Blue Tiger
Edinburgh based Blue Tiger set to release debut EP ‘Artifice’ on Friday 27th Nov via OK Pal Records.
Blue Tiger the alias of Edinburgh-based, Peruvian-born Mario Cruzado, having previously fronted sludge-rock ensemble Plastic Animals who released the album, Pictures from the Blackout via Song By Toad Records in 2016 ventures into solo material for the first time. Under the new guise Cruzado brings a tranquility to his songwriting this time with harmonious vocals set to a backdrop of sparse percussion and textured guitar talking about the EP he explains “If I was to sum up these songs, there's a running theme of melancholy and hope. When I was 6 years old, the kids in the neighbourhood gave me the nickname 'happy/sad'. I reckon that fits this collection of songs very well”.
Recorded by himself over the past 6 months, with contributions from Robyn Dawson (Meursault, Jamie Sutherland) on violin and Hailey Beavis as guest vocal on ‘Alone With You’. Cruzado has experienced more set backs than most this year with added pressures incurred during the Covid crisis which he explains: “Life has been full of change for the last year or so. In February right before Covid came along, there was a fire in the bike shed under my flat. It was pretty intense. We were having a flat party when my flatmate’s dog Luca started barking. Smoke began to fill the flat and we couldn’t get out through the stairwell, a lot of people got trapped. It could have been a lot worse if hero boy Luca had not alerted us! We managed to call the fire fighters and everyone was ok, but all our stuff was covered in soot and it felt like starting over again. We had to move 5 times in 6 months. I recorded most of the EP during this time borrowing equipment from pals.”
“Making this record was really good for me because I learnt a lot about what I like musically and how to get to it. I think I work better slowly. Having the time to listen to demos and previous versions, reshuffling parts, re-recording others, was a luxury afforded by lockdown”.
Pre Order Artifice via Bandcamp Here
