Debut single "I Die Alone" from new artist Shāna

Sometimes it takes years to produce art. Not because each day is filled with the journey of musical exploration and discovery— but you’re working jobs to survive. And with that limited time you have to create, all of your thoughts that had no time before, now crowd into the one or two or three hours you have before going to bed before the next work day.

SHāNA spent a really long time working on Bad Floods. It could be 7, 10, 14 years but it was all a blur. We heard these songs last year when SHāNA shared different collections of music and as we discussed their story, we recalled touchstones of calamity, culture, insanity, and what we were doing. As these experiences began to bring focus to our memories, the songs that became Bad Floods made a lot of sense in timelessly capturing a crumbling society.

We are very excited to have worked on Bad Floods, available everywhere on April 4, 2025.

Below is the pitch copy we came up with to describe to describe the ‘I Die Alone’:

“Just in time for the Holidays! SHāNA presents what will become a modern Christmas standard: ‘I Die Again’! The song for all holidays this season. A song about watching too much mainstream news and rotting your brain out to avoid the obvious and finally deciding to murder your boss and steal their pile of skulls. Get it for your loved ones, get it for your enemies, get it for all your neighbors’ pets!”

If you want to read more about SHāNA and to understand their upcoming album, navigate yourself from here to here

You can buy the single directly from Bandcamp or stream it over Apple Music or Spotify and many other services.

New Song from R.C. Love and the Goodness Gracious

Today our Seattle friends R.C. Love and the Goodness Gracious release their new song “untitled (Axe vs. Recycling Bin)”. Produced and engineered by Kenneth M. Piekarski (Slashed Tires), and mastered by Nicholas Wilbur at The Unknown in Anacortes, Washington.

R.C. Love is a casual but dedicated activity for the enduring friendship of Catherine Cougan and Jared Harkness, a garage-rock or pop kind of music, philosophical if you really listen, which certainly reflective in theis single.

Commissioned by Jared's brother, Reed Harkness, for his documentary film Sam Now, which has been making its way through several film festivals over this last year and it sounds like everyone loves it, which is excellent.

The New York Times even wrote a nice review.

The song is from Jared's perspective as a child and his feelings as it relates to the experiences growing up with his younger brother.

And why now? Clearly you were curious and well, the reason is that the film will have its PBS Independent Lens premier on Monday, May 8, and we thought it a good time to release it today on Bandcamp. Other platforms will come later, hopefully coinciding with the release on Monday, provided that the automated release schedule does its job as planned.

Here's a link to PBS premier page. We hope that you take a moment to watch the film. Purchase and listen to the song below.

We're Donating All Digital Sales Today

Today Bandcamp is again waiving their revenue shares as part of their ongoing effort to support artists impacted the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Off Tempo and the artists we represent stand in solidarity with protestors across the United States in demanding defunding of police, justice for those murdered by police and an end to white supremacy.

We have all decided that today we will take this opportunity to redirect our digital sales from Off Tempo’s catalogue to Northwest Community Bail Fund, based here in Seattle, Washington. You can read more about them here.

If you would like to make your own contribution to an organization that sits closer to home or you would like to widen your purview of organizations to support, here is a list that has been provided to us by our friends at the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers.

Roundelay Vinyl Orders Delayed Due to COVID-19

As we are all still coming to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all of our futures, we would like to provide an update about our upcoming release from LAKE.

At this current point in the crisis, the physical release of Roundelay is delayed. However, the album will be available to you, in full, come release day on April 24. If you have already ordered the LP, please be aware that you will still receive a digital copy of the album.

The delay for the physical release is due to California's ban on non-essential businesses. Since our jacket printers are in California, they are shut down. We do have the LP's sitting in the office in the shape of a triangle, so all we need now are the jackets. As soon as the ban is lifted and our printers are operating again, we'll send out another update, this time it will be exciting and good. Or at least it better be...

If you'd still like to support LAKE and this fine label, and you have friends or family who enjoy music, consider encouraging them to order from LAKE's bandcamp.

If you have any questions about your order, please contact us via support@offtempo.com

But above all else keep safe, careful and please maintain physical distancing and follow guidelines outlined by public health officials and the WHO.

OFF TEMPO Signs LAKE, Releases New Album Roundelay

LAKE has been a long-time favorite of many people in the Pacific Northwest and it is a pleasure and a privilege that their new home will be with OFF TEMPO.

Although OFF TEMPO's audio archive has been publicly inaccessible for several years now, one of the first recorded shows we captured was of LAKE performing at the beloved 321 Arts Space (R.I.P.) in the Tri-Cities, Washington. This was back in 2007, the year that OFF TEMPO was established as solely a project to document underground events, before we were in the record label business.

We've known each other for over a decade and have a lot of excitement about working together. It's really a dream come true.

Anyway, here is a little bio about the album:

Roundelay is LAKE's most cohesive, adventurous, and fully realized record to date with their own brand of sophisti-pop. It is rich, layered, developed, and at times, avant-garde. Odd time-signatures reign without being too mathy, and sprinkles of horn arrangements, grand piano, and pedal steel put the elevator in the new genre they dub from this moment forward, elevator punk.

To summarize the record, “LAKE got heavy!” was exuberantly yelled at a recent gig in their hometown on Whidbey Island, WA. The band agrees that their once lighter sound has drifted into the realm of “rock”.

LAKE West Coast Winter Tour

LAKE JAPAN TOUR 2020