Pastel Blank Announce Debut Album ‘Unmade in Minutes,’ Share New Song ‘Shareholder’
Montréal art-rock outfit Pastel Blank have announced their debut album, ‘Unmade in Minutes’. The record arrives April 24 via Paper Bag Records. To accompany the announcement, bandleader Angus Watt has shared the lead single ‘Shareholder,’ along with a video directed by Patrick Macht, Micah Henry, and Bray Jorstad.
Pastel Blank, the project led by Watt and a rotating cast of collaborators has been relatively quiet since their 2022 self-titled release. ‘Shareholder’ marks a return to the band’s signature “warped fun house” sound, blending angular post-punk guitars with a nervous, jittery funk rhythm reminiscent of ‘Fear of Music’-era Talking Heads.
Lyrically, the track operates as a satire of the pharmaceutical industry. Watt notes in that the song began as a demo titled ‘Physician,’ centering on a “cartoonishly evil pill-happy doctor.” He eventually pivoted to a broader critique of the opioid epidemic and consumer complicity, noting that “we vote with our dollar.”
The track features sound design contributions from Brennan Doyle (YFBOB) and percussion from Hanum Yoon-Henderson, who provides the chorus’s driving wood-block rhythm.
Check out the video for ‘Shareholder’ below.
Headline photo: Pastel Blank | Photo by Trevor Lang
Pastel Blank Instagram
Paper Bag Records Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / X / Bandcamp / SoundCloud / YouTube
