Exclusive Track Premiere: ‘Pray for Rain,’ Pure Bathing Culture

Having originally met as freshman studying at William Patterson University in New Jersey in the early 2000s, Sarah Versprille and Daniel Hindman began making music together in the band Vetiver, but since 2013 have become known as Pure Bathing Culture. In October, the pair will release Pray for Rain, the first follow-up to their debut full-length Moon Tides, and below we are pleased to premiere the titular track.

“‘Pray for Rain’ is about the pressure of trying to figure out who you really are or how you truly, personally feel about anything amidst all the pressure that surround you in life,” Versprille says. “We all go through so many different phases, and maybe some of them for the wrong reasons, but we’re driven to move forward anyway and we may as well embrace that, no matter the outcome.”

Addressing the issues of looking inward and honest self-reflection, Versprille’s voice repeatedly sings, “Are you cut in two? / Cut all the way through,” suggesting that everyone has dual personalities: those inside and those projected outward. Her voice layers with clean synths, guitars, and bass for a song that has an overarching uplifting tone, despite its relatively somber lyricism.

While recording Pray for Rain with John Congleton (St. Vincent, The Walkmen) in Dallas, Versprille and Hindman were challenged to explore the unfamiliar, resulting in an audible shift away from Moon Tide‘s dream pop aesthetic to include more natural production and raw guitar.

“John was demanding in our abandonment of clichés,” Versprille continues. “The songs aren’t covered up by a production concept [like they were on Moon Tides]… It was hard and uncomfortable for us plenty of times. It changed us, and the way we think about our music. It was much more of a passage between places than an arrival.”

PRAY FOR RAIN IS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE ON OCTOBER 23, 2015 VIA PARTISAN RECORDS. FOR MORE ON PURE BATHING CULTURE, VISIT THE BAND’S FACEBOOK.