Boat - Tread Lightly

Release date: 5/1/2020

“There’s a lot on your mind all of the time.” Such fitting words for perilous times, but those words help launch Seattle indie rock legends BOAT’s fantastic comeback record, Tread Lightly. Returning after a seven year on hiatus, Tread Lightly will be released May 1st via Magic Marker Records. But don’t call it a comeback, as they never really broke up. They just spent some time focusing on other things. According to frontman David Crane, the band’s friendship has always been the greatest component of its existence, so even though they weren’t making music, the crew of BOAT sailed on.

“We all have busy lives, but just generally enjoy hanging out with one another and eating pizza and playing songs,” Crane says. “I focused on Unlikely Friends, J. Long focused on his work at KEXP and recording bands, J. Goodman focused on his other band Brackets, and M. McKenzie continued to be mysterious. Things really picked up when J. Long and I started sending each other demos. He creates crazy drum loops, and I make a song around them, and send them back. He adds extra melodies on keyboards and vocals, and chops them up and sends them back to me for more layers.

“Considering their close bond, it isn’t surprising that Tread Lightly doesn’t sound like a band coming back after nearly a decade. The album’s dozen crunchy but harmonically honey-coated songs swiftly and succinctly hit that Superchunk/Shins/Billy Joel/Ben Folds sweet spot you didn’t realize you’ve been missing.

Yet if you listen close enough, you’ll discover that the ominously titled Tread Lightly actually contains positive, uplifting, and empowering messages about life and getting older. Lead single “So Many Reasons Your Hair Turns Grey” will make you laugh, but when you think about the lyrics a little harder, you’ll completely appreciate it on a different level. The songs on Tread Lightly offer something more cerebral--healing vibes from someone who's been through trauma and wants to help the world heal, yet leaves you thinking and finding comfort/wisdom in.

Crane agrees. “I think more than almost any other album, this one captures what is going on in my mind. It was subconscious, but I think the record kind of plays like a diary to me. Maybe a 40 year old's diary?

"BOAT's somehow able to rein all those elements in to create playful, catchy-as-hell pop jams that will lodge themselves into your heads and your hearts and refuse to come out." - GorillavsBear

"BOAT's songs are great: part solid and charming melodic pop drenched with narratives and part goofy but endearing indie rock laced with the sounds of a drunken orchestra. So thanks for the warning, Boat, but next time, don't be afraid to put yourselves out there. You're pretty fuckin' rad." - MEGAN SELING The Stranger