‘Everything is moving’

Though beckoned by late-night recording sessions and cat cuddles, Peter Sagar will have to wait until the end of his 34-date North American tour before he can return home to his Zen zone. 

For the Toronto-based artist and former Mac DeMarco guitarist better known as Homeshake, the days on the road start to blend together. Before he knows it, he’s back home — disoriented but grateful.  

“It’s sort of like when you’re a kid, and you spin around in circles, and then you try to stand still, and everything is moving,” Sagar tells Boulder Weekly on a recent video call ahead of his Nov. 20 show at Denver’s Bluebird Theater. “What I need to do is immediately socialize when I get home. My instinct is to hide in the house, but that makes it more confusing.”

Sagar’s upcoming Front Range stop will find the self-described “shy” musician promoting two albums from this year, Horsie and CD Wallet. Both released on Sagar’s independent imprint SHHOAMKEE via WARP Records — which boasts electronic pioneers like Flying Lotus and Aphex Twin — the DJ, vocalist and instrumentalist makes his art not to play sold-out shows, but purely for the love of creating.

“One of the rewarding things I’ve found in my work has been the self-discovery,” he says. “When you’re [in the middle of] the creative process and you’re letting it happen: You have the feeling, and you have the sound, and then you flesh out these little ideas. Then after some time, you start seeing what exactly you were getting at.”

This process has guided Sagar, 34, across seven full-length albums under the Homeshake moniker over the past decade — including hours of instrumental demos released as the eight-volume Pareidolia Catalog in 2022. But he says nerves surrounding the reception of his music have only increased over the course of his solo career, especially after putting out two albums within three months of each other.

“Doing one record, that is just the job, but doubling down was crazier than I anticipated,” Sagar says. “People have expectations of what you’re supposed to continue doing. It’s something I’ve found difficult in the past, but it’s not something I can control, right?”

‘I’m tired of being alone’

Sagar keeps producing new music simply because he can’t imagine spending his time doing anything else. That makes sense considering how rapidly his first album of the year, CD Wallet, came to fruition. 

The nine-track LP was made in less than three weeks during the months-long process of recording Horsie. The twin records feel like two halves of a whole: The latter is lifted by lofi R&B-inspired cuts such as the dreamy “Simple,” while CD Wallet closes with two minutes of noisy feedback and a final descent into a mosh-inspiring breakdown.

“I had been cataloging little rock riffs in my voice memos on my phone — I would just come up with these little things,” he says. “Then I had all this downtime but was still very active in the studio, so I just decided to flesh them all out.”

Like the video for “Simple,” a psychedelic sojourn in which Sagar singularly absconds with someone else’s ’80s Honda Civic, the wallflower artist regards the process of music-making as meditative and private, though he has hopes of relaxing into the spirit of collaboration with time. 

“I am quite guarded with my work. I found a new group of musicians lately who I’ve been enjoying working with, and it’s definitely something I’m trying to fix,” he says. “When I come up with something I think is good or album-worthy, I like hiding it, keeping it to myself … but it’s sort of lonely, and I feel like I’m tired of being alone.”

ON THE BILL: Homeshake with Green-House. 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, Bluebird Theater, 3317 E Colfax Ave., Denver. $25