Toadies have released “The Charmer,” the first single and title track from their forthcoming studio album The Charmer, out May 1 on Spaceflight Records.
Recorded with legendary engineer Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, The Charmer is among the final projects Albini worked on before his passing that have yet to be released. The album captures the band playing together live in the studio, raw, immediate, and unfiltered.
“The Charmer” traces back to frontman Vaden Todd Lewis’ pandemic-era isolation. Alone at home with his guitars, dogs, and endless movies, Lewis confronted, and ultimately named, the self-loathing he’d wrestled with for decades: The Charmer.
“I was afraid that if I lose that part of me that has such self-loathing that I won’t be able to write music anymore,” Lewis explains. “I decided to take that apart and make it a character, The Charmer. If I don’t give that character worth, it’s worthless. But if I do give it worth, I’m worthless.”
As the slow-burning title track declares: “It’s only you that keeps me alive… [But] you’d be nothing if it weren’t for me.”
The accompanying video was directed and edited by Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Toadies guitarist Clark Vogeler, capturing the band’s sessions with Albini at Electrical Audio.
“I knew before we went in to record the new album with Steve Albini we’d be playing together live as much as possible,” Vogeler says. “Most records are pieced together layer by layer. We knew he would capture the sound of what was happening in the room, so I took the opportunity to capture images as well.”
Using a minimalist setup, a BMPCC 4K, a GoPro, and cameras on tripods moved between takes, Vogeler balanced filming with recording. “The record always came first. We often moved fast, so sometimes I didn’t get the video I wanted.”
He didn’t revisit the footage until long after Albini’s passing. “It was a bit of a mindfuck to look at the video again. I’d filmed him quite a bit. He was always welcoming when my cameras were out. It was nice to see him again in his element—tirelessly focused on the work but also relaxed, stimulating, and hilarious.”