Alter The Press! Presents: Umber

Amidst the idyllic backdrop of the English countryside, multi-instrumentalist Alex Steward created Umber, a solo project that explores ambiance, post-rock and everything in between.

His debut EP, ‘Morning’s Pass’ is a menagerie of intricate loops and beautiful soundscapes and hits the digital shelves (and the actual shelves of 100 lucky people) June 27th.
What you get with Umber isn’t just an album made from guitars, e-bows and piano; you get an album that is made from true expression and is at the height of musical creativity.


For fans of: Explosions In The Sky, Penguin Café Orchestra, and The Album Leaf.

Alter The Press: Why should Alter The Press! readers check you out?
Umber: If you're a fan of ambient/post-rock/folk stuff then I guess you should check me out. I've also just started another project where I record a song a week, which is just for fun and to see if I can capture the ups and downs of that week. If you're on Facebook you can keep up to date with how it's sounding.

ATP: What's the story behind Umber?
Umber: It all started when I was at college studying music technology many moons ago. We had a class which taught us the basics of a music programme called Reason and i'd mess around creating drones and what not. After that I got my hands on a free version of Cubase, a loop pedal and plenty of instruments and my sound has grown since then. I then recorded countless amounts of songs and did nothing with them as I guess I was still finding my 'sound'. Now I think I’ve found it…

ATP: Single highlight so far?
Umber: Every day in the last 4 months has been a highlight! I've been getting a few plays here and there and mentions on blogs and that's pretty exciting. I also played a gig about a year and a bit ago in a church and that was incredible. The atmosphere was overwhelming.

ATP: What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Umber: Well, I'm self-releasing an EP later this month (27th June) as a free digital download, or you can get your hands on one of the limited hand made CDs. Might play the occasional show around the UK and also carry on with my 'song a week' project.

'Morning's Pass' EP by Umber is released on June 27th.

Umber on Bandcamp, Facebook, Last.FM and Twitter.

Words by Sandeep Dawett.