There are defining moments in your life and sometimes the smaller quieter moments can have a greater impact than you expect. One day stands out for Blake, that one day where he picked up his Xbox, threw it in the bin and picked up a guitar. That’s one moment in the story of Boats and how it came to be. Boats (aka Blake Paterson) released his first single Spider’s Soul in the second half of last year. It captured the attention of many, including Indie Shuffle senior blogger Hugh McClure, who noted Blake ‘shows wonderful talent’. The first single resonated with an audience in Australia and internationally, securing airplay tastemaker stations Melbourne’s 3RRR to Los Angeles KCRW. Boats’ also reinterpreted Miami Horror’s ‘Real Slow’, which received the nod of approval from the band. More recently Boats played with local Melbourne musicians Ali Barter, Ben Wright-Smith and Grace. Electronic artists Planète and Turkish Prison (Midnight Juggernauts) remixed his single Spider’s Soul, premiering on Stoney Roads and Discobelle. Now leading up to the release of his debut EP titled ‘Release’, it’s time to hear the full story behind Boats. Blake lived inside a bright blue shack in a bayside suburb. It happens to have a pool next it and it was near a large body of water, which is flat. Some call it a beach. Here, he drew inward, exploring, thinking and reflecting on how he wanted to spend his time whilst playing a crappy guitar every day. ‘It was an interesting time and a defining point in my life, I had just graduated from university, I didn’t know what I was doing and a long term relationship had just ended. I was in this unknown territory where things were uncertain and I was unsure of where I was and where I wanted to go’. Blake had DJed in the house electronic scene in Melbourne for 3 years but found himself moving away from that style of music. “I wanted to create something soothing in it’s nature. I looked to the guitar, the wood and the strings but I also wanted to incorporate some of my earlier dance music influences and have those repetitive-strong energy elements” he says. With an idea of the kind of music he wanted to write, mixing his folk songwriter influences with an electronic feel, he left for Barcelona and Helsinki to find inspiration and write. When he returned, Blake started searching for artists who were creating ambient soundscapes, he came across Rat & Co and reached out to Joshua Delaney (Rat & Co, SMILE) who subsequently produced the EP. The first track Intro is a prelude to the EP, a mixture sporadic saxophone, reverberant murmurs, dissonant guitars and foreboding deep whirrs; it sounds like the inner workings of a rehearsal as Boats warms the instruments that are to feature in the EP. Tuning the ear for what’s to come. The second track Spider’s Soul, which was the first official release, Blake croons and yearns for the past, exudes excitement for the future and wants something new, something right. Shallows has an honest subtlety and wild hopefulness about it as it shifts and simmers forward to great heights. At the halfway mark in Rabbits, Boats pulls the listener into a space carved with eerie whirs with a feeling of vastness and subsequent solitude… that is until it the electronic beats kick in. That’s The Way is the only song that uses a live drum kit with rim clicks and electronic swells. The last song on the EP. Hold The Knife – is structured by a simple directness, continuing Boats’ light and ethereal tones. Here, finger plucked rhythms, melodic hooks and layered harmonies end Paterson’s debut EP ‘Release’, his first body of work. The perfect soundtrack to soothe and to escape. Debut EP ‘Release’ Release Date – 17 April 2015 Track Listing: 1. Intro 2. Spider’s Soul 3. Shallows 4. Rabbits 5. That’s The Way 6. Hold The Knife www.soundcloud.com/boats_music www.facebook.com/boatsmusic www.boatsmusic.com