CREDIT ELECTRIC — out of love in the face of a shadow
Credit Electric was founded by songwriter and musician Ryan LoPilato and guitarist Cameron Iturri-Carpenter in 2017. LoPilato had recently made the move out west to Oakland and it wasn’t long before he was introduced to Iturri-Carpenter. Later the pair connected with pedal steel guitarist Evan Hiller. The band’s debut album emerged in 2019. Numerous singles followed.
The focus shifted from live arrangements to home recording, upon the arrival of the pandemic. Writing lyrics and structuring songs through the lens of surrealist automatism, LoPilato laid a foundation for Iturri-Carpenter and Hiller to play with textures that moved Credit Electric towards a new sound.
The band hooked up with Oakland based record label Royal Oakie and producer David Glasebrook. Working together, LoPilato and Glasebrook refined the songs into an album, adding texture and crafting an evocative sonic landscape. Glasebrook mixed at his studio in Oakland.
Painting with sound while exploring open guitar tunings, esoteric synths, and experimental mixing techniques, the studio itself became the musical instrument backing the songs.
The resulting album out of love in the face of a shadow inhabits a world of its own, a sort of unclassifiable post-modern music that defies expectation...
TRACK NOTES BY RYAN LOPILATO + TRACK CREDITS
out of love in the face of a shadow
vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards - Ryan LoPilato
if only we could know the reason for attachments which guide actions and emotions that cause us pain. We’ll never know each other’s pain but somehow we feel it just the same
carrot
vocals, drums, keyboards, guitar - Ryan LoPilato
guitar, bass - Cameron Iturri-Carpenter
synth percussion - David Glasebrook
about reconditioning my inherited perspective of reality to protect myself from my own ego
st francis’s child
vocals, guitar, drums, bass, keyboards - Ryan LoPilato
trying to cope with the dependency of another person’s love and acceptance for happiness. It’s also about using natural remedies to reframe my perspective and find acceptance in myself through a lens of improvised mysticism to move past those dependencies. Ultimately it’s a romance about finding true love by connecting to others through a higher power without egocentric attachment
immunity
vocals, guitar, keyboards, drums - Ryan LoPilato
guitar, bass - Cameron Iturri-Carpenter
on the hypocrisy of and conditioning by media. The song aims to deconstruct preconceived notions of ethnic and political perceptions, pointing to part of the human struggle unseen by a privileged, sheltered or ignorant collective. This neglect is often caused by privacy and second-hand information instead of real-world experience
heights
vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, drums - Ryan LoPilato
guitar - Cameron Iturri-Carpenter
synth bass - David Glasebrook
about living under the premise of emotional co-dependence for material gain and under the premise of an emotionally codependent relationship. Being a witness to the outcomes of those situations through self harm, violence, and substance abuse. And how I distract myself from the truth of those things I’ve become lost in, to 'forget that with you' - juxtaposing romance with the truth it can cover
selfus
vocals, guitar, drums, bass - Ryan LoPilato
guitar - Cameron Iturri-Carpenter
pedal steel - Evan Hiller
asks us to be kind to each other and not pass judgment because we are all are on our own path toward understanding, with actions led by our own emotional baggage. I’m making fun out of people who judge and speak with negativity on topics beyond the scope of their expertise; the louder those people speak the less they have to say
silver line
vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums - Ryan LoPilato
acoustic guitar - David Glasebrook
I was thinking about a cross country drive I made from California to New Jersey when I broke up with my partner. I was driving past the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, looking at the afternoon moon, and I had a feeling that I would be back together with her again in time. We got back together a year later but I didn’t work out the things that caused problems in our relationship within myself first. This song is an abstract of that experience
summit sipper
vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums - Ryan LoPilato
synth bass, DX7 - David Glasebrook
written in 2020 when I was taking trips with my girlfriend at the time into the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains and backpacking in the high country. I hiked a 14k peak and was feeling figuratively high from the altitude and wrote some of the words that would become summit sipper. It’s a song of reflection and recovery, recovering memories from parts of my life when I was trying to forget who I was
winner
vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums - Ryan LoPilato
synth bass, backing vocals - David Glasebrook
on psychoactive substances as an aid for meditation, through respect for both oneself and the world. I believe that psychoactive substances are to be used as tools of medicine respectfully. To promote the transcendence of the intensity of experience into a spiritual will. The song calls to embrace that will instead of allowing the ego and its trappings to take control and submit to indulgence, gluttony, addiction, and death
mocking bird
vocals, guitar, piano, bass, drums - Ryan LoPilato
guitar - Cameron Iturri-Carpenter
pedal steel - Evan Hiller
organ, backing vocals - David Glasebrook
this is a song about global warming and our seemingly inevitable fate of death as human beings. We can only give ourselves to a higher power and connect to the source of all things, to find peace of mind in this world - you can’t win alone
ALBUM CREDITS
Recorded by Ryan LoPilato in Berkeley, CA and Richmond, CA
Produced by Ryan LoPilato and David Glasebrook
Additional engineering by David Glasebrook in Oakland, CA
Mixed by David Glasebrook in Oakland, CA
Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk in Portland, OR
Executive Producer: David Glasebrook
Original artwork by Lanéya Billingsley
Back Cover by Ryan LoPilato
Layout by Aaron Hubbard
SINGLES
heights - out now
here 4 u (remix) - out now
Archetype - out now
ALBUM
Credit Electric album out of love in the face of a shadow:
Album release - out now
UK/Europe Vinyl LP release due from March 1st 2024
Formats: CD, Cassette, Vinyl, and Digital
For further information please contact...
