CHRIS VELAN WILL RELEASE HIS FIFTH FULL-LENGTH ALBUM, THE LONG GOODBYE, JULY 23 ON NEWSONG RECORDINGS. LISTEN TO THE TITLE TRACK “THE LONG GOODBYE” HERE.
“This is definitely not a summer beach album”, jokes Chris Velan about his latest and fifth full-length outing, The Long Goodbye (NewSong Recordings). The Montreal singer-songwriter and world music producer has returned with a collection of songs that chart the emotional depths and shallows navigated in the aftermath of a relationship’s end.
Where Velan’s last two albums Solidago (2009) and Fables For Fighters (2011) grapple on different levels with themes of finding one’s place in the world, The Long Goodbye takes a different turn. And where Velan has admittedly masked his inner struggles with the buoyant sensibilities of pop, African and reggae-influenced arrangements on past albums, here he surrenders fully to the beat of heartbreak.
“I desperately needed to record these songs raw and unadorned so as to force myself to sit in that difficult space, as uncomfortable and difficult as that might have felt. The core of each song is a solo recording of my voice and my instrument, tracked in a cavernous live room at Echo Mountain Studios, a former African-American Methodist Church in Asheville, NC. It was a solitary affair with only a few other musicians involved. I did most of the overdubbing myself and kept things minimal, trying to make sure every part counted and had a reason to be there.”
Helping Velan on his journey was producer, Iestyn Polson (David Gray, Patti Smith) who also produced Fables. The two reunited in Asheville to record at Echo Mountain over the course of three weeks. Says Polson, “All I did was put up mics. The rest was down to Chris, really.” Velan offers another take on Polson’s contribution: “From working together on Fables, Iestyn and I developed a level of trust and comfort that was necessary for an album this personal. As a talented producer and friend, he just naturally understood how to give me the space to pull these songs out in the way that I needed.”
The result is a stripped-down, achingly intimate recording of eight songs that carry the listener through Velan’s most poignant work to date. “I didn’t allow myself anything to hide behind on this album. I couldn’t see any other way to do it.” The guitarist even wrote two songs on piano – a first for him – and performed them live in the studio as a way to push him into new emotive and musical territory and out of his comfort zone.
Velan acknowledges, “There’s a part of me that just wanted to record these songs as keepsakes for myself and never release them – like photographs you put away in a drawer to revisit sometime later in your life. They felt too personal to share. But the feedback I’ve been getting from people is that they’re really connecting with the material. They hear a lot of solace and hope in there. So maybe I wasn’t just writing this album for myself. “ And maybe that’s why catching Velan at the end of this long goodbye might be a good thing – a very good thing.
CHRIS VELAN’S THE LONG GOODBYE – OUT JULY 23 ON NEWSONG RECORDINGS
LISTEN TO THE TITLE TRACK “THE LONG GOODBYE” HERE
TRACK LIST
1. Bottom Of Love
2. Waking Heart
3. Hard December
4. Hang On Tightly
6. Not That Man
7. Gorgeous Morning
8. Did We Ever
CHRIS VELAN TOUR DATES:
07/24/13 English Harbour, NL – English Harbor Arts Centre
07/25/13 St. John’s, NL – The Ship Inn
09/01/13 Powell River, BC – Sunshine Music Festival
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chrisvelan/ ARTIST WEBSITE: chrisvelan.com
LABEL WEBSITE: newsongrecordings.com
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