Circles Around The Sun visited the KEXP studios over the summer to record a live, in-studio session (sans disco balls). During the three-song, 25-minute performance and subsequent interview—which also features guest harpist Mikaela Davis—Circles Around The Sun debut a new song, “Hot Pursuit”, set to appear on CATS’ upcoming sequel to its landmark debut, the soundtrack to set break at the 2015 Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well shows, Interludes For the Dead: Volume 2, out November 7th.
Circles Around The Sun start the session minus Davis with the first performance of “Hot Pursuit” outside the recording studio. High-stepping in on keyboardist Adam MacDougall‘s funky clavinet, “Hot Pursuit” is rooted in CATS’ trademark space disco fare. The sprawling 11-minute version bounces along on guitarist John Lee Shannon‘s envelope filter, which would sound just as natural on one of the band’s instrumental reinventions of “Althea” or “Fire On The Mountain”—fitting for Interludes For the Dead: Volume 2. Despite the jam’s boundless nature, Circles Around The Sun still had the precision to stop the song on a dime.
Davis then joins Circles Around The Sun for “After Sunrise”, the Eastern-tinged title track to their joint 2024 EP. The harpist further softens the band’s already textural sound, bolstered by Shannon’s switch from his typical Fender Stratocaster to a 12-string, semi-hollow body guitar. Like most CATS members, she comes equipped with additional instrumental accoutrements, something she demonstrates here by picking up a tiny triangle at one point (because why not?). To that end, bassist Dan Horne ends the song with a grin by shaking some sort of homemade cluster of bells, drawing smiles from around the room.
The band closes the session with the more riffy and percussive “Moonbow”. Drummer Mark Levy, who remains the grounding core of the group, keeps this interstellar odyssey rooted in some semblance of reality while MacDougall feverishly used everything in his keyboard and percussion enclave, justifying the need to lug it all into the studio.
In an interview with host Troy Nelson, the soft-spoken CATS show why they’re an instrumental band. Asked what the chemistry is like that has kept the band going for ten years, MacDougall replies simply, “The jams, I guess.” A laughing Horne adds, “There was a dark period when Adams’ hair got all short, and we weren’t having the chemistry as much, but now we’re back.” The band’s chemistry changed in 2019 following the death of co-founder Neal Casal by suicide. They ultimately enlsited Shannon as the new guitarist in 2021.
The best part of the semi-awkward interview comes at the end, when Nelson asks if they still have any bucket list goals it had yet to achieve.
“Still trying to do that planetarium tour,” Shannon quickly answers, explaining, “Just us going on a small tour playing only planetariums. So any promoters out there, give us a call.”
Had Nelson been a more experienced Circles Around The Sun fan, he surely would have asked, “But where will you put the disco ball?”
Watch Circles Around The Sun and Mikaela Davis perform on KEXP, starting with their yet-unreleased song “Hot Pursuit”. Interludes For The Dead: Volume 2 is available here for pre-order on black and starburn translucent orange vinyl ahead of its November 7th digital release. Physical copies are expected to ship on or around December 5th.
Circles Around The Sun, Mikaela Davis — KEXP Studios — Seattle, WA — 8/21/25 — Full Set