AVAILABLE NOW ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS   Michael Nau’s Demo Versions, 2014 to 2017 is available now on Suicide Squeeze. A compilation of ten demos spanning a three year period that brought us Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread, Mowing, The Load EP, and Some Twist. These early drafts don’t just serve to shed light on the creative process, they often frame the material in an entirely new context. With Nau’s lush arrangements and unorthodox accompaniments largely absent, the listener gets to experience the simple beauty and grace at the heart of his music. “Once the studio buffer is removed, the songs land like a private-press folk record cut on a budget, but that temperamental magic is still coursing through each one.” Raven Sings The Blues Michael Nau’s solo career began with songs crafted and composed in private moments, later to be shared with musical compatriots and reimagined with auxiliary input on records like Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread, Mowing, The Load EP, and Some Twist. These early drafts were stashed away in the vault as Nau strode forward, but after a taxing spring of touring in support of his latest album Less Ready to Go, and recording and self-releasing the stripped-down informal release So On So On, Nau found himself hunkering down at home and rediscovering old gems in his archives.  The search yielded a new digital collection of Nau’s initial forays into solo work, bundled together as Demo Versions, 2014 to 2017. In their initial incarnations, these songs were less about the end result and more about the discovery. “They’re the seed,” Nau says of the material. “These recordings are essentially the writing of the songs… written and recorded at the same time. There’s something exciting about them for that reason. It feels magical any time the start of a song arrives, let alone gets ‘finished.’” These early drafts don’t just serve to shed light on the creative process or expose the malleability of Nau’s songwriting approach; they often frame the material in an entirely new context. Demo Versions’ opening track “The Glass” is a bare-bones affair of acoustic guitar, bass, and vocals—a breezy Sunday morning song that sounds markedly different than the layered lounge-rock approach that later appeared on Mowing. “Light That Ever,” with its wall-of-sound production, serves as a climax to Some Twist, but in its infant stage on this collection, it’s a beautiful, intimate folk song.  Ultimately, all ten songs off Demo Versions, 2014 to 2017 reveal a new side to these fan favorites, with Nau’s lush arrangements and unorthodox accompaniments largely absent, and the simple beauty and grace at the heart of his music.