January 19, 2020
For Immediate Release
NANA YAMATO RELEASES NEW SINGLE/VIDEO, “DO YOU WANNA”
DEBUT ALBUM, BEFORE SUNRISE, OUT FEBRUARY 5TH ON DULL TOOLS
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
Before Sunrise Cover Artwork
“[‘If’] is a promising preview of her debut album ‘Before Sunrise’...Both catchy and a
little kitschy, ‘If’ is propelled forward by a jangly electric guitar and sing-songy
hook..but occasionally disrupted by charming, doodled tangents like random laser
noises and an unexpected trumpet solo.” - New York Times
Tokyo-based musician Nana Yamato releases a new single/video, “Do You Wanna,” from her debut album, Before Sunrise, out February 5th on Dull Tools. It follows lead single “If.” Each song on Before Sunrise is a secret hidden in the late-night glow of a young girl’s bedroom, created in the precious witching hours of the teenage heart, before dawn returns with the tedious demands of adulthood. The self-expression that was not nurtured in school or in her family is finally set free on opening track “Do You
Wanna”: “Dreams are gone far away from reality / I climb up the hill, that tumbles to the ground, every time I try.” Dreams, and the language of living inside one’s imagination, are the prevailing theme of Before Sunrise.
“This is a song about self-transformation, what I felt in the process,” explains Yamato.
“When I was younger I thought I was an independent person, but in fact, I was selfish and left it all to others. All the things I thought I don’t like were actually caused by myself. When I realized that, I felt like I was the only one who was left behind in the world. I was ashamed of myself. I had to change myself. It wasn't easy for me. I'm still in the process. I wonder if this is what it means to become an adult.
This video is about the journey of the polar bear and me. The white bear in this vid is modeled after my treasured old stuffed polar bear. My grandmother gave it to me for the first Christmas (when I was 5 months old!). I've been with him ever since. He was the best friend I ever had. I remember the bear disappeared from time to time. I looked and looked, but could not find him anywhere. I was so desperate to find him that my father soothed me by saying, ‘The white bear has gone on a trip.’”
Watch Nana Yamato’s Video for “Do You Wanna”
Artwork by Nana Yamato
By day, Yamato is an ordinary girl who marches anonymously between her flat, her school and her job. But by night, she becomes something else — a young artist and record collector whose urge for connection and expression has created one of the best underground pop records to come out of Japan, and elsewhere for that matter. Her calling was found when one day she entered Big Love Records in Harajuku, Tokyo to buy an Iceage album. She then began going there everyday after school, where her studies shifted to the week’s latest indie rock releases. “Everything in my life started there.”
Yamato’s brilliance lies in a profound imagination that confronts the isolation and claustrophobia of Tokyo life, without losing grasp of the whimsy and romance of girlhood. It's hard to ignore the romance the artist has with the streets that she walks;
Japanese and English vocals sing about the lights and sounds of the city, as if there’s no place else she could exist. Yamato describes her style as “critical fantasy,” a fitting label for a sound that exists as much in a carefree daydream as they do in a crowded subway.
Nana’s debut LP, much like her previous 7” records released under the ANNA moniker, is a strictly DIY affair. Yamato sings and plays guitar, creates beats and MIDI melodies, in addition to creating the drawings and design of the LP itself. Produced by P.E.’s Jonathan Schenke, who has worked with Parquet Courts, Liars, and Surfbort, among others, Before Sunrise marks the arrival of an artist who has found her voice. She is not just the pupil of the new arrivals bin, but of a life spent as a defiant dreamer, in the secret world that begins after childhood and before sunrise.
Watch the "If” Video
Pre-order Before Sunrise Dull Tools Big Cartel
Bandcamp
Nana Yamato Online: https://nanayamato.bandcamp.com/ https://www.pitchperfectpr.com/nana-yamato https://www.instagram.com/nana_yamatoo/?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH-MlS_Ew3PMxtVq5An6Xgw
For more information, contact:
Jacob Daneman | Pitch Perfect PR - [email protected]
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