Brooklyn singer-songwriter Derek Weaving’s debut album as Weaving, Webs, is a vulnerable and generous work that buzzes like nature surrounding you on a summer night. The musician, known for his work with Tiny Hazard, as well as with Stephen Becker, Lip Talk and a wide collection of other inventive NYC acts, steps out here with his first collection of original songs as a guitarist and singer. Accompanying him are his former Tiny Hazard bandmates Alena Spanger (vocals, keyboards), Ryan Weiner (drums, guitar, banjo) and Ronald Stockwell (drums), plus James Woodall (pedal steel), Lip Talk’s Sarah Pedenotti (vocals, keyboards) and Little Mystery’s Ivy Meissner (vocals). Webs’ lyrics pay gentle tribute to family and friends, and celebrate the flourishing of the natural world while also mourning its degradation. These songs are both psychedelic and grounded, abstract and filled with personal details, and always look inwards and outwards at the same time. They invite listeners to turn and really see one another, as well as the natural landscapes surrounding them. Webs is a heart-warming, multi-faceted first statement, bridging the cosmic and the intimate in an effort to trace the webs of meaning and sensation that link us all.

What He Says: “This is the first song that I finished writing, and the last song to come together in the studio. Something clicked in terms of recognizing that the dreamlike lyrics bubbling up from my subconscious were almost all related to something more concrete in my memories or current emotional landscape. I was caught off guard by how much the process of writing and singing this song helped me to move through old, stuck emotions related to a break up from over 14 years ago.”

“Moon is a children’s song for adults, inspired by learning a large catalogue of early pop and R&B songs as the bass player for NY-based doo-wop group, The Tee Tones, and reflecting on how pretty much all of them deal exclusively with the initial infatuation phase of a relationship. The video was probably the most fun art project I’ve ever taken on, and left me feeling deeply grateful for the creative community I get to be surrounded by!”

His Mixtape:

Karen Dalton – Are You Leaving For The Country

I was introduced to Karen Dalton’s music in November 2022 and immediately became obsessed, especially with this record, especially with this song. I got covid and had to stay home through Christmas week that winter, and during that time, songs started popping into my head almost nonstop for several weeks. I have been playing music, contributing to other people’s songs for most of my life, but never felt called to write my own before that moment, so I can’t help but think that this song (and really the whole album), helped to open up some kind of portal for me. The lyrics to this song paint such vivid images, and resonate really powerfully for me, especially since my wife and I did move out of the city, thinking that a quieter life would make us happy, only to find that the quiet and solitude provided whole new challenges.

John Prine – Long Monday

I just love this song, and something about hearing a male singer sing such sweet, sappy lyrics gave me permission to do the same with a few of the songs on this record. I think it’s way harder to write a good song about someone you’re already comfortable with than the tension and drama of the beginning or ending of a relationship, and John Prine does exactly that.

Goo – Fur

Goo is incredible, no one sings like Beck Zegans. They are one of my many local heroes. Beck’s lyrics on this song are so simultaneously mind-meltingly psychedelic and gut-punchingly emotional in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in a song before.  Again, the cross-section of folk, psych, and an almost jazz vocal style delivery was really inspiring and gave me permission to put some of those things together in my own music. This song is one of my favorites, and the video is amazing.

Skirts – Easy

Another of my favorite albums that I listened to repeatedly during the year or so before I started writing songs. I’ve never heard anyone else sing with the relaxed intimacy that the loose two-part vocals have on this song, and the whole record. The combination of sweet, lazy folk with heavy, subtly devastating shoegaze floors me every time I hear this music.

Little Mystery – Burning Blue

Little Mystery’s voice is a core part of the sound on Webs, she sings the lead line on the chorus to Soil, and appears on almost every track on the album. Also, her self-titled album that came out last summer is a masterpiece, and getting to play bass with her band for a few shows over the last couple years has been a highlight of my post-covid music making life. Her songs all naturally flow and groove in a way that I aspire to in my writing, but definitely have yet to achieve. This song in particular also features Alena Spanger, who completes the core trio of Weaving on vocals and keys, her voice has the unique power to rip through time and space in a way that I’ve never experienced before. We’ve been making music together in various settings for over 15 years and I’m incredibly grateful for that!

The Bird Calls – I Don’t Wanna Be A Cowboy Anymore

This is my favorite new album. Sam Sodomsky is an unbelievably prolific genius of a songwriter, and this song perfectly encapsulates his warm, funny, deeply personal lyric style for me. The production is absolutely perfect for the song thanks to Ryan Weiner, who produced, mixed and mastered both this record and mine. He is a genius multi-instrumentalist and beautiful frequency nerd, and the choices made on this track are so fun and carefree, the synth bass paired with the blues rock is giving Kokomo (Beach Boys), and I honestly can’t get enough of it.

Laraaji – Universe

Laraaji is an actual wizard. The magic that he freely channels into his music is deeply grounding and inspiring. Meditation and other spiritual practices have played a huge role in my life, allowing me to reconnect with deeply buried and cut off emotional parts of myself and my past. Laraaji’s music, especially this album, has been a touchstone for me in these practices. The incredibly delicate three dimensional world that he creates on this track was a direct inspiration for the sonic environment of Webs.

Keiyaa – I Thot There Was One Wound in This House, There’s Two

This is my favorite start to a record that I’ve ever heard, so I thought it would be fun to end my mixtape with it. keiyaA is a genius, this album feels like the future of music to me and nothing has truly caught up in the last five years since it was released. The opening lyrics “Why don’t you love me? Is it because I’m so damn easy to love?”, perfect. Her layered vocals and unquantized drums create music that lives in the cracks in such a beautiful way that deeply inspired me in the treatments of my own songs and the cues I gave to the musicians who played on the record.

Webs is out now via Glamour Gowns Records. Look HERE for more information on Weaving.