ALEX Knight, aka Brightness, was alone in a Texan hotel room one night watching television when he became transfixed by televangelist Peter Popoff. It wasn't Popoff's sales pitch for his "miracle water" that captured the Newcastle singer-songwriter's attention, but the plight of the people believing his message.
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"I guess I was kind of moved by the vulnerability of the people in the crowd, the congregation so to speak," Knight said.
"It's not a song about religion or pointing the finger at these televangelists, who are more likely than not scam artists, it was more about me having this moment of empathy for these people who have been caught up in the rhetoric."
That late-night TV viewing served as the inspiration to Brightness' new single Dallas, the first track of his forthcoming second album.
The multi-instrumentalist created a buzz among music critics with his brooding and dreamy '90s indie-inspired debut album Teething in 2017, which scored a 7.4/10 from influential US taste-master Pitchfork.
While a lack of radio support and touring hurt Teething's commercial prospects, it didn't prevent Knight from reconvening at Spillway Sound studio in upstate New York last September to record the follow-up with producer Sam Evian.
The album was recorded in seven days. The nearby Ashokan Reservoir providing a rush of artistic inspiration.
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"It's an especially beautiful part of the world and it was a great win that we were able to do it up there in a studio that was just opened by a friend of the guy who produced it," he said.
Dallas is also the heaviest track released by Brightness. A nod to Knight's love of metal and use of a low tuning.
"In terms of the themes, every song on the new record is a lot more cohesive than the first record in how the themes correlate to the way it's played and recorded," he said. "It's tighter in that sense."
