Low’s Alan Sparhawk has now officially announced his solo album, White Roses, My God, which will be out September 27 via Sub Pop. (We knew it was coming.) He made the record at 20 Below Studios in Duluth, MN, and it was co-produced by Nat Harvie, who also mixed the album. It’s his first major release since the death of his wife and bandmate Mimi Parker in 2022.
“The kids had the drum machine and a microphone set up in the studio,” Sparhawk says of the album’s genesis. “They’d have their friends over sometimes, and they’d record themselves taking turns free-styling. I brought them a synth and a voice pitch affect to have more options to mess with but before long, my curiosity won, and I found myself secretly stabbing around at possibilities with the unfamiliar tools, improvising, turning knobs until something would hit and a song would form. In hindsight, I can see now that it must have been what needed to come out of me, but at the time it felt like chaos and naïveté-even a little desperate. It kept tapping into a part of me that I’ve come to trust, so I kept recording.
Sparkhawk continues: “I found that the sounds and the rigidity demanded a certain structure, a framework, and I was trying to improvise songs within that framework. Which meant that the things that were organic had this freedom to be even more non-regimented. I really respect the moment when the music instigates transcendence. The vocals ended up being this very spontaneous, visceral engine. There’s a moment when something comes out of your mouth that you didn’t know was going to come out, and then it turns into something else. And something else. And it shakes you. Because what just came out was more precise and accurate and organized than anything you could have come up with. There’s magic in it because it is from the moment that it was created.”
The first single off the album is “Can U Hear,” and you can watch the video for that below.
Alan has tour dates lined up through the fall and into next year, including a run opening for Godspeed You! Black Emperor and just-announced 2025 headline shows, which include a Brooklyn show at Elsewhere on April 2. Tickets for just-announced shows go on sale Friday, July 19 at 10 AM local time. All dates are listed below.
White Roses, My God
1. Get Still
2. I Made This Beat
3. Not the 1
4. Can U Hear
5. Heaven
6. Brother
7. Black Water
8. Feel Something
9. Station
10. Somebody Else’s Room
11. Project 4 Ever
Alan Sparhawk – 2024/2025 Tour Dates
Sat. Nov. 02 – Dublin, IE- Opium
Mon. Nov. 04 – Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
Tue. Nov. 05 – Wales, UK – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Wed. Nov. 06 – London, UK – the Barbican Centre, Pitchfork Music Festival $
Fri. Nov. 08 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed #
Sat. Nov. 09 – Saint Paul, MN – Palace Theatre #
Mon. Nov. 11 – Lawrence, KS #
Tue. Nov. 12 – Fayetteville, AR – George’s Majestic Lounge #
Wed. Nov. 13 – Nashville, TN – Basement East (TN) #
Thu. Nov. 14 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theater #
Fri. Nov. 15 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade #
Sat. Nov. 16 – Charleston, SC – Music Farm #
Sun. Nov. 17 – Saxapahaw, NC – The Haw River Ballroom #
Tue. Nov. 19 – Washington, DC – 930 Club #
Fri. Nov. 22 – Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall #
Sat. Nov. 23 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner #
Sun. Nov. 24 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer #
Mon. Jan. 13 – Fargo, ND – The Aquarium
Wed. Jan. 15 – Bozeman, MT – The Rialto
Fri. Jan. 17 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
Sat. Jan. 18 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
Mon. Jan. 20 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Fri. Jan. 24 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Sat. Jan. 25 – Denver, CO – Bluebird
Fri. Apr. 02 – Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere
$ Jessica Pratt
# Godspeed You! Black Emperor