All the Ways You Sing in the Dark Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh

• 1Call Me When You Land04:47
• 2Summertime Low04:21
• 3Amaranth Moonlight03:42
• 4Los Feliz02:50
• Total Runtime15:40

Info for All the Ways You Sing in the Dark

Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh share a new song called “Summertime Low” from their upcoming EP collaboration, All The Ways You Sing In The Dark.

“It’s a dog days of summer moment,” Ben Cramer (aka Old Sea Brigade) says. “Some days you feel so lazy. The next thing you know, it’s three o’clock in the afternoon and you feel a little down, because you haven’t done anything.”

“It feels like a good summation of the whole EP,” Luke remarks. “We’re asking existential questions coupled with hope and thinking of ways life can be better.”

ll The Ways You Sing In The Dark is comprised of four songs that carry the spirit of their surroundings. Nodding to the Laurel Canyon renaissance of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, Ben and Luke garnered inspiration from cruising around Silverlake and Hollywood. The pair previously released “Call Me When You Land,” which coasts along on a breeze of acoustic strumming and soft strings, as the two trade verses back and forth. Luke’s high-register hook captivates before a dreamy guitar lead takes flight. Americana UK called the track “a shimmering, dreamy song for the summer,” while Music Is My Life called it “a perfect example of what good chemistry and friendship can produce…the track is magical.” Meanwhile, “Amaranth Moonlight” feels perfectly suited for a late-night drive with its steady beat, ethereal guitar, and cinematic lyrics. Lush piano and mellotron echo through “Los Feliz.”

Despite being friends for just three years and this being their first collaboration, Nashville-based Old Sea Brigade and LA-based Londoner Luke Sital-Singh share a chemistry that most groups chase for a lifetime. They wrote most of the EP at Luke’s place last summer in just seven days, finishing the recordings alongside Ben’s production partner Owen Lewis in Nashville at Shoebox Studios in December 2019.

Luke and Ben first met at a show together at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City in 2017. Old Sea Brigade then supported Luke for ten dates and as Luke prepared to hit the road with Angus & Julia Stone a few months later, he needed a tour manager. Ben found himself with some free time and obliged. Throughout this trip, the pair developed a strong friendship and over the ensuing two years, they casually emailed song ideas back and forth before Ben flew to LA for that fateful week last summer.

“The whole thing was very refreshing,” says Ben. “Growing up, I came from playing in bands and collaborating with people. This is the closest thing I’ve done to a band in a while. It was a breath of fresh air.”

“I’d just released my third record and moved to Los Angeles, so I was looking for a change,” Luke continues. “I was trying to let the process happen as naturally as possible and get through the week—so this guy would leave my house,” he chuckles.

As the world went into quarantine and their solo careers were put on hold, Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh found a rare window on their schedules to release All The Ways You Sing in the Dark.

“We wrote all of this before the pandemic,” Luke admits. “We didn’t have a plan. We simply made something for ourselves that we’re really happy with. When everything happened, we were given an opportunity we might not have had otherwise. It opens up a new world of possibilities for the future.”

For as fast as everything came together, this union has all the makings of an enduring partnership.

Luke Sital Singh, vocals
Old Sea Brigade, vocals

Ben Cramer (aka Old Sea Brigade)
It really feels like coloring outside of the lines. For as much as the music of Old Sea Brigade remains rooted in Americana, indie, country, rock, and ambient soundscapes, it blurs and breaks barriers, tossing and turning between analog cinematic flourishes and provocative lyricism based on hard-won wisdom.

Amidst this mélange of textures, Atlanta-born and Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Ben Cramerallows the emotion to resound loudest on his full-length debut, Ode To A Friend [Nettwerk]. “I put myself into my own bubble,” he explains. “The music doesn’t conform to one style. I’m in Nashville, but this isn’t straight ahead Americana or country. At the same time, it’s not just indie rock either. I chose to do something that felt like me.It’s the best representation of my songwriting and what I grew up loving about music. I hope you can pull your own meaning from it.”

He’s been encouraging audiences to do just that since first emerging in 2015. After the breakup of his last band, he wound up back in Atlanta at his parents’ house with “no idea what to do.” So, he figured it out. The artist combed through his personal sonic archives, found inspiration, and started feverishly writing. Soon after, he teamed up with producer Jeremy Griffith to record Old Sea Brigade’s self-titled debut EP. The single “Love Brought Weight” caught fire, generating over 16 million Spotify streams. In the meantime, he inked a deal with NETTWERK after founder Terry McBride personally reached out on Facebook.

Between touring alongside Joseph, Luke Sital Singh, Lewis Watson, Julien Baker, John Paul White, and more, he released 2017’s Cover My Own EP. The lead single “Tidal Wave” quickly crossed the two-million-mark on Spotify as acclaim came from Clash, Indie Obsessive, Immersive Atlanta, and many others. During 2017, he retreated to Griffith’s Dest in, FL studio in order to record what would become Ode To A Friend. In the studio, the sonic palette expanded to incorporate analog synths and a “squeaky, old, and out-of-tune piano that you’d never find in a music store—but gave the sound character.”

“This go-around, I brought in a lot of production ideas, since I’d been working with many artists in Nashville,” he explains. “I worked closely with Jeremy to bring the production to life. We went outside of the box and tried different things. That messed-up piano became a big theme of the record.” On the lead single “Hope,” creaky ambience underscores the finger-picked acoustic guitar as he croons ponderous lines a la the opening admission, “I want to feel hope when I die, so I know what I left behind.” He recalls, “I wrote that in Laurel Canyon at a friend’s house. That was first experience writing in L.A. like that. It wrote itself pretty quickly. It takes a while for me to figure out what a song is about. It was being really honest though. That’s how I’d describe it.”“Feel You” sways between a steady beat offset by his gravelly delivery and sparse, off-time piano chords. “It takes on multiple meanings,” he reveals. “It could be like a bad relationship, or it could be something else, depending on your experience.”“Seen A Ghost” hypnotizes with its airy guitars and ethereal production as “Cigarette” lights up embers of delicate picking and resounding vocals. Barely over two minutes, the title track and closer “Ode To A Friend” leaves a lasting impression that’s both heartfelt and heartbreaking with a vocal mid-section that practically levitates on the energy of raw feeling.

“When I started Old Sea Brigade, the time that followed was the best two years of my life,” he goes on. “I could tour and work on music full-time. In the middle of all that happening, one of my best friends actually committed suicide. It’s a heavy record in that respect. I came up with the lyrics right after he passed. I didn’t want a normal structure. It’s almost like an interlude to tie up the album dedicated to him. He was always such a big proponent and fan of my songs. He encouraged me to move towards a solo career. The title made sense. I finally felt vulnerable enough to put out music that was close to me.” That’s why it’s so easy to get close to Old Sea Brigade. Cramer opens the floodgates emotionally and forges an unbreakable connection by simply being himself.“I’d love for someone who is listening to feel like this is different and new, but also realize the vulnerability of the music,” he leaves off. “That’s definitely something I’ve struggled with in the past. This record is my leap of faith to express music in the truest way I can. I want to keep doing that.”

Luke Sital-Singh
Raised in the southwest London suburb of New Malden, indie folk singer/songwriter Luke Sital-Singh released his first EP, Fail for You, in late 2012. Produced by veteran Irish producer Iain Archer (Snow Patrol, Jake Bugg), the four songs had a haunting, intimate quality that drew comparisons to Bon Iver and Jeff Buckley, and earned Sital-Singh considerable airplay in the U.K. He released a second EP in the spring of 2013 called Old Flint, which opened the door to several tours and key spots on the U.K. festival circuit, and eventually landed him a deal with British major Parlophone Records. Tornados, his third EP and first for Parlophone, found him again working with Iain Archer and was released in late 2013. The EP found Sital-Singh expanding his usually spare sound with the introduction of a full complement of backing musicians, bringing a newfound complexity to his music. He then appeared on the BBC Sound of 2014 long list, and soon after confirmed the details of his debut album, The Fire Inside, which was due for release midway through that year. Two years later, Sital-Singh had split from his major-label and headed out to record what would be his sophomore album. Heading to the remote Attica Audio in Donegal, Ireland with producer Tommy McLaughlin (Villagers), Sital-Singh stripped back everything, being joined by just a small backing band to help deliver the personal and reflective 2017 release Time Is a Riddle. The EP Just a Song Before I Go arrived the following year. Early 2019 saw the release of the wistful single "Love Is Hard Enough Without the Winter."

This album contains no booklet.