Thomas Charlie Pedersen to release new album 'Employees Must Wash Hands'
14 April 2023
Newsdesk
Thomas Charlie Pedersen releases new album 'Employees Must Wash Hands' on April 14’th 2023 on Karmanian Records. Stream here.
I recorded two albums in 2021. My band, Vinyl Floor, recorded a new album entitled ‘Funhouse Mirror’ (released in September 2022) and the other one was a solo record – my third.
The Covid lockdown situation was a highly creative period for my brother Daniel & I. Alongside the Vinyl Floor tracks I found I had written 15 more songs but I didn’t exactly know what to do with them. Daniel and I had been working on and off on band demos for quite some time and when I suddenly was isolating at home I found myself writing even more stuff on my acoustic guitar & piano.
I lived with these songs alone for a while and late at night I could work on the lyrics for hours on end. At one point, our studio time with the band in Sweden got postponed – leaving us with 5 months of practically nothing to do but wait.
To keep ourselves on our toes we decided to record almost the entire ‘Employees Must Wash Hands’ album and we wrapped up the additional recordings once we got back from band sessions in Sweden. What you have here is the other side of the ‘Funhouse Mirror’ sessions – a quieter and somewhat more introverted and reflective album but also showcasing a more arranged and ‘band-like’ feel than my previous solo efforts ‘Second Hand War’ (2016) and ‘Daylight Saving Hours’ (2020).
Some of these songs deal with Man’s relationship with God and God´s relationship with Man. Who has abandoned who? Is there any faith or spirituality left? They also deal with isolation, self-doubt and all of the other stuff on my mind during the strange time that was Covid lockdown.
It feels like the right choice to finally release these songs since they reflect a certain period – at least for me - and they gave me hope when I wrote them.
As always, my brother Daniel (other half of Vinyl Floor) has been an immense part of this album, helping out with everything from arranging the songs to recording, producing & mixing them. Daniel also contributed additional vocals and plays instruments on nearly all 15 tracks.
