Listen: House Of Wolves - "Daughter Of The Sea" [Premiere]

Despite his west coast roots, Villalobos’ career has followed an unexpectedly cosmopolitan path to date. It brought him to French label Fargo Records and, subsequently, to European tours. It also brought him to producer Darragh Nolan’s studio on the east coast of Ireland.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of that last locale because it’s almost impossible to imagine “Daughter Of The Sea” (both the song and the album) without it. Under the hazy acoustics and breathy vocals that come together effortlessly—earning comparisons to Angel Olsen’s quieter moments in the process—you can almost hear the waves breaking. In the song’s final moments you can hear the chirping of birds and the room it was recorded in. You can picture the window, slightly open, the bird sitting near the sill.

As on Grouper’s 2014 standout Ruins, the location has become integral to the very sound of the album. Like the east coast of Ireland, it is at times beautiful, hazy, mysterious, and melancholy. Villalobos says:

“'Daughter Of The Sea' became the title track of the album because I think it really captured the sound I associated with being in that time and place on the east coast of Ireland, and because I wrote the song during my recording session there. I was playing around with the chord progression in between takes and the producer (Darragh Nolan) said "what is that?" I told him it was something I've been working on, but it had no lyrics. He said, 'please go and finish that, I'd love to record it'. I just had the guitar parts, so I finished writing the words that day and we recorded later that night. It was one of those songs where the lyrics kind of just fell from the sky, or rather rose from the Irish Sea.”

Pre-order Daughter Of The Sea (released 7 April) here.