From funky alt-metal, to thrashy hardcore, to outsider heaviness, to lounge, genre-obliterating works and more, the mighty Mike Patton has pretty much been open to collaborating with anyone on any kind of music. This continues through the announcement of his next record and newest project: AVTT / PTTN — a collaboration between him and long-running, Grammy-winning Americana explorers the Avett Brothers.
News of the group’s forthcoming self-titled debut was confirmed this morning (September 17th) through the premier of an open-aired and folky first single called “Eternal Love.” The song is a gently strummed cloudgazer dedicated to the “dread of eternal love,” and it features both sides of the tandem singing of dark nights, dying, and dreaming of driving through the country with a freshly waxed Mercedes.
A press release notes that the joint project arose from a mutual admiration between the Avett Brothers and Patton — Scott Avett explaining in a statement that he used to study and imitate Patton’s vocal style, and added that the iconic musician’s work is part of the Avetts’ “DNA.”
They saw an album’s worth of material through after Scott Avett sketched out initial song ideas, with Patton then taking a second pass at the arrangement, and the outfit finishing the tunes with contributions from Seth Avett. “My peculiar challenge in this was to become a long distant cousin — a brother that was orphaned,” Patton explained.
The record is said to sport three-part vocal harmonies, a “scuzzy” cover of folk traditional “The Ox Driver’s Song” and more.
“This is what art is,” Scott Avett said in a statement. “This is what making is supposed to be: in secret and with no ambition.”
AVTT / PTTN was produced by Patton, Scott Avett and Grammy-winning engineer Dana Nielsen (Metallica, Rihanna). The album sees release on November 14th via Thirty Tigers / Ramseur Records / Ipecac Recordings, and can be pre-ordered here.
AVTT / PTTN tracklisting:
Dark Night of My Soul
To Be Known
Heaven’s Breath
Too Awesome
Disappearing
Eternal Love
The Ox Driver’s Song
The Things I Do
Received