Singer Songwriter Philip Whitehead has announced the release date for ‘The Maze’ the 2nd release from his upcoming debut EP ‘Combray’ and following on from the brilliant debut single Cairo.
In the excessively polarised and politicised world of 2019, London based Whitehead’s new single is a call for unity and resilience against a tide of bickering and anger.
Posing the question ‘What kind of world we’d be, if no-one heard him say “I have a dream”?’ the song reminds us of how far our culture has come, while never letting us forget our tendency to repeat the past – ‘See my father in my history, and in my future he’s still all I see.’ Upon a new landscape where
cancel-culture and alt-right provocateurs seek to make everyone pick teams and fight out their differences, Whitehead preaches togetherness, not opposition, and implores us to ‘show we stick together, through the fire and through the snow.’
Recorded in the months following his mother’s sudden death, The Maze is the second single from Whitehead’s forthcoming debut EP, Combray. The dark indie-folk style of the record, including its previous single Cairo, harkens to the likes of renaissance-man forbears Matt Corby, Damien Rice
and Sufjan Stevens in its introspective and expeditionary embrace.
The Maze is a weighty tome seated upon the depth of history, and unfolds through Whitehead’s signature abundance of layers and whisper-in-your-ear vocals from start to end. Whitehead began his music career after relocating from Worcestershire aged 19 to work as an assistant engineer at Mi7 Studios in London (home to Z Dot, Lennox Lewis and Donae’o), where he fell in love with the process of record-making while studying under other producers and working with independent artists. Spending so much time working on other releases, it wasn’t long before he started piecing together his own songs during studio down-time, and finally released his first solo single in 2017.
Following the critically-praised release of the single Winter early in 2018 and while he was preparing to begin work on his debut EP, Whitehead’s mother tragically died following a two-week illness.
Dumbfounded and puzzled by loss, over the following months he began to plot a course through the chaos
to finish the record he had started under now estranged circumstances. Producing the record himself, Whitehead called upon friends from the music industry and family (his aunt performs ‘cello throughout Combray and his fiancée sings a harmony on lead single Cairo) and was mixed by fellow performer-producer Tarek Musa of Spring King. As on all his recordings, Whitehead plays multiple instruments (guitars, bass, keys, programming) – as well as arranging strings and recording vocals at his London flat.
Following the complete release of the Combray EP in November this year, Whitehead will be playing shows across the UK and Europe and returning to the studio to work on a follow-up release for early 2020.
The Maze will be available on all major streaming and download platforms from September 6th.
Wet you appetite for ‘The Maze’by listening to debut single ‘Cairo’ here:
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