Speakeasy 006 - Limited edition black vinyl LP of "War Planes" by Jacob Aranda.  Out September 1st, 2023.  Ships August 23, 2023.  The album includes a digital download card.  

Aranda’s new album, produced and engineered by Desmond Shea (Tarnation, The Court and Spark) at SF’s legendary Hyde Street Studios, it features the talents of friends and Tarnation bandmates, Paula Frazer (bass, vocals), David Cuetter (pedal steel), Sam Berman (drums), Patrick Main (piano, vocals), and Meryl Theo Press (vocals). Also joining the sessions were musicians Alisa Rose (violins), Jason Loeks (upright bass), and singers Karina Denike (Dance Hall Crashers),  Michael James Tapscott, Lydia Walker, and Sara Gallagher (banjo, vocals). 

 “The whole record is an extension of my way of collaborating, trusting my friends and musicians to bring their own voice to the music. So many things I never would have imagined, giving birth to something entirely new, unfolding…” 

Aranda went into the studio listening to a lot of early Waylon Jennings and Gene Clark. Ultimately, the vulnerability and softness of the songs, as well as the influence of Paula and Desmond, steered the album away from its country influences into a more psychedelic, ethereal space. Ry Cooder’s “Paris, Texas” soundtrack and Cowboy Junkie’s “Trinity Sessions” were the two most influential albums of Aranda’s youth. The vulnerability captured in “War Planes” brought him back to those formative years, and the sounds that gave him comfort through a turbulent childhood.

“War Planes”  is fundamentally an album about healing intergenerational trauma and doing so through art. The album feels like a next chapter with elements of rebirth and reflection. Songs of hope, such as “Sing A Song, Say A Prayer” and “Glass Building” demonstrate movement forward, while tracks such as “Dream of Mexico” and the title track “War Planes” represent a way to look back into underlying issues and the inherited trauma that had once made Aranda feel so alone.  

“My father was a bilingual education activist and Latino political organizer. It's fascinating, and all written into “Dream of Mexico,” that he wouldn't teach me Spanish. He kept me at a distance from Latino culture while at the same time fighting so hard to carve out a place for Latinos in the US...he didn't think it was safe. In rural Illinois it wasn't, we had death threats, I was called slurs. I truly believed he helped change the culture for the better, the best way he knew how. But the theme of social alienation is ever present, being Mexican in white culture, being gay (his father)in Hispanic culture.”

The songwriting and themes addressed in “War Planes,” represent a deeper dive into Aranda’s personal and family history, including stories of experiences lived, dreamed about, and tentatively reconciled with.  “War Planes'' comes out September 1, 2023 on Speakeasy Studios SF.