Now with a few lauded side projects under his belt, singer/songwriter Stephen McBean and his band Black Mountain are coming back with a new album set to possibly hit shelves later this summer. For their forthcoming third LP, tentatively titled Wilderness Heart, the Vancouver quintet inhabited two notorious recording studios, including Los Angeles’ legendary Sunset Sound Recorders, where the Stones, Neil Young, Ray LaMontagne, Elliott Smith, Tom Waits and dozens more have painted their respective masterpieces.
News of Black Mountain’s new record comes via our friends at Exclaim, who spoke to McBean while he was taking a break from putting finishing touches on the album in his basement. “Prince made his landmark Purple Rain and 1999 [at Sunset Sound],” he said of the LA sessions. “Actually, my little guitar room was his bedroom, so that was nice to relax in. There’s a basketball court that they built for Prince.” Yeah, that sounds about right.
“I’d say this record is maybe more vocally-focused than riff-focused,” McBean said of the “more folky” effort, which features “no 18-minute opus” this time around.