LoZ Out Now!

and other recommendations

photography Alexis Townsend | layout + design Catriana van Rijn | LoZ titling Sleepless Mindz

LoZ is officially out! Listen to it wherever you stream your music.

Next week I will release a Song Breakdown for track 2, Crystal Waters and her Summer Sun.

If you’re in Vancouver, my band, Golden Future, and I will be celebrating LoZ’s release with a one hour concert where we will play the album from top to bottom. Thursday, August 4th, from 7 - 8 pm. at Guilt & Company, the underground nexus of this city’s soul scene. Tickets at the door.

If you’re in Seattle, my keyboardist Jonny Tobin and I will be celebrating the release with a more intimate show at the iconic Seattle mainstay, Sea Monster Lounge in Wallingford. Friday, August 5th at 9pm. We’ll be opening for the monster funk band F2D.

We’ve had some kind words come in for the album and for various songs from it which you can read here: Clout Magazine . Vancouver Sun . Pop Fad . Rising Artists.

I’m always drawn to a well written review (not concerning my own work, but that doesn’t hurt!). It opens up a new window to the work wherein I can start to see the shape and beauty of it a little more clearly.

And because I’ve talked a lot about this new album of late, I wanted to balance out the scales and offer up a few works of others I am enjoying.

Amber Mark
I was enchanted by her Tiny Desk Concert. It takes place in an Italian restaurant on Cornelia street in New York City’s West Village—the same one she grew up in. Mark’s godparents own the restaurant, and Mark lives above it, as she has since high school. At the concert, her family and friends sit at a long wooden table three feet from the band, drinking wine and eating Italian fare, watching and listening to Mark perform a soulful and slinky set.

Rosanna - Toto
I’m a little late to the game with this one. It’s not as if I hadn’t heard the song. But on my most recent west coast tour I put it on heavy repeat. There is so much joy, creativity, and incredible musicianship on Toto IV, the album to which this song belongs. In its scope, grandeur, and exuberance, some of it—and I mean this in the best way possible—feels like theme park music. I give credit to Jonny Tobin for making that connection and I couldn’t agree more with it. You could play this at the gates to Disneyland and nobody would bat an eye.

I Got You - Lydia Persaud
I Got You came on the CBC (our Canadian public broadcaster) the other day and I felt immediately transported. Lydia uses her voice in a way I haven’t heard from singers in a while. She sounds like Roberta Flack, and in my mind, never overuses, or abuses her powers as a singer. After hearing the song I immediately looked her up and realized I had billed with her in Toronto many years ago when she was singing with another great group called The O’Pears.
*Bonus - One of my favourite guitar players, Christine Bougie, plays on Lydia’s new album.

Cash in Cash Out - Pharrell Williams
I walked around my apartment for days trying to sing the various samples and hooks on this record, effectively annoying my wife and then slowly but surely, getting her to do the exact same thing.