Photo by Madeleine Hordinski

Ohio band The Ophelias have shared a new single titled ‘Vapor’, taken from their forthcoming album Crocus, out September 24th on Joyful Noise Recordings. A tender indie-folk handing, the song is initially led by banjo lines before gorgeous strings are incorporated. It’s not until the 2 minute mark that drums enter, helping to bring the brilliant track home.

We have a stream of ‘Vapor’ down below.

Regarding the single, The Orphelias’ Spencer Peppet said:

“2015 was the super blood moon. I was walking back to my dorm and saw it hanging above the park, framed between buildings. I pulled out my phone and wrote these lyrics down, staring up at the huge, ebullient red moon.

This was the first song I wrote on the banjo. I completed the first draft in a Vocal Composition class in college, with the banjo and a group of friends singing harmonies and bird noises. The album version of Vapor built off that experimentation. The strings in the end section use the parts originally sung by my classmates, and we fleshed it out with Jo’s bass part, piano, and building drums. An ambulance drove by while I was recording vocals — we kept it in. When I finally heard the end section in full, it felt like all the lights in the proverbial house turned on.”