Listen: Waterstrider - "Arrive and Leave"

photo by Cara Robbins

Now is a pretty excellent time to be a Waterstrider fan it seems. After the release of their debut full length Nowhere Now earlier this week, the band recently revealed a non-album track written and recorded by the band's frontman and chief singer/songwriter Nate Salman. "Arrive And Leave" features on a installment of Bandcamp City Guides focusing on Oakland based artists. Unlike the bulk of Waterstrider's tunes that act as more of a collective effort, "Arrive and Leave" is solely the work of Salman who plays everything from the scarcely deployed twinkling synths to the shaker. Where Waterstrider as a whole largely relies on references to their world pop inspiration, "Arrive and Leave" functions as a much more atmospheric folk tune that's aided by the lack of complex percussion.

"Arrive and Leave" is a simpler, younger Waterstrider or more aptly put hearkens back to the days where Waterstrider was solely defined by whatever Salman wanted to do with the moniker but even if this earlier recorded track doesn't reflect the band in its currently incarnation - it's a snapshot of Salman's songwriting chops and musicianship at an earlier point in his career and notably his ability to invoke emotion with solely the power of his voice



You can grab both the digital and a physical 12" versions of the Oakland Bandcamp City Guide as well as stream and discover the other Oakland artists feature on the guide here.