The musician has also shared a brand new track, Two Holes!
Image: Andrew Haining.
Australian artist and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Whale has announced the release of his third album, The Hunger. Alongside the announcement, the musician has unveiled a brand new song, Two Holes, which arrives with an official visual.
Spatial and atmospheric, Two Holes brings superb production beneath the musicians mesmerising and enchanting vocals, with woven percussion. The songs visual, directed by Andrew Haining, sees the musician performing the track beneath a spotlight on a desolate street with an avant garde costume design by Chloe Corkran & Athena Thebus, his longtime collaborators.
Speaking of the forthcoming record, Whale shares: "The Hunger is a collection of songs told from the perspective of a vampire's familiar – a pitiable human servant with a taste for blood and whose deepest desire is to be turned undead like their master. This story becomes a metaphor for a deep longing for transformation, the price of devotion paid for an uncertain outcome, as well as the queer, grotesque conditions that desire and devotion imposes. In contrast with its schlocky concept, I've thought of The Hunger as my adult contemporary album, in which the horror of the vampire familiar is rendered into more tender, slow-paced forms, more insidious than imposing, more intimate than loud, more immersive than violent."
The Gadigal/Sydney based artist is known for his avant-garde approach to every aspect of his musical project, with his dramatic and immersive releases accompanied by costumes and sets that incorporate the musicians signature cowboy motif. Whale has two solo albums under his belt, 2016's Inland Sea, produced with Nigel Yang (HTRK) and 2020's Lucifer, the culmination of a series of performances that cast the fallen angel as a queer icon.
The Hunger is out September 3. Watch the visual for Two Holes below.