HELENA DELAND SHARES NEW SINGLE, “STRAWBERRY MOON”

WATCH / SHARE “STRAWBERRY MOON” VISUALIZER HERE
BUY / STREAM “STRAWBERRY MOON” HERE

HELENA DELAND’S NEW LP, GOODNIGHT SUMMERLAND, OUT OCTOBER 13, 2023 VIA CHIVI CHIVI

INTERNATIONAL TOUR DATES BEGIN NOVEMBER 2023

PRE-SAVE GOODNIGHT SUMMERLAND HERE

“An introspective jewel of a song, "Bright Green Vibrant Gray" weaves together our relationships to each other and nature, making the losses a little softer and the world a bit brighter.”
CBC Music

“‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray’ is an apt title for this song that sounds like a rainy day in April; delicately plucked acoustic guitar hits like raindrops in a puddle, while the flutes and harmonies blossom, at the first signs of spring growth.” - Brooklyn Vegan (Indie Basement - Best Songs Of August)

“​​’Swimmer’ strips things back into a ghostly folk song where Deland's voice perches itself above doleful acoustic guitar lines.” - The FADER

“Helena Deland is back with {“Spring Bug”} a radiant, swaying springtime anthem, buzzing with the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of renewal.” - Gorilla Vs. Bear

"Personal loss and worries about global warming merge in ‘Swimmer.’ Helena Deland sings in a hushed, humble voice over acoustic guitar picking and rumbling noise undercurrents. She’s singing to someone who won’t be around long, who flinches at a cold ocean swim but who also realizes that ‘The warmer waters get, the more the oceans expand.’ The song contrasts brief human lifetimes to the inexorable forces of nature; the noise is the eternal sound of crashing waves." - The New York Times (The Playlist)

Photo Credit : Lawrence Fafard // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, the acclaimed Montreal-based songwriter and musician Helena Deland shares “Strawberry Moon”, the final pre-release single from her new album Goodnight Summerland, ahead of its release on October 13 via Chivi Chivi. A folk lullaby for lovers lost in the nightfall, “Strawberry Moon” features wistful piano melodies and a sweet, textured acoustic guitar on which Helena lays her exquisite vocals.

According to Helena, the song was written “during an annual vacation at a beloved friend's cottage by the lake, where strawberries are known as 'heart berries' in the Anishinaabe tradition, ‘Strawberry Moon’ is sleepless and peaceful.” Further adding: “I was clear minded, able to welcome both the eagerness and weariness brought forth by the love story unfolding at a distance. These sentiments infuse ordinary nights with the colors of fate. Every year of our lives has taken us to where we are. We're not just witnesses to this moment; we're an integral part of a world where strawberries bloom every year.”

WATCH / SHARE “STRAWBERRY MOON” VISUALIZER HERE
BUY / STREAM “STRAWBERRY MOON” HERE

“Strawberry Moon” arrives after August’s “Bright Green Vibrant Gray” which accompanied the announcement of Goodnight Summerland with a charming video directed by Xavier Beldor, depicting Deland going on a painting expedition through the deep snow in Charlevoix, Quebec. 2022's “Swimmer” (which received praise from The New York Times), and May 2023’s “Spring Bug” (which made it onto Pitchfork’s SELECTS staff picks playlist), also appear on Goodnight Summerland. 

Helena Deland is interested in how songs can hold what eludes everyday language. Her music draws on reading and walking around. Goodnight Summerland was recorded with Sam Evian at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskill mountains. It was engineered by Sam, co-produced by Helena and Sam, and mastered by Heba Kadry (Bjork, Beach House, Slowdive). Deland's new songs have simpler musical arrangements than 2020's debut Someone New, focusing on the sheer joy and transformative power of a good song.

WATCH / SHARE “BRIGHT GREEN VIBRANT GRAY” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BRIGHT GREEN VIBRANT GRAY” HERE

MORE ABOUT HELENA DELAND
Helena's beloved debut album, Someone New, was released in 2020 on Luminelle Recordings, garnering press acclaim from Brooklyn Vegan, THE FADER, NPR, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paste, Pitchfork, and Stereogum among many others. It was followed by the release of Hildegard, a collaborative album with fellow Montreal musician Ouri on section1. 2023 has also seen Helena collaborate with claire rousay on the “Deceiver” single, released in May as part of Mexican Summer’s Looking Glass series, and on July’s “Sigh In My Ear” as part of Saddle Creek’s Document series.

WATCH / SHARE “SPRING BUG” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “SWIMMER” HERE

In November 2023 Helena will embark on her First Headline Tour of North America, followed by her first headline dates overseas in February 2024. She has extensively toured North America and Europe opening for the likes of Weyes Blood, Andy Shauf, The Weather Station, Connan Mockasin, Soccer Mommy, and Iggy Pop. Full tour dates can be found below.

PRAISE FOR HELENA DELAND

“‘Spring Bug’ is a lush landscape of oil-painted acoustic pondering, traipsing lightly through meaningful lyrics. Deland opens the track with cyclical acoustic guitar fingerpicking, warm in tone and pensive in sound. The easy current of the guitar almost gives off the feeling of meditation, coursing through dissonant progressions. A quirky acoustic bass line joins in the second verse, nodding to the eccentric twinge in Deland’s sound.” - Ones To Watch

“‘Swimmer’ is dedicated to the memory of Deland’s mother, who passed away last year. Its instrumentation is as spare as its emotions are abundant: Deland’s porcelain vocals rest on a bed of fingerpicked acoustic guitar and atmospheric synth accents, foregrounding lyrics (inspired by poet Mary Oliver’s “Clamming”) that are both heartbreaking and beautiful.” - Paste

“‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray,’ the new single off of her upcoming second record, Goodnight Summerland, has a different texture. Where the songs on Someone New shared a phenotype with the velvety, sensual trip hop of Portishead, ‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray,’ is wispier, folkier. The song is concerned with new loves, the loss of a parent, thinking of human existence as something geological… The instrumentation mirrors this lyrical pastoralism: the way the drums turn it all into a sleepy sort of waltz, the way the guitars turn like the tides. It is an exquisite, small song. Something to rub your eyes to as you greet the day, remembering how the world is very big and old.” - Pitchfork

“On her debut album Someone New, Montreal singer/songwriter Helena Deland had a tendency to craft hauntingly gorgeous material from subtle, slow-burn melodies and arrangements. ‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray’ is another such example of the knack she has for crafting breathtakingly understated material whose beauty creeps up on you through its duration. Beginning with just a gentle juxtaposition of acoustic guitar plucks and Deland’s own voice, with additional elements slowly making their presence known through a soft focus view of comfortingly natural imagery. There’s no great climax here, nothing so obviously powerful, just a song whose soft beauty feels rife for basking in with the coming fall season.” - Treble (Essential Tracks)

“{“Spring Bug” is} introspective, moving…Against warm chords, her voice is like a breeze on a spring day.”- Uproxx

TOUR DATES // TICKETS HERE
11/02/2023 - Vancouver - Fox Cabaret
11/03/2023 - Seattle - Madame Lou’s 
11/04/2023 - Portland - Mississippi Studios 
11/06/2023 - San Francisco - Cafe du Nord
11/07/2023 - Los Angeles - Lodge Room
11/08/2023 - San Diego - Casbah 
11/09/2023 - Phoenix - Valley Bar
11/11/2023 - Denver - Lost Lake 
11/13/2023 - Minneapolis - 7th st
11/14/2023 - Chicago - Lincoln Hall 
11/15/2023 - Detroit - El club 
11/16/2023 - Toronto - Horseshoe 
11/18/2023 - Brooklyn - Music Hall of Williamsburg 
11/19/2023 - DC - Songbyrd 
11/24/2023 - Montréal - La Tulipe
11/25/2023 - Québec - Le Pantoum
02/13/2024 - Baden - One Of A Million Festival
02/14/2024 - Munich - Milla     
02/15/2024 - Berlin - Privatclub
02/16/2024 - Amsterdam - Paradiso Upstairs
02/17/2024 - Paris - Pop Up Du Label
02/19/2024 - Brussels - Botanique
02/21/2024 - London - The Lexington

Cover Art by Beverly Zawitkoski // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

GOODNIGHT SUMMERLAND TRACKLISTING
1.Moon Pith
2.Saying Something
3.Spring Bug
4.Bright Green Vibrant Gray
5.Drawbridge
6.Roadflower
7.The Animals
8.Who I Sound Like
9.Swimmer
10.Night Soft As Silk
11.Strawberry Moon

HELENA DELAND ONLINE
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
BANDCAMP

STATUS / NON-STATUS REVEAL VIDEO FOR “SURELY TRAVEL”

STATUS / NON-STATUS SHARE NEW VIDEO FOR TITLE TRACK OF ACCLAIMED LP, SURELY TRAVEL, OUT NOW VIA YOU’VE CHANGED

WATCH / SHARE “SURELY TRAVEL” HERE

BUY / STREAM SURELY TRAVEL HERE

PERFORMANCES BEGIN OCTOBER 5, 2023

PRAISE FOR SURELY TRAVEL

“If there’s one thing that sets Status/Non-Status apart from other pandemic-era debuts, it’s that they didn’t let little things like lockdowns hold them back. From their stellar 2021 EP 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years to this year’s full-length, Surely Travel, they let their wanderlust inform their songs and subject matter. …In writing a record about hitting the road, Sturgeon and the band opened new routes to sonic experimentation that signal that Status/Non-Status are not afraid to carve out their own path.” • Jim Di Gioia - Dominionated Favourite 50 of 2022

“Surely Travel is a record about telling truths. Status/Non-Status's semi-conceptual album about touring, the music industry and everything left behind in the pursuit of art continues to evolve and morph in new and provoking creative directions, with every listen rewarding listeners with a uniquely beautiful experience.” EXCLAIM! - Best Albums of 2022

“Surely Travel” Video Still

Next week, Status / Non-Status pack up the van and head out for a run of shows in Quebec and Ontario, all performance dates can be found below. In an almost nostalgic nod to the road, today the band is sharing the new video for “Surely Travel”, the title track from their most recent LP. “This video is a journey through memories, comprising family videos as well as photographs taken during the last year of touring the album Surely Travel,” says songwriter Adam Sturgeon. “In some ways, it is a diary or scrapbook that has weathered over the passage of time. These films have aged as well as our bodies from all this time on the road. ‘Surely Travel’ is a heartfelt and nostalgic visual trip that serves this song and the feelings we leave behind in transit, the emotional baggage we carry along with us, and the hope and optimism we seek to find with every new destination we reach.”

WATCH / SHARE “SURELY TRAVEL” HERE
BUY / STREAM SURELY TRAVEL HERE

MORE ABOUT SURELY TRAVEL
What’s revealed when you archive the quiet moments during time spent on the road? For Adam Sturgeon, the result is a crystalline glimpse into the unseen — and gratifying — moments of personal renovation we rarely pay attention to; where a blown out tire incites calm rather than rage, and moments of frustration invite grace instead of judgement. This is the vantage of Surely Travel, the latest album by Status/Non-Status, the evolving musical project of the Anishinaabe artist and community worker, and a close-knit group of collaborators. 

While Status / Non-Status’ previous album Warrior Down was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize and was shortlisted for the 2022 SOCAN Songwriter Prize for album track “Find A Home”, recently, Sturgeon joined Zoon’s Daniel Monkman to form OMBIIGIZI whose debut album, Sewn Together, was shortlisted for the 2022 Polaris Music Prize.

WATCH / SHARE “MAINLY CROWS” HERE

Exploring their expansive, sky-sweeping folk rock from a fresh angle, Status/Non-Status drive head-on into a natural complement to the earth-shaking sonic landscapes they’re known for. A loose concept album written as a travel log of animals in flight, the record brims with open air reflections, while gazing out of a blurry window and acknowledging what it can’t see clearly. Blending the melted psychedelic gauze of distorted Americana, with thundering flashes of post rock, Sturgeon implements softness generously. At the core, remembering that lyrics that break through universally sing with clarity about experiences that “chop at the knees.” 

WATCH / SHARE “MASHKIKI SUNSET” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “BLOWN TIRE” HERE

Where the acclaimed Warrior Down (2019), and its celebrated follow-up the 1,2,3,4,500 Years EP (2020) required a mighty sonic landscape to fit its lofty reckonings of nationhood, trauma and familial memory, Surely Travel tightens its scope, but not its ambition. Instead, peering inward to examine the self within its surroundings, and to underscore identity and indigeneity from the smallest spaces or ordinary experiences. Conjuring the awe of sunshowers through the rearview mirror, Surely Travel intentionally doesn’t over-promise optimism, but rather celebrates the small wins of a human-sized approach to resilience and healing.

Photo Credit : Colin Medley // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

TOUR DATES
October 5 - Windsor - Meteor
October 6 - London - Palasad Social Bowl
October 7 - Montreal - Tiny Fest

STATUS/NON-STATUS ONLINE
WEBSITE
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM

SASHA CAY’S NEW ALBUM SPIN OUT TODAY, SHARES NEW VIDEO

WATCH / SHARE “DO I” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE

NEW ALBUM, SPIN, OUT TODAY VIA LIGHTER THAN AIR

BUY / STREAM SPIN HERE

Photo Credit : Evangelos James // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Out today, Sasha Cay’s new album Spin is a record that “took form in two stilted and warped years, heavy with this profound seasickness of being both empty and full,” she recounts. “Among other things, it is about outliving. Translating this into songs and sounds alongside my best friends in a basement is something I'll be forever grateful for and don’t think I can accurately put into words, which is maybe why I write songs in the first place. I hope it finds folks who might need something to lean on, similar to how I clung to a handful of records as I moved through (or laid very still) this time; dizzy, scared, and glad.”

She’s also sharing the new video for album track “Do I”, which arrives with another video directed and edited by Cay, filmed with Evangelos James and featuring dancer Xander Sen, following in the footsteps of the video for album single “Blackfly”.

WATCH / SHARE “DO I” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE

MORE ABOUT SPIN AND SASHA CAY
Sasha Cay lives in Montreal, the same city in which she grew up. In the back of her apartment, there’s a small room with a washing machine and enough space for one chair and her roommate’s rickety easel. It’s where she goes to sit with her guitar and write with the hum of laundry whirling beside her. Her songs often start in that room, the sounds of zippers and buttons scratching the dryer door bleeding into demos.

Sasha cut her teeth on Montreal’s bars and DIY venues, playing and hosting open mics and performing with local punk and psych rock bands, doubling as a filmmaker, bartering music videos for studio time. In 2017, she emerged with a collection of bedroom recordings — lofi indie songs inspired by the idiosyncratic tunings of Nick Drake & the spontaneity of the Velvet Underground. 

WATCH / SHARE “SEE YOU SOON” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “BLACKFLY” HERE

These short Bandcamp releases as well as her EP Arthur’s Party Trick (released independently in 2020) paved the way towards her forthcoming debut LP Spin, as she and her drummer Rhys began making music together by recording a Nirvana song for kicks to test out the DIY studio Rhys had just set up in their apartment basement. There, the rest of the record took shape, friends across the room putting their feet up on the couch, cracking cans open and clapping at the end of takes (sounds which can be heard on “Sugar”, the album’s opener—fittingly the first song Sasha and Rhys recorded together).

A guard held on her prior release fell way as Spin began. The fable-like quality of her earlier songs remain present, but are now paired with a contenting candour - through gritty rambles and echoey distortion Sasha sings frankly of the unraveling of violence and loss. On the  first single “Comedy”, time drags on as “everyday” is repeated like a mantra. The song recounts the absurd timing of the events of Fall 2021: in October, Sasha was hit by a car while biking and was being looked after by a close friend before they suddenly passed away while Sasha was still recovering. “Friends took care of me,” she says. “I had to stay very still, I couldn’t hold a conversation for very long. My head spun. I listened to a lot of records; I wrote when I could manage it. I made a lot of jokes.” 

WATCH / SHARE “COMEDY” HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “LOOSE TEETH” HERE

Sasha’s music stretches out across stark realism and literary narrative, tucking humour in the odd corners of songs. They puncture dreamy musical contours; they epitomize the magnetic timewarp of remembering what’s happened to you. Spin is less the simple recounting of darkness than the unfolding and refolding of it - examining what may lie on the periphery of these experiences — “like a secret, there, sleeping” she sings.

Live, Sasha and her band play on the record’s flipside. What was first sung in hushed tones in a laundry room and recorded in privacy of a basement breathes viciously alive on stage, reflecting the punk scene that Sasha played in as a teenager. The quartet moderate the raucousness of their performance with playfulness—their chemistry and friendship on display as the band makes room for Sasha’s nonchalant vocals and  freewheeling guitar. Though these songs may have been written in the aftermath of trauma and loss, they express a true joy on stage—as though the curse can be momentarily suspended and lifted when shared.
Sasha Cay will perform during POP Montreal on September 28 at L’Escogriffe. 

BUY / STREAM SPIN HERE

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

SPIN TRACKLIST
01 Sugar
02 Shadowboxing
03 Blackfly
04 Comedy
05 Do I
06 Is / Not
07 See You Soon
08 Man Man Man
09 Loose Teeth
10 Spin

SASHA CAY ONLINE
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
YOUTUBE
BANDCAMP