In 2021, Americana duo Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz announced that they were changing their band name from Mandolin Orange to Watchhouse.
The decision made a splash in music circles—after 14 years of performing a steady catalog, the name Mandolin Orange was practically synonymous with North Carolina folk music—but it was simply time for a reset, Marlin told the INDY in a 2021 profile of the Chapel Hill band. The name the married duo chose, Watchhouse, is drawn from an off-the-grid spot Marlin frequented and found solace in as a child.
“All Around You,” the band’s new single, released today, picks up that comfort-seeking thread with a song about realizing that you’re already home, right where you need to be. With warm, assured vocals, Frantz and Marlin harmonize: “Home / Can’t you feel it / right behind you / ain’t it always just ahead and right around you, too.”
The single release coincides with the announcement of a forthcoming album release: Rituals, out May 30th on Tiptoe Tiger Music/Thirty Tigers. The album is produced by Marlin and Ryan Gustafson of The Dead Tongues.
With Marlin and Frantz now in a new season as parents to two children, Watchhouse’s Rituals will meditate on the nature of change, growth, and finding equilibrium.
The album is the band’s eighth release and the second under their new moniker.
Watchhouse will begin their album tour on June 14 at The Palace Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and will tour widely for the album throughout the summer and fall, with a few dates supporting the Avett Brothers. So far, the band’s North Carolina stops are an August 30 show in Wilmington and a November 21-22 two-night gig at the Orange Peel in Asheville, but the band’s management says local stops will be announced soon.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Follow Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Bluesky or email sedwards@indyweek.com.