New York singer-songwriter Dave Benton has announced a new Trace Mountains album. House of Confusion will be released on October 22nd via Lame-O Records. Benton also shared the lead single from the LP America, along with a music video written, directed and edited by Trace Mountains guitarist Jim Hill. Check it out below.
“‘America’ is a road song that was written out of a place of disillusionment and despair,” Benton said in a press release. “My guitarist Jim Hill made this video, equally inspired by Easy Rider, Wayne’s World, and The Lord of the Rings, to joke about the themes of the song. Writing and arranging this song was a real journey for us with many paraphrases and changes. At some point I almost deleted the song from the album because it tormented me so much! I wanted it to be real, but also light-hearted and optimistic. I think Jim captured that energy perfectly in his visual interpretation of the song. “
House of Confusion follows on from Lost in the Country last year. Benton recorded his album in a variety of locations last winter: a studio in the foothills of Shawangunk Ridge in New York, a house on Rondout Creek in the Hudson Valley, an apartment in Brooklyn, and a small shared music studio in Denver, Colorado.
Benton wrote the songs on House of Confusion after losing his job during the pandemic. “I was used to getting up early for my warehouse job. When I was released, I just kept to that schedule and put in another daily routine that focused on improving my guitar playing and writing songs, ”he explained. Benton continued:
I went in my mind, thinking back to my life as a musician – my successes, my failures – and thinking about the ongoing process that made up my life.
I’ve just started writing songs about that feeling we all have, suddenly waking up with a clear head, like “Oh wow, HOW did we get here?” I started to think about it a lot and just approached the feeling from different angles and different voices that felt relatable to me. Much of it led to images of the street.
House of Confusion:
01 saw it coming
02 if you do
03 On my knees
04 7 angels
05 IDK
06 The moon
07 Late
08 America
09 Morning star
10 eyes on the road
11 heart of gold
