Roped In (Limited Edition Yellow Cassette)

Patrick McDermott began his North Americans project with two albums: 2013’s No_No, and 2015’s Legends. Both records were dense affairs, with blocks of sound shifting and moving like melting glaciers to create a gorgeous, impenetrable, collection of digital drones. Though they sounded nothing like what would come a bit later, both records showcased McDermott’s understanding of mood and composition. On 2018’s Going Steady, McDermott blended his love of American Primitive guitar playing with playful pieces that never overstayed their welcome. He also began collaborating with a wide range of artists: from Julianna Barwick to guitar prodigy Hayden Pedigo, as well as Cloud Nothings’ Dylan Baldi, and more. Now, two years later, McDermott is releasing Roped In, a gorgeous, intimate, and often spare album that pulls back from the collaborative nature established on Going Steady for a collection of fragile drone pieces anchored by McDermott’s intricate but direct guitar playing and haunting pedal steel work from Portland, Oregon’s Barry Walker.

McDermott began work on Roped In as he was finishing up Going Steady. In his spare time throughout the day, he’d record short instrumental passages in his voice notes app. There was no specific goal or intention at the start, but soon a new album began to take shape. “Every time I picked up the guitar, I’d play something that made sense for what I was doing,” McDermott says. “I had like 40 demos and literally in one night I went into the studio with my guitar and I recorded all of the pieces,” McDermott says. “I selected 15 of those and sent them to Barry.” The original plan was for McDermott to travel from Los Angeles to Portland to work directly with Walker, but work got in the way, so the pair sent demos back and forth over email, with McDermott laying down a guitar loop, and Walker adding ghostly strains of pedal steel over the top. “[The guitar tracks] were little coherent packages,” Walker says of his working relationship with McDermott. “All of these different ideas bubbled up out of listening to these things—this texture and these little nuances that we were able to explore.”