Premiere: Sunnsetter Drops New Single & Video “Always Talk, Never Speak”

“These songs are something I have been working towards for the better part of 3 years,” said McLeod of the forthcoming LP. “During this time, I have grieved the loss of a close friend/bandmate and continuously dealt with my journey of sobriety and struggles with mental well being, concepts around gender identity and queerness; while simultaneously, of course, being thrown into even more chaos via the pandemic. I hope that these songs can make sense to the people who have never heard my music and the people who have supported me along the way. This is simply the best that I can be, through song, and the need to share that feeling with the world is what has kept me going this entire time.”

As described by McLeod, much of the album was recorded in a transition period between when he lived in Hamilton with Daniel Monkman (Zoon), and when he and his partner first met. As he wrote: “During 2020, we found the house of our dreams in a rural area of Norfolk County, where we’ve been living since. I have been slowly building a recording studio in my shed, and eventually moving it onto the loft of the barn. The studio is called ‘Garden House Recording.’ The album was written over the course of those 3 years between Hamilton and my new home and mixed here in my new studio.”

As a follow-up to the record’s first single, “Float in Circles,” today also sees the release of the second, “Always Talk, Never Speak.”

Speaking on the new track, McLeod wrote: “I think it’s extremely important to speak your truest self openly, and to actually mean it. So many people never really say what they truly mean, or what they feel for fear of ridicule. I’ve lived with the struggle of presenting my truest self to the world for a long time, and no longer want to live that way.” 

Over the years, Sunnsetter has shared a series of demos and one-off singles. Earlier this year, he shared an LP entitled All watched over by machines of loving grace, and his forthcoming LP, The best that I can be., marks a new era for the project. Stay tuned for more, coming soon.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and mixing engineer Andrew McLeod has been releasing music under the name Sunnsetter since 2014. Based in rural Norfolk County, Ontario, they’ve always been a DIY artist, single handedly fusing together every element of their music. And while the creation is entirely them, the music itself draws from various genres; ambient, singer-songwriter, shoegaze, post-rock, slowcore and moves nimbly between them. McLeod wants each song to be distinct. “One of my biggest fears as an artist is to make an album of songs that sound exactly the same,” he said.

Sunnsetter’s single, “Float in Circles,” both sonically and thematically represents much of McLeod’s recent experience: experimentation and overwhelming feelings of grief and guilt over the loss of a close friend and bandmate. “None of it really made any sense until I wrote this track and realized this record and everything that’s happened in my life since their passing needed to be in tribute to them,” said McLeod. It’s melodic and hazy, and brimming with vulnerability. Additionally, McLeod’s background as a score composer clearly underpins much of their work, yet they freely design their songs with an equal measure of creative abandon and melodic intention.

Outside of Sunnsetter, McLeod is a contributor to two Polaris nominated and shortlisted projects; Zoon, headed by Daniel Monkman, and OMBIIGIZI, a collaboration between Monkman and Adam Sturgeon of Status/Non-Status.

Source: thoughtswordsaction.com