Breath in: snuff a line speed, a half hour jump on your cheap amplifiers, salad yet once a half hour with you yet cheaper guitar against the wall. Write eleven popliedjes, lay the emphasis on cryptic and forget everything your song teacher you ever learned has. Seek your neighbor girl on and tell her that your musics will make. Lay her emphatically from that she must not try to sing. Stick, now that you it really are, also just your tongue between her lips till you certainly are that they that rather has not. Give her then you eleven popliedjes and (optioneel) a guitar. Question her these eleven popliedjes with you together to not to sing, expect of it surplus. Mess what with the buttons on the amplifier, let the hamster of your neighbor girl also once over the strings run, sign the head of the father of your neighbor girl on the skins of a Bears Smit drumstel, call her feather ten-year-old little brother and lay from that its father him really real hatred. Breath out: and voila, Yourself Summoned. Sounds good? Sounds in it really yet better. Blessed with a delicious dose ADHD-spontaneity and a fine nose for popmelodieën know Tim New Viking on Summoned Yourself a particular charming pot borrow-fi garagepop down to dump. A kind of contemporary version of The Shaggs, but then without the implicit family tie. More a neighbor boy-neighbor girl tie thus.
-unknown blog, google translate 2005
Empath goes far beyond the sound of birds faintly chirping. They’re a band that writes songs like communing with nature, bringing all their fuzzed and tripped out idiosyncrasies into harmony. Empath began in 2016 when Garrett Koloski, Emily “Jem” Shanahan, and Catherine Elicson moved into a house in West Philadelphia together, with Randall Coon joining shortly after. Even with the simple vision to shred, there’s a natural sensitivity in the way Empath communicates. Between the contrast of Elicson’s lush, almost delicate vocals, Koloski’s boisterous drumming, and the half-harmonious wash of guitar and Shanahan and Coon’s synths, Empath equips us with a healthy dose of emotional repose.
The noise punk band broke onto the national scene with the release of Liberating Guilt and Fear EP with renowned DIY Philly punk label Get Better Records in 2018 which drew praise from Pitchfork, NPR, FADER, Rolling Stone and more, being compared to acts such as Broken Social Scene, Sonic Youth, Times New Viking, New Age and Priests. The lead single “The Eye” was deemed “Best New Track” by Pitchfork and Empath was tagged as a rising artist in the US indie music scene.
Over the course of 2019 Empath cemented themselves as one of the buzziest emerging bands in indie music, being heralded as “America’s most inventive young psychedelic band” by Rolling Stone Magazine. They also garnered more support from Pitchfork, FADER, Stereogum, NPR and more around “Soft Shape” and “Hanging Out of Cars,” the two standout singles from Active Listening: Night on Earth LP. Their last single “Roses That Cry” received the “Best New Track” title from Pitchfork. Upon releasing the debut LP it received rave reviews from the top music publications in the world; being called “a noise pop gem” and given a 3.5/5 stars by Rolling Stone Magazine and receiving an 8.0 from Pitchfork.
After cultivating great success at the grass roots level Empath is ready to take the next step into their meteoritic rise with indie taste-maker Fat Possum Records. With the new global support of Fat Possum Records, Empath will be reissuing both Active Listening: Night on Earth LP and Liberating Guilt and Fear EP as a special edition dual-release with Get Better Records and taking to the road both in North America and overseas!