NICK CARLISLE

Download / stream the new single “AI Trash”, out now

AI Trash is the first single from Sailors On The Roiling Sea, the follow up to last year’s Bloody Saturnalia. “It’s a bit of a cartoon song, it’s not meant to be taken too seriously. The song takes some of the fears surrounding AI, particularly around creativity where if AI can make great art and music then what’s left for us to do, and jumbles them together in a kind of panicked word salad. Also I was imagining the impact of AI as a stormy sea, throwing all generations and culture together as one mixed up maelstrom of truth and lies, hence the album title Sailors On The Roiling Sea, which I guess we all are in that scenario. Of course I should say that I use AI for tasks as much as anyone else, and Glen Marshall made some fantastic videos for the last album using AI. So my attitude towards it is definitely not completely negative. It’s in the title really, this is just a song about the AI trash, not the AI good stuff” – Nick

Watch the video, filmed by Kirsty Yates & Lucy Cage, and featuring Andy Pyne on drums and Julian Tardo on bass guitar

Sailors On The Roiling Sea

Pre-order the new Nick Carlisle album “Sailors On The Roiling Sea”, released 22nd November 2024 on The Colour Inverted Records.

“And no one wants the truth anymore
They just sail towards the squall
As servant becomes overlord…”
(“Early Formations”)

Themes

The album Sailors On The Roiling Sea takes its title from a vision Nick has of the impact of AI as a swirling stormy sea in which all of human history and culture is thrown together in a maelstrom of confusion. Nick commissioned French illustrator Clémence Mira to create the album artwork based on this idea, having admired her work over the years. “I see what Clémence does as similar to what’s depicted in the paintings I have always loved by Bruegel, except of course a modern version for 2024. And so she was perfect to portray this image of figures and objects from all sorts of disparate places in time and space thrown together on the silicon waves”. Like with the video for “AI Trash”, Nick avoided actually using AI to make the album artwork, given its already ubiquitous presence. 

AI, and perhaps more generally, humans facing the possibility of surrendering their dominance to AI, along with that other leviathan of the times climate change, loom large as themes over Sailors On The Roiling Sea. The opening song “Early Formations” is lyrically a sister song to “AI Trash”, and both set the stormy scene already described, indeed both name-checking the album title. “Spiralling” deals with a different sort of fear, in this case health anxiety. The protagonist falls foul of their avoidant personality in an effort to close their ears to anything that triggers their health worries: “And all the while the prison grows, avoiding any sight or sound, turn the television down again”.

Falling Ice In New York City

The epic of the album is “Falling Ice In New York City”, a 7 minute song about an oil worker on a run-aground drill ship in the Arctic. As he waits for the icebreaker rescue ship to arrive he falls into a guilt-dream reverie, where memories of New York streets spray-gunned orange by environmental activists make way for the arrival of his Leviathan. The album ends with a tentatively upbeat song “Nothing Is Ever Over”, where the lyrics coax a victim of todays polarising discourse to “change or be changed”, to quote Naomi Klein, and to take control of their life once more and see the positive.

Recording the New Album

Sailor On The Roiling Sea was recorded at Church Road Recording Company in East Sussex over the summer of 2024. Nick produced the album and handles all the lead vocals, as well as adding his signature keyboards along with occasional guitar, bass & percussion. He made a point this time of recording as many real instruments as possible as opposed to their software counterparts, including Hammond C3, Mellotron, harpsichord and piano (ex-Keith Emerson’s no less!). He’s also joined by past and current collaborators: Julian Tardo (Insides) on bass guitar and guitar, Foz Foster (The Monochrome Set / David Devant & His Spirit Wife) on hammered dulcimer on “Nothing Is Ever Over”, Marcus Hamblett (Bears Den / Rozi Plain) on bass guitar & brass, Aubrey Simpson (Pale Blue Eyes) on the fretless bass guitar on “Spiralling” and “Nothing Is Ever Over” as well as providing the “AI Trash” single photography, and Andy Pyne and Simon Adams, who play the drums and percussion throughout.

Sailors On The Roiling Sea track list:

1. Early Formations
2. The Shout From Beyond
3. Too Much Stuff
4. As It Was
5. Spiralling
6. AI Trash
7. Future Winters
8. Falling Ice In New York City
9. Nothing Is Ever Over

All songs written by Nick Carlisle except “Too Much Stuff”, lyrics (Carlisle) & music (Carlisle / Tardo).

Sailors On The Roiling Sea is released on cassette/Compact Disc/digital formats on 22nd November by The Colour Inverted Records, a vinyl edition will follow. AI Trash is out 27th September, available from nickcarlisle.bandcamp.com & all digital stores & streaming sites. Photography by Aubrey Simpson.