Alt-rock outfit The Yagas, led by Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress Vera Farmiga, has officially announced their highly anticipated debut full-length album, Midnight Minuet, set for independent release on Friday, April 25th.
Alongside the album announcement, The Yagas—featuring Renn Hawkey (Deadsy, keys), Jason Bowman (drums), Mark Visconti (guitar), and Mike Davis (bass)—have dropped their latest single, “Life Of A Widow,” an explosive yet luminous meditation on anticipatory grief. The song’s hypnotic pulse stems from a beat that Hawkey crafted after awakening from spinal surgery, adding an eerie yet mesmerizing energy to the track.
Midnight Minuet, produced by Hawkey, also features the previously released singles “The Crying Room” and “She’s Walking Down.”
PRESS HERE to download/stream “Life Of A Widow.”
“‘Life Of A Widow’ is a song of searing lament. It’s a song of embodying that ol’ prodigious saying, ‘Why has thou forsaken me?’,” shares Farmiga. “The song is aching to feel the presence of a deceased loved one. It’s a soul’s journey of yearning, pleading to crack the unbearable silence of solitude, that Vantablack void, just to hear your love’s voice once again, to feel your love’s touch again. The protagonist in our song wanders through her misery, she navigates through mad midnight moments of throbbing despair. She begs to feel less alone. She demands to feel the presence of her lost love. And she won’t stop wailing until he’s there. It’s about taking those sudden, violent jabs of red-hot grief, feeling pummeled and clobbered by desperation and crying out to the dearly departed for help and reconnection.”
“Producing Midnight Minuet was very cathartic for me,” adds Hawkey. “I felt the need to prove to myself that I could make great music outside of Deadsy, which, for the past 25 years, had been my only writing/recording partnership. This was a very different creative experience for me. I often felt in Deadsy like I was playing in someone else’s playground – I knew the rules, I mastered the slide and the monkey bars, but I felt like a visitor.Midnight Minuet just felt different. The Yagas built a new playground together, made up of our respective life experiences with equal ownership. We are the sum of our parts. When this kind of synergy exists, you grab it, nurture it, and give it a life.”
The Yagas introduced their elaborate sonic world last fall with their powerful debut single “The Crying Room,” which also serves as Midnight Minuet’s explosive opener. The song sets Farmiga’s beguiling vocals against a backdrop of serpentine guitar riffs, moody synth lines, and tempestuous rhythms supplied by Bowman and Davis. Paired with a darkly enchanting video co-starring Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz, the primally cathartic track was partly inspired by the horrors endured by Farmiga’s extended family since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. PRESS HERE to watch the official music video for “The Crying Room,” which has amassed over 1.3 million streams on both YouTube and Spotify. On “She’s Walking Down,” The Yagas make brilliant use of vocoder-enhanced vocals, pummeling guitar riffs, and viscerally chilling effects to fully immerse the listener in a brutal but exhilarating tale of violence and vengeance. The track’s hauntingly beautiful music video – directed by Farmiga, marking the piece of art she’s directed in 15 years – depicts a dark dream that Farmiga repeatedly had about her young daughter in peril. PRESS HERE to watch the video for “She’s Walking Down.”
Throughout the forthcoming 10-song collection – mixed by GRAMMY® nominee BrianVirtue (Deftones, 30 Seconds to Mars) and mastered by GRAMMY® winner Emily Lazar(Beck, Coldplay) – The Yagas adorn even the darkest moments with unexpected bursts of ineffable beauty and, in sharing their debut body of work with the world, aim to further their namesake’s legacy in their own ultimately benevolent way. Full track listing for Midnight Minuet below.
The New York-based band, who made their live debut earlier this month, will next perform Saturday, April 5th at Bowery Ballroom in New York City as a special guest at the Casa Gogol Records Presents: NEW NEW YORK event. PRESS HERE for tickets.
Earlier this week, The Yagas and international punk band Gogol Bordello, led by Hütz, released a live performance video from The Yagas’ debut show of the popular Ukrainian love song “Chervona Ruta.” With Vera and Eugene both of Ukrainian heritage, this special video release is their way of shedding light on Ukrainian culture and language while raising money for Support Action Ukraine, an organization launched at the start of the war to provide humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian population. PRESS HERE to watch and donate and PRESS HERE to purchase a limited-edition“Chervona Ruta” t-shirt also benefiting Support Action Ukraine.
Formed in 2023, The Yagas took shape after its five members met at Rock Academy (a Woodstock-based music school run by Bowman) and began playing together in the school’s adult program, discovering an undeniable musical chemistry. An audacious band with otherworldly origins, The Yagas borrowed their name from the mystical Slavic folklore figure Baba Yaga, believed to devour the souls of the newly deceased to safeguard the fountains of life. The quintet wholly share their namesake’s storied penchant for shapeshifting, morphing from metal to industrial to wildly extravagant alt-rock as their songs journey into the strangest depths of the human psyche. The Yagas music has received early comparisons to A Perfect Circle, TheCure, and Type O Negative with praise and support from Revolver Magazine, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock Magazine, The Noise/Ones To Watch, Stereogum, Bloody Disgusting, Rock Cellar Magazine, and more.
Midnight Minuet Track Listing
1. The Crying Room
2. I Am
3. Life Of A Widow
4. Anhedonia
5. Pendulum
6. Charade
7. Bridle
8. Pullover
9. She’s Walking Down
10. Midnight Minuet
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