Maryrose Crook and THE RENDERERS
the renderers’ lp In the sodium light out now
Out February 26, 2016.
We are also offering a special version of In The Sodium Light which includes an exclusive print by Maryrose, who is an internationally renowned artist, with work held in private collections around the world. She has made this painting specifically for the new album release. It will be an 8.5" by 11" signed image and is limited to only 50 copies.
See Maryrose's website, maryrosecrook.com and the website of her New Zealand gallery http://www.50worksgallery.com for more information.
The seismic rumbling of The Renderers goes beyond the fiendish pastoralia of their music. Long-time Christchurch residents, Brian and Maryrose Crook witnessed the earthquakes crumble the city. That, and Maryrose’s developing career as a painter (she is self-taught, only starting in her late thirties), inspired them to explore the world a bit. So, where do they travel? Obviously, a rock-throw’s distance from the San Andreas Fault, to Joshua Tree. Not surprising, given the tenacity of the Crooks. Through endless band lineups and continual challenges, they have maintained a focused sound and approach to their music. A Renderers song creates its own space, one that threatens dissemblance at every turn. With two of the most distinct voices in New Zealand rock, they trade off vocal duties, and both contribute toward burying their songs in layers of swelling and swirling guitars. For their new record, In the Sodium Light, The Renderers take a step back from the furious chug of their last album, A Rocket Into Nothing. Instead, they appear to be representing the landscape of their new home. Songs creep out of holes, seep and spread, permeating the room. The album is a languid, calm-waters drift over the abyss in a glass-bottomed boat. Let the tide take you.
Congratulations to Maryrose Crook of the Renderers for winning second runner up in the New Zealand Wallace Art Awards for 2020…! As any one who has purchased a previous Renderers or Maryrose Crook release that includes one of Maryrose’s artworks on the cover would know, Maryrose is an enormously talented artist. Maryrose’s painting that won this distinguished award is a reaction to the various disasters that are increasingly occurring, while at the same time recognizing a stronger than ever movement to heal our planet. These are very much the same themes that underline much of Maryrose’s music.
Aside from painting and winning international art awards, Maryrose has spent much of the past year composing material for the Renderers next release, an album of her solo material, titled Rococo. Since acquiring a piano at the beginning of the lockdown she has been composing and improvising on the keys. This was how she first began playing music as a kid with a particularly tortuous teacher, who all but put her off this once so ubiquitous musical instrument until quite recently. So we can expect some piano on the forthcoming release!
Maryrose, along with her husband and long time Renderers partner have been working on Rococo with their LA band, drummer Brian Hobart and bass player Eric McCann, who plays both an upright and electric bass, and they’re also planning a trip to Omaha to record with Kevin Donohue, drummer for “In the Sodium Light” and multi-instrumentalist Megan Siebe, who composed and played parts on most songs on the album, on viola, cello, vibes and various keyboards.
The Renderers are also planning a video for “Eye of the Mother”, one of the tracks for the new album, which has an almost zen quality, both of resignedness for the human condition and hope for its transcendence.
UK booking agency Upset the Rhythm are seeking to reschedule the UK and European tour dates for Maryrose and the Renderers that were supposed to take place in 2020, and will now take place in 2022 after Rococo is released, with plans for some West Coast concerts later in 2021, before taking their tour to Australia and New Zealand once this is possible again.