“…Quiet songs with minimal arrangements.”
Jeremy Leasure describes the aim of his tandem debut with Brittany Beppu, Thoughts on Future Hindsight, concisely. As NewBalance, the duo draws something different from Leasure’s older project, Canyons, of which Beppu occasionally contributes to. They’re more influenced by songwriters like Scott Walker and Townes Van Zandt, Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn. Poignant and noble.
Beppu’s voice stands out in the album’s tape scratch “Shirley Temple”. At first the lyrics are cryptic, but the songs emerge as individual character sketches, says Leasure—an attempt "…to understand how we cope when things don’t go the way we imagined they would." He hopes that the songs provide the same comfort to his audience as they did for him. NewBalance’s next performance on the 19th at The Smell with Tone in Georgia, Hannah and minimall. Listen to the opener "Cartoon Captions" off Thoughts on Future Hindsight, out now. – Kaitlyn Tang