Patrick Bates Announces New Record ‘Salad Days’ And Releases Video For Bonus Track

One of Richmond’s most talented songwriters will return this spring with a batch of new music that will instantly win over new fans as well as surprise and dazzle old ones.

Patrick Bates will release Salad Days, a six-song album, on Friday, March 8th through Verses Records in digital format as well as physical through a limited run of 12” white vinyl with a custom full color inset, both officially available to pre-order today.

Salad Days is the follow-up to the stratified songwriter’s 2015 EP, Feathers And Pearls, and while it still showcases Bates’ unique songwriting approach, the two couldn’t be more different in sound. Instead of bare and intimate, Salad Days is comprised of moving, bustling pieces that swirl around his words in a layered majesty.

“Feathers And Pearls was a singular response to a very specific place in my life, focused on telling a single story,” Bates told us. “Salad Days is the culmination of many stories, and my growing songwriting abilities through the years. All of these songs were written [and] recorded years apart from each other, so this record is the example of that. And we keep moving forward.”

The title comes from an inside joke Bates has with himself, playing on expectation and past experiences. “I am fully aware that many records share this title,” Bates laughed. “It is kind of a play on that. To me, Salad Days represents an earlier time, when I was young and things weren’t so serious.”

In conjunction with today’s album announcement and pre-order, Bates has also released a video for a bonus track, “Shine,” which is viewable below and will be included, in song and video form, on the digital download card that comes with each vinyl. Terse and shadowy, “Shine” is an abstract continuation of the EP’s oblique sound, pointing to further growth the skillful project is undergoing.

“‘Shine’ is the aftermath of taking a solo project and bringing that to a live band,” Bates stated. “[The song] is more of an example of what [I sound] like live; even more than the record.” If Salad Days is where Bates and his band is coming from, he continued, “‘Shine’ is where the project is going.”

The album’s first single, “New Day,” was premiered recently on WRIR, and Bates himself is set to appear on-air tomorrow, Saturday, February 2nd to discuss the record and play some of the songs.

After that, Bates is gearing up for an early record release show at Gallery5 on Thursday, February 7th, joined on the bill by The Trillions and Continuation, where vinyl copies will be available to purchase a full month early. You can view more information on that show by clicking here.

Until then, check out the video for “Shine” below, and make sure to check-out and pre-order Salad Days at Verses Records’ Bandcamp page by clicking here.