Jimkata Finish the Singles Rollout With Bonfires

Jimkata released Bonfires on July 9, 2021, the Ithaca-based trio’s first album in five years and the end point of a rollout that had been dropping one single per month.

The band announced the record on September 24, 2020 as a ten-track album to be released a single at a time, each with its own visuals and merchandise, with the full LP planned for spring 2021.

Jimkata is Evan Friedell on vocals, guitar, bass, synths and lyrics, Aaron Gorsch on synths and guitar, and Packy Lunn on drums, percussion and samples. The band works between Ithaca and Los Angeles.

Made in Syracuse

Bonfires was recorded and mixed at MoreSound Studios in Syracuse, New York, with additional work at Musicians Choice Studios in Culver City, California.

Jason “Jocko” Randall produced with the band. Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice mastered the record at Peerless Mastering in Boston.

Guest players include Justin Spaulding on Hammond organ on “Skinny Dipping” and Randall on acoustic guitar on “Writing on the Wall.”

Ten tracks, one of them four years old

The album’s songs are “Bonfires,” “Roots Down,” “Blessings in Disguise,” “Wait For You,” “Wanna Go,” “Weight of Paradise,” “Skinny Dipping,” “Hard Headed,” “Liar With the Lights On” and “Writing On the Wall.”

The title track has the longest history of the ten. Paul Hammer of Savoir Adore co-wrote “Bonfires” with the band at his Brooklyn home studio in 2017, and he co-produced the finished version.

Filmmaker Dorian Weinzimmer, animator Ben Clarkson and visual artist Elnaz Mansouri contributed to the rollout’s visual side.

An Ithaca record in a restarting summer

The album lands two weeks before the GrassRoots Festival Weekend at the Trumansburg Fairgrounds, one of the first Finger Lakes music events to come back in 2021.

Sources: Jimkata (Bandcamp), American Songwriter, NYS Music.

Photo: Arkady Lifshits, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Generic crowd image, not this event.