The Singleman Affair – 4PM Sunlight – press kit

The Chicago-based artist The Singleman Affair has been the musical folk reverie of Daniel Schneider for over the last two decades. Weaving lonesome troubadour folk ballads alongside chaotic psychedelic out-forms, these melodies have been a vehicle to evoke hazy rain-soaked afternoons, melancholic inner thoughts, and expanding colorful dreams.   The Singleman Affair began playing shows within the burgeoning freak folk scene that emerged in the mid 2000’s. Their debut album “Let’s Kill the Summer,” was released on Alan McGee’s (Creation Records) Poptones’ label, and featured reverb drenched sitar melodies with hushed bedroom meditations. Over the course of the year following this release the band toured extensively across Europe and the US and eventually headed back to the states to work on their follow up album, “The Silhouettes at Dawn. This new recording was a dynamic shift from “Let’s Kill the Summer” and its lo-fi bedroom recordings, and centered on lush, orchestrated arrangement, accented by diverse instrumentation, and focused on expanded song compositions to tell a more in-depth experience or story.   From mythological tales of half-bird/half-human winged lovers sacrificing their wings, to tales of fallen soldiers, wishing they could have had one last moment of affection or a kiss, this lushness opened many new musical relationships whereas to carry these songs. Quickly thereafter, the Singleman Affair once again toured across the different parts of the US and become much more connected to playing live with full on fuzzed out guitars and booming frenetic keyboards via a full band. Returning home and anxious to record as a live ensemble, they began work on the 3rd full length album, “The End of the Affair.” From the beginning to end “The End of the Affair,” weaves itself through tales of escapism and hopelessness, all awhile maintaining an almost delusional sense of bliss. With deep heavy hearts and worried acid trip tongues there are more ideals to be met and fall short of again   So where do we find ourselves now? There is a universal theme to all...   Scenes of fading weary sunsets, quiet morning meditations, and a kaleidoscope of color and beauty patch together themes of solace and everyday life. All of these images have been curated by the artist from over a 20-year catalog of 8mm film footage taken on various travels, homelife, friends, and other intimate moments. They've been blended with multi-faceted video collages often displayed as part of his monthly Orpheatric Variety Show.

The 4th full length album by the Singleman Affair, finds the artist looking inward as they contemplate the acceptance of fleeting moments, spontaneous awareness, and ultimately those final thoughts on eventual closure and resolution. To look back at the never-ending drama with a new camera and a new lens and to find peace with this past.   The entire framework of 4pm sunlight was constructed to have various instrumental compositions interlace the album as a single unit. In this post-digital quick slant reality, there is an emphasis here on the longer listen, a single realized statement. Each piece plays a part to the whole and is accompanied by intricate video interlacing. There is a direct inward inspection to find resolution and acceptance in life’s journey and the different decisions made or regretted about over time. Within our own moments of acceptance are we ever alone, even if our continued isolation and solitude persist?   The album was recorded in various locations around Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland over the last couple of years in coordination with partner in crime and longtime engineer/producer Graeme Gibson. There was a return to more intimate recording techniques and moments of hushed simplicity showing a more nuanced matured songwriting style.   Additional musicians who contributed to this record were Anton Hatwich, Graeme Gibson, Jonathan Kliegle, and Emily Bohner.   4pm Sunlight will be available March 25th via Cardboard Sangria Records (on LP/DL).

"To deal with this sense of disconnection—the feeling that there's a common social reality he doesn't have access to—he displaces it into fictional stories."

“Distilled from John Martyn, Tim Buckley [and] Donovan, the production sounds like a study in 1960’s production techniques.”

“Within these reverb-drenched, acoustic guitar lines Schneider also locates a bewitching, sinister tone.”