The New Pornographers To ‘Continue As A Guest’ On New Album Featuring Dan Bejar Co-Write

The New Pornographers will issue a new album, Continue As A Guest, on March 31 via Merge Records, their debut on the label. The Vancouver-born collective also shared the lead single, “Really Really Light,” and announced North American tour dates spanning April 19 through May 21.

The New Pornographers’ co-wrote “Really Really Light” with one-time band member Dan Bejar (Destroyer). The song has its origins in the sessions for The New Pornographers’ 2014 LP Brill Bruisers. Newman detailed how the tune was pulled from the cutting room floor:

“Part of my process throughout the years has been messing with things I never finished. I really liked Dan’s chorus, and for a while I was just trying to write something that I felt like belonged with it. I was thinking of the Aloe Blacc song ‘The Man’ which interpolated the chorus from Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ and thought it would be fun to interpolate a song that no one knows. Not trying to sound like Aloe Blacc, just doing some interpolating of my own. It became a game of writing a verse that felt like a part of the same song. In my mind, I was striving for a little Jeff Lynne–era Tom Petty, a classic go-to.”

The New Pornographers cast for Continue As A Guest includes Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey and Joe Seiders as well as contributions from Zach Djanikian on saxophone. The record tackles themes growing out of the pandemic like isolation and the pitfalls of living online.

“The idea of continuing as a guest felt very apropos to the times,” Newman added. “Feeling out of place in culture, in society—not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest.”

Preview Continue As A Guest with the Christian Cerezo-directed music video for “Really Really Light” below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oWiY61IbPE&ab_channel=TheNewPornographers

The New Pornographers are set to hit the road around Continue As A Guest in 2023 with support from Wild Pink. The spring trek will get underway on April 19 in Asheville, North Carolina. The band will then hit Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Austin and Oklahoma City in the Southern U.S.

The New Pornographers will finish up April with stops in St. Louis, Omaha, Kansas City and Denver on April 30. The band will then make a solid run through the Midwest including St. Paul, Milwaukee and a two-night stand in Chicago. Additional Midwest dates include Cincinatti, Columbus and Detroit ahead of a trip to Toronto on May 12.

The New Pornographers then work their way through the Northeast with engagements in Burlington, Vermont, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. After a concert in Washington D.C. on May 19, The New Pornographers wrap up the spring tour on May 21 in Saxapahaw, North Carolina.

A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to abortion rights organization Frontera Fund. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, January 13 at 10 a.m. local venue time.

Purchase The New Pornographers tickets via Ticketmaster or click below for more ticketing options:

Continue As A Guest Tracklist:

1. Really Really Light
2. Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies
3. Cat and Mouse with the Light
4. Last and Beautiful
5. Continue as a Guest
6. Bottle Episodes
7. Marie and the Undersea
8. Angelcover
9. Firework in the Falling Snow
10. Wish Automatic Suite