Semisonic
Dan Wilson on Semisonic’s First Music in 19 Years, Solving Songwriting ‘Puzzle’
With his 2004 memoir, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star, Semisonic drummer Jacob Slichter offered an unflinching look back at the band’s sudden whirlwind of success with their 1998 hit “Closing Time.” It’s the kind of intimate, rear view perspective that frontman Dan Wilson could never commit to undertaking. “I’m the least reminisce-y person,” he tells SPIN. “I’m just not nostalgic and don’t really reminisce.” Wilson has maintained a forward-facing ethos over the past decade-plus: After the band’s 2001 record, All About Chemistry, he developed a second career as a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, working with the likes of the Chicks, Adele, Taylor Swift and Pink. Still, his band’s past has never strayed far. He jokingly admits how Semisonic bassist John M...
Hear Semisonic’s Chiming New Song ‘All It Would Take’
Semisonic are back with the second sample from their upcoming You’re Not Alone EP, the alt-rock band’s first release in nearly two decades. Throughout “All It Would Take,” singer-songwriter Dan Wilson meditates on infectious joy — how a single act of kindness can spark deeper growth. “There was a time when I believed that all it would take is one look, one heart to change me,” he sings over chiming piano, melodic bass, and washes of slide guitar. Listen below. “I feel that in each of our lives, there is a possibility of meeting that one person who will change the way we see everything, a person who will give us a sense of new meaning, a mission, a passion,” Wilson said in a statement. “‘All It Would Take’ is my song for that moment, that person, that one voice that can change the world wit...
Semisonic Follow a Little Boy’s Adventure in ‘You’re Not Alone’ Video
After dropping their first song in two decades last month, Semisonic have just released the video for “You’re Not Alone.” “For the new Semisonic video, ‘You’re Not Alone,’ we began with memories of childhood in the woods,” frontman and songwriter Dan Wilson said in a statement. “Filmmaker Phil Harder creates a fable of the woods, the city, a distant beach, and a young boy who places a message in a bottle and sends it on a long journey.” Wilson explained that the visual was partially inspired by Richard Powers’ 2019 novel, The Overstory as well as painter Tomas Sanchez’s work. One of Sanchez’s paintings has been chosen as the art for the sleeve of the single. He also added that the video is also partly inspired by “profound isolation” that the global pandemic has brought everyone. “…the vid...
