Trace Mountains and Teen Suicide have shared their contributions to I Will Swim to You: A Tribute to Jason Molina, which was recently announced by Run For Cover Records. Following MJ Lenderman’s cover of ‘Just Be Simple’ and Sun June’s take on ‘Leave The City’ Trace Mountains and Teen Suicide have tackled ‘The Dark Don’t Hide It’ and ‘Whip Poor Will’, respectively. Take a listen below.
“I first heard about Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. when I was trying to find a label to put out my 2020 record Lost in the Country,” Dave Benton of Trace Mountains said in a press release. “An A&R I was chatting with said my songs reminded them of Jason’s and it prompted a dive into his catalogue that turned into a minor obsession with certain songs. The label conversation eventually fizzled out, but I was still glad to have discovered all Jason Molina’s wonderful music. ‘The Dark Don’t Hide It’ was always my favourite song of his, so when I was asked to contribute to this compilation I thought a piano-forward arrangement of the song might be kind of nice. So that’s what we did! Thanks for listening.”
Sam Ray of Teen Suicide had this to say:
Jason Molina’s music, particularly his records as Songs: Ohia, have been a huge part of my life. His music has gotten me through some of the very dark times in my life, and his songwriting has been immensely influential to me as well. I think the same could be said for a lot of our bandmates over the years, particularly Sean Mercer, who played with Teen Suicide for about seven or eight years. Soon after he joined the band full-time we started doing a cover of ‘Whip Poor Will’ at our shows. We’d play a version similar to the B-side from Magnolia Electric Co—stripped down to two guitars and nothing else, Sean would sing Molina’s lead, and I’d sing Jennie Benford’s.
When Run for Cover asked if we’d like to be part of a compilation honouring Molina’s music and legacy, I asked immediately if we could record a cover of it, hoping to capture the version we’d been playing for so many years. Thankfully we had a chance to reconvene and plan out our cover—doing it almost the same as before but now with the addition of Ahren Buchheisster playing the pedal steel as well. All these years later it’s still one of my favourite songs ever; I couldn’t be happier to have it be part of this wonderful compilation.
I Will Swim to You: A Tribute to Jason Molina comes out on September 5. It also features Hand Habits, Advance Base, Friendship, Horse Jumper of Love, Runnner, Another Michael, and more.
