Climate

Climate is a music duo from North Texas. Climate has been creating music together since starting on a four track in a dorm room at University of Texas at Austin in 1997, racking up 14 full length albums and 5 EPs in that time. The first era of Climate (1997 - 2002) was generally experimental indie rock heavily influence by punk, post punk, and 90s indie music. The second era (2002 - 2009) was almost exclusively instrumental electronica influenced by reggae and dub. The last decade up to and including 2021's Colorways has been a mixture of indie songwriting blended with electronica, a genre Climate has termed "post smooth jazz".

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Discography

YEAR COVER TITLE LISTEN INFO
2021 Colorways 12 Songs. 58 minutes. Limited-edition cassette released 01 June 2021 on Gloom Club. Released digitally 12 February 2021. Recorded in quarantine at Climate Studios East & West in Allen, Texas. Mixed by Grant Kuneman at Climate Studios East. Mastered by Britt Robisheaux at Cloudland in Fort Worth, Texas. [lyrics]
Music Videos (in order of release)
Reviews
2013 The Peculiar End of December 12 songs. 37 minutes. Released 22 November 2013. Recorded at Climate Studio East in Allen, Texas. [lyrics]
2012 The Scandal Of Induction 32 one-minute instrumental songs at 132bpm with a 30 second intro and exit. 33 minutes total. Released 18 August 2012.
2010 Risen From The Rails 17 songs. 42 minutes. Released 6 April 2010. Additional vocals by Shelley Beach. Album art & layout by Darren Frayne. [lyrics]
2008 Black Coucal 9 songs. 42 minutes. Instrumental. Released 2 January 2008.
2007 Telum 9 songs. 55 minutes. Instrumental. Released 12 December 2007.
2006 Ceaușescu's Great Escape 14 songs. 35 minutes. Released 18 March 2006. Concept album celebrating the lives (and loves!) of all our favorite dictators. [lyrics]
2005 The Stable Boy 6 songs. 22 minutes. Released 11 May 2005. Instrumental.
2004 Sketchily Writ 6 songs. 15 minutes. Instrumental. Released 2 July 2004.
2002 Print 5 songs. 30 minutes. Instrumental. Released 18 March 2002. Original music for a Jessica Solce short film.
2001 The Final Songs 10 songs. 36 minutes. Released 11 September 2001. Additional drums & percussion by Bill Driegert. Additional vocals by Josh McKibben and Chad Stockslager. [lyrics]
2000 Swallow All Letters 17 songs. 58 minutes. Released 1 October 2000. Additional drums & percussion by Bill Driegert. Released on Hot Link Records. Album layout by Tommy Moore. Executive producer Wallace Campbell. [lyrics]
2000 Observations On Friends And Friendship 11 songs. 36 minutes. Released 26 February 2000. Could be considered a warmer lo-fi demo version of our big label debut above, Swallow All Letters. [lyrics]
1999 Bred Mice 12 songs. 50 minutes. Released 23 April 1999. Last album recorded at the Wickersham Lane Music Hole in Austin. [lyrics]
1998 The All-Star Christmas Album 10 songs. 29 minutes. Released 24 December 1998. Featuring all-star guests Alexander Rapstine and Linda Beach. Recorded in Austin and Dallas. [lyrics]
1998 Live For Success! 16 songs. 73 minutes. Released 22 October 1998. Each song approximately doubles the length of the previous song, starting with track one at 6 seconds long. Recorded at the Wickersham Lane Music Hole in Austin. [lyrics]
1998 Deaf Friends Club 6 songs. 32 minutes. Released 23 May 1998. Produced by Steven Collins. Drums by Mike Throneberry. Recorded downstairs at 305 Thompson Studios in Richardson, Texas. [lyrics]
1998 Friends Have Names 12 songs. 48 minutes. Released 15 March 1998. Recorded in the corner of a tiny room at Prather Hall Dormitory building F at the University of Texas at Austin onto analog 8-track cassette. [lyrics]
1997 My First Recording 6 songs. 27 minutes. Released 1 November 1997. Recorded by David Wingo in Cheehyung's bedroom at 305 East 34th Street in Austin, Texas. Additional guitar by Eeh-hyung Kim.

The Story of Climate

Climate is Nathan Beach and Grant Kuneman from North Texas. They both grew up in Richardson but met in Austin at the University of Texas in 1997. They soon started making music on a 4-track cassette recorder in a dorm room on campus. Climate self-released their first album, Friends Have Names, on cassette in 1998. They recorded their next couple albums (Live for Success! and Bred Mice) in a south Austin apartment. This initial era of Climate culminated in a KVRX Local Live performance in 1999 with Jad Fair performing in the band.

After migrating back to North Texas, Climate released Swallow All Letters in 2000 on Hot Link Records, adding Bill Driegert on drums and percussion to the band. David Berman (of Silver Jews) described the album as "better than pretty good." Extensive live performances in support of the album followed with Driegert on drums and Christian Dille on bass. This period ended with a compilation The Final Songs in 2002.

Climate spent the remainder of the '00s experimenting with electronic production techniques while releasing several mostly-instrumental electronica albums and EPs, and returning to indie pop form with 2010's Risen From The Rails. The 2010s brought forth the wintery lo-fi masterpieces in The Peculiar End of December and a collection of 32 1-minute electronic gems called Thirty-Two Short Songs About Boats.

In 2017, Climate moved in next door to each other in the far north suburbs of Dallas, creating Climate Studios East and West in Allen, Texas. Climate regularly meets in the "side yard" between the houses for music development discussions while idly managing the combined seven children between the two households. 2021's Colorways is the first result of this period of reunion. The album was created over Dropbox and Zoom through the covid-19 pandemic while in quarantine right next door to each other. Colorways reflects the paranoia and occasional euphoria of the time and analyzes the obligations of family and friends, both live and virtual.

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