Midwestern songwriter/musician Steve Marino announces his honest and intimate “debut” album Fluff due out May 24th, 2019 via Darling Recordings. The lead single and title track premiered today via Paste Magazine who called Steve’s music “quote.” The accompanying music video is a charming look inside Steve’s Bloomington, Indiana home through a pair of canine eyes.

Steve explains, “Fluff is about an ex’s dog kind of sung from the dog’s perspective. She was involved in a fight with another dog and ended up biting my ex’s arm, which resulted in a hospital visit..”

Over the last decade Steve Marino has recorded multiple solo albums (as Moor Hound), been in countless bands, and toured the country consistently, but his newest full-length, Fluff, is the first collection of songs he’s released in his own name. In that sense, it’s his “debut” album.

One might expect such a transition, from the artifice of a band name to the intimacy of one’s given name, to be born of some newfound, inward focus. It makes sense; it’s a story of an artist going back to basics, getting real. It’s also not what happened.

Fluff is an album about home, and one’s place in it, love, and intimacy, and it’s the result of Steve marrying his direct, honest songwriting with a deeply collaborative process. He developed the record with fellow Bloomington, Indiana resident, and standout producer Ben Lumsdaine (Kevin Krauter, Major Murphy, Juan Solorzano) and together they open up the songs, giving them tangible depth.

The title track, “Fluff”, with its precise drums, layered guitars, and visceral, emotive vocals, captures the power of this collaboration. It’s a song that is delicate, yet driving, lyrically opaque, yet emotionally direct. It is, like the rest of the album, in perfect balance.

Steve Marino’s new record Fluff will be available worldwide May 24th, 2019 on limited-edition coke bottle green vinyl, black vinyl, CD, and cassette via Darling Recordings.