The husband and wife duo known as Tennis, consisting of Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, has announced their fifth studio album, Swimmer, which is set to release on Valentine’s day in 2020. Swimmer is produced by Tennis and mixed by four-time Grammy Award-nominee Claudius Mittendorfer (Panic! At The Disco, Parquet Courts). In addition to their new album announcement, the indie-pop duo also released the first single from the project, “Runner.”
“’Runner’ is the first song we wrote for our fifth record,” says Moore. “It began as a guitar riff Patrick recorded while we were living off grid, anchored in a fisherman’s cove called San Juanico. The only instruments we had on board were an acoustic guitar and a drum sequencer, but the limitations seemed to work in our favor. Until that point we had no clear vision for our writing. The demo Patrick recorded that day outlined our future, the first contours of our next record.” Thus the idea for their fifth studio album, Swimmer, was born.
The old saying goes, good things come to those who wait, and that couldn’t have been anymore true for Tennis member Alaina Moore. She goes on to say, “It took months to write a chorus that fit. I wanted to respond to Patrick’s ideas without altering them. I cycled through chord progressions and pages of lyrics. A year passed. The song seemed to actively resist coherence. My breakthrough came when I began to think of the song as a conversation between two songwriters, a series of questions and answers. It constituted a shift in our writing relationship from one that was solipsistic— my songs, which were distinct from Patrick’s— to one of collaboration and attunement. I often wonder if a truly equitable partnership exists anywhere between anyone, but this song feels like a testament to its possibility.”
Atwood Magazine describes the song as warm dynamic explosion of melodies encompassed by evocative soundscapes which enhance the intimate lyrics. The song starts out with a catchy guitar riff followed by the angelic sounding singing of Alaina Moore, then out of nowhere a rocking bass riff, which could remind one of Tame Impala, comes blaring through. The song continues to build the harmonious dynamics until the chorus, which is topped off with a nice little guitar solo.
In addition to their frequent live activity, Tennis has made a number of high profile media appearances, spanning NPR to NBC, while also collaborating on campaigns for top brands like Gucci, Madewell, and Vinyl Me, Please.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
