Courtesy of New West Records
Courtesy of New West RecordsR.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck has formed a new group with indie-folk singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur called Arthur Buck. The duo has just completed a debut album that will be released this year.
Buck and Arthur’s collaboration came together after the two musicians bumped into each other near Peter’s residence in Baja California, Mexico.
“I was like, ‘Come swimming!'” Buck recalls to Rolling Stone. “Joe shows up in Mexico — the kind of guy where he’s carrying every single thing he owns on his back — and then all this stuff started occurring.”
Buck and Arthur proceeded to write eight songs in eight hours, and these tunes form the basis of the new album.
“It was really spontaneous and kind of magical in its own way, as [being in Mexico] we were kind of disconnected from everything,” Peter explains to the magazine.
Adds Joe, “All of a sudden it was like I had this musical partner and friend, and that relieved the music of the burden of the self, if that makes sense.”
Buck, who first met Arthur when he opened for R.E.M. back in 2004, notes, “Joe is going through that searching period we all go through in life. And those experiences he’s having make this a very forward-looking record, lyrically. The music has a questing kind of feel. We were making it up as we went along.”
Arthur Buck is planning to head out on a tour of the U.S. and Europe to support the forthcoming album.
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