Glasgow – Five years after the launch of their critically acclaimed debut album, Scottish indie duo Caezar returns with ‘HOME’, their musically adventurous and highly anticipated new full-length release. Caezar will kick off the new record with a live show at CCA in Glasgow on 22nd February. Tickets are available now.
Recorded over five weeks in a remote studio in The Outer Hebrides, HOME is a deeply personal love letter to the band’s origins – delivered through powerful songwriting and complex yet anthemic musical arrangements. It has been produced by Pete Fletcher (Escapologists) and mastered by Miles Showell (The Beatles, Sting, The Police and many more from Abbey Road Studios), along with a half-speed cut for the vinyl press. It is set for vinyl, CD and digital release courtesy of Vertere Records from 22nd February 2024. Up On Satellites, the first single from HOME is now available to stream on major platforms.
Caezar is the creative brainchild of renowned musicians Joe Donnelly and JJ Gilmour. Earlier in their careers, both Joe and JJ enjoyed successful spells in legendary Scottish rock outfit The Silencers. Although their band membership never overlapped, Joe and JJ eventually met at a charity reunion concert in Glasgow – staged to raise money for Silencers’ co-founder and guitarist Cha Burns, who was living with cancer at the time. Sadly, Cha passed away soon afterwards. United through grief, Joe and JJ began writing songs together, and a remarkably intuitive musical connection quickly revealed itself.
This is where Caezar was born – Joe and JJ’s early collaborations became ‘TIME’, Caezar’s widely-admired debut release. Pressed and released by vinyl specialists Vertere Records, TIME was nominated for Scottish Album of The Year in 2019. Tour dates with Simple Minds, Pretenders, Deacon Blue & Big Country soon followed, and a dedicated, organic fanbase steadily grew.
Caezar’s style certainly carries echoes of their time in The Silencers. It starts with Donnelly’s chiming and hypnotic bass guitar parts – parts that manage to transcend simple rhythm and instead begin to feed into the deeper melodic flow of the music. It lends Caezar a true signature sound, one that’s beautifully reminiscent of early U2. There’s a distinct, pleasing maturity to Caezar’s sound, too. Gilmour’s lyrics are painful, poetic honesty delivered with a tinge of stadium rock swagger – and performed with the soaring confidence of a vocalist who has expertly honed his craft.
HOME – looking back and looking forward: A five-year gap between records represents a long time in the modern music industry. But there’s a timeless quality to a lot of what Caezar do – and Joe and JJ certainly weren’t afraid to practise patience and ensure their follow-up record came to life in the right way.
Caezar tried out multiple studio spaces in the hunt for the right location to make their second album – eventually opting for Black Bay Studio on the Isle of Lewis in The Outer Hebrides. Living at opposite ends of the British Isles, Joe and JJ relished spending five weeks together in relative isolation. Whilst they revelled in the solitude afforded by this beautifully secluded creative location, Donnelly and Gilmour could still tap into a remarkable wealth of musical talent to perform on HOME. Musical contributors include horns from Joseph Fletcher, keyboards and programming from producer Pete Fletcher, drums from Darren Lackie, backing vocals from Louise Connell, strings from David Crichton, and many more. These contributions combine to make HOME an audibly intricate record with a huge, sprawling soundscape. It feels reminiscent of Pink Floyd or even early psychedelic rock – yet this intricacy never comes at the expense of the melody or lyrics.
Their island deep-dive into the creative process has made HOME a joyous journey of musical discovery that, whilst nodding to avant-garde influences like Mogwai and Eno, never loses focus on the power of thoughtful songcraft. This powerfully honest songwriting focus is perfectly distilled in Up On Satellites – the first single from HOME, available to stream now. A song about attempting to escape the monotony of everyday life, there’s a yearning search for truth at its heart – a search reflected and keenly sought throughout the record as a whole.
Speaking on the record’s release, Vertere Records CEO Touraj Moghaddam said, “In many ways, HOME is an album that is stronger than an incredibly strong debut, and that’s entirely credit to the band, and the lengths they’ve gone to in order to create such a detailed and beautiful sounding record”.
After a stunning mix by Nick Davis, the record was handed over to revered mastering engineer Miles Showell. Once mastered, Miles gave the record an exquisite half-speed cut for vinyl on his own custom-made Neumann lathe, prepping it for release on 22nd February. Miles uses a unique cutting process that ensures an unparalleled level of sonic performance and clarity in the final product. His bespoke mastering system is extensively powered and cabled using Vertere high-power signal cables and mains power cables – specifically designed for maximum resolution, clarity, dynamics and total lack of noise. It all adds up to elicit the finest sonic experience it is possible to achieve through analogue listening.
The record is set to be pressed in London by The Vinyl Factory – and will represent the first time Vertere Records have used the company to produce their vinyl. Speaking of this new collaboration, Touraj Moghaddam said, “It’s really, really impressive. The quality of the pressings is amongst the best that I’ve encountered. They’ve preserved so much of the musicality from the master in the test presses…they have done an amazing job”. HOME will be pressed onto 200g black vinyl, “Some of the quietest black vinyl I’ve ever heard”, said Moghaddam.
‘Home can be anywhere – it’s a universal idea that applies to anyone and everyone. We hope that means this record connects with all who care to listen to it and enjoy it. This is a record we’re immensely proud of, and feels like a huge creative step forward for us as a band. We’re very excited to share it with the world’. CAEZAR, ON THE RELEASE OF ‘HOME’.
Half-speed cut for vinyl release by Miles Showell, HOME is out on Vertere Records from 22nd February 2024.
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