sea holds a memory of every single wave

        Then my mind is a cradle and my body a shallow grave

        I fake my faith in the unknown

        And search for liars in every face

Where very little is easy to count on these days, the anticipated album release for Boomer Studies is September 18th.

Boomer StudiesTrack Listing

  1. Anxiety
  2. Living Proof
  3. Nostalgia
  4. Old Kid
  5. Romantic
  6. Simple
  7. This Town Don’t Fuck Around

About Westberg

Having met as classical music majors “in the weirdest school in the U.S.,”  Evergreen State College, the two Angelenos had explored Avant-Garde, jazz, rock, electro-folk, chamber pop and trip-hop. But Boomer Studies was a chance to strip it down and reflect. Their 2006 self-titled album received accolades from Nic Harcourt and continues to receive support on KCRW.

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