FINDING ‘CLARITY’
Narrow Head brings new album, new tour to Launchpad
Though there are always speed bumps, Jacob Duarte is used to life on the road. After a long day of driving, Duarte and the members of Narrow Head find themselves in Bloomington, Indiana, getting ready for their first performance with White Reaper.
Narrow Head is not only celebrating a new tour, but a new album. “Moments of Clarity,” the band’s third fulllength, was released on Feb. 10.
“It feels good to finally have the album out,” Duarte says. “We recorded it back in the summer of 2021. We’ve been sitting on it for so long. We’ve been ready to play the new material.”
Narrow Head is on tour with White Reaper. The tour makes a stop in Albuquerque at Launchpad on Friday, Feb. 17.
Duarte says the band has already rotated through all of the songs on the new album, with the exception of three tracks.
“We’re still getting a feel for how to play it live,” he says. “It was a very different process in creating this album. This was the first album that we had a producer, Sonny DiPerri, and actually did preproduction. We spent more time dissecting the songs.”
Duarte and the band worked with DiPerri in Sherman, Texas, before relocating to Los Angeles at Jeff Friedl’s home studio.
“Jeff opened up the studio and an Airbnb,” Duarte says. “We were in the studio and able to sleep nearby. I prefer it this way because I can get a lot more done. I want it to feel easy, but also know that we are getting something done.”
The band’s latest single is “Caroline” and captures the band in a pop-inflected moment, Duarte says.
“I’ve always thought Caroline was such a singable name,” Duarte says. “I’ve written dozens of songs using that name but never really brought them to life. I guess Caroline is a pseudo name I use for lyrics. Just rolls off the tongue. So when people listen to this and think to themselves ‘who’s Caroline?’ I don’t think I know who they are,m either.”
Narrow Head is also marking its 10th year together in 2023. Duarte says the band has a full schedule ahead of them and won’t celebrate too much.
“It’s crazy to think that we dropped our demo in May 2013,” he says. “We might be able to get a celebration show set up some time this year. We’ll be in the U.K. and travelling all over the world.”
With 10 years under its belt, Duarte says Narrow Head still has many goals set.
“I still would like to play bigger rooms and venues,” he says. “We want to record another album and take it as far as we can. This is what we love to do and it’s amazing to connect to the audience through music and performance.”