ariel pink's haunted graffiti: mature themes

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti will release its new album, Mature Themes, on Aug. 21, it’s the band’s second album for 4AD and the official follow-up to its 2010 breakthrough album, Before Today. “Sonically, it’s comparable,” Pink says of the new work, 13 songs he’s only recently penned. “There are definitely not any links to my lo-fi origins. It’s so diverse but so different from anything I’ve done before. In a sense, its really the record I wanted to make back when I made Before Today, but couldn’t due to pressures and different factors. We had time to let our hair down and try new things.” Pink was able to bring in a large cache of vocal melodies and song foundations he’d previously recorded to his new phone. “Getting my first Android phone changed my life,” he explains. “I don’t have to memorize everything. I can put ideas down on the fly and save them for a rainy day, which is something I never had the luxury of doing in the past. I’ve got this great talent for co- opting memories at random - this time I’ve got a hundred ideas on a moment’s notice.”