Grand Tours represents a resolute return from the ashes by Midwestern synthpop brother-sister duo Seaside Holiday, singer/instrumentalist Cara (McQuate) Dziak and multi-instrumentalist Morgan McQuate.
Following their 2012 self-titled debut (an NME ‘Top 5’ pick by Jacob Graham of The Drums), Grand Tours capitalizes on that first offering with a renewed sense of intention — the pair’s icy indietronica now imbued with a survivalist sentiment among the fresh layers of cavernous pulses and sleek guitars.
Featuring production from Ronnie Martin (Joy Electric, The Foxglove Hunt) amid the mix, the newly-synthesized sonic sculptures from Seaside Holiday detail a wistful lyrical trek through the “dark night of the soul,” exploring the depths of loss and its lingering questions while questing for the hopeful glimmer that comes with new life.
Inspired by NASA’s Voyager space probe program — the lonely beacons launched in 1977 and still quietly traversing deep space today — Grand Tours serves as a thematic parallel for those abandoned space wanderers now far outside the grasp of human hands.This musical journey draws upon that allegorical theme of the searching spirit within every one of us and leaves a haunting, ethereal imprint on the listener.
Seaside Holiday released lead single “The End of All Things,” with an accompanying video directed by Morgan McQuate, earlier this year.This succeeded last year’s teaser drop of “Etchings of Yesterday,” the album’s thematic highlight of spacey, sensual longing. In an early piece of press for the album, Music Times called the work an “advanced take on the band’s detailed electro-pop symphonies.”
CD pre-orders for Grand Tours include an exclusive silver-colored 7-inch record with two additional, non-album tracks.The supplemental vinyl disc is limited to 300 pieces and includes a download coupon. Grand Tours was mastered by Nicholas Rowe at National Audio Preservation Society (Mixtapes, Narrow/Arrow) and features photography and art design by Zackariah Cole and Larissa Cole.