FOR RELEASE JULY 26, 2021
OMAHA (July 12, 2021) – Sutter Zachman announces the release of his debut album, End of the Arcade, on October 8. Produced by Grammy-winning engineer Austen Jux-Chandler (Adele, Wolf Alice, Vance Joy), End of the Arcade deftly shape-shifts across genres and borders, with playful Brazilian horns, soaring strings, washes of synth, and psychedelic guitars swirling around Zachman’s dreamy melodies.
On his first full-length album, End of the Arcade, Sutter Zachman decided to embrace his unlikely medley of influences, from ’80s new wave to baroque pop to bossa nova. The result is a kaleidoscopic sound all his own. “Music for me is a form of escapism,” says the singer-songwriter. “I get to create the scenes that I see in my dreams.”
Cradling each word like a warm blanket, Zachman spins pensive and whimsical tales of rainy Spanish streets, clumsily seductive Swedish girls, eavesdropping bellmen in hotel lobbies – snapshots that now, after a year of global lockdown, feel even more exotic. But while he paints alluring pictures, an unmistakable yearning seeps through his lyrics. “I have a real appetite for answering questions that I don’t have answers to,” he laughs.
Zachman recorded most of End of the Arcade in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, where he’d formed a close circle of collaborators since signing his first songwriting deal as a teenager – including in-demand bassist Eliana Athayde (Weyes Blood) and drummer Kyle Crane (Kurt Vile, Neko Case). Once the pandemic hit, itching to put the finishing touches on the record but unable to go into the studio, he drafted musicians to contribute from their faraway homes, including a tiny brass section in London that recorded in their closet and an organ player in New York. The “cross-pollination,” as Zachman puts it, added unexpected colors and surprises.
Since completing the album, Zachman and his wife have resettled in Omaha, Nebraska, drawn to its slower pace and earthy warmth.
End of the Arcade Track Listing
- Chinese New Year
- Beautiful Language
- Tell Any Lies
- We Live in California
- Matters in the Dark
- The Restaurant
- Hotel Lobby, San Diego
- Swedish Girl
- Cycles
- On and On
- Emerald Eyes
About Sutter Zachman
At the brink of just twenty years old Zachman signed a big publishing deal in 2008 with Chrysalis. Unable to find immediate success as a songwriter, Zachman moved to the Midwest to attend college and wouldn’t return to Los Angeles until 2013 when he formed the band La Route, consisting of Cameron Meshell (Forever Like Red) and Angela Russell. The trio’s regularly performed street shows on Abbot Kinney Boulevard eventually caught the attention of a local producer who invited them to record at his studio – resulting in Zachman’s debut EP, Repeat Offender. The single off the EP, “Back to Sleep,” received international airplay on BBC and Rte 1 Radio and earned him an in-studio performance at Yahoo Music. As Zachman was wrapping up the production of his fourth EP, Up All Night, an auspicious dinner set up by his wife’s co-worker led to Zachman meeting Grammy-winning engineer Austen Jux-Chandler (Adele, Wolf Alice, Vance Joy) who produced the upcoming album, End of the Arcade. Zachman will support the album release with a fall tour.
Praise for Sutter Zachman
“If you want a delicate song tailored to psychedelic elements, this proposal turns everything classic into a technological desire that cannot stop caressing your brain and causing more than heavy but sensational sensations.” – Indie Criollo
