Already a key component in the success of the roots/Americana/pop band The Bros. Landreth, Joey Landreth has proved to be a hot commodity as a solo artist as well, as both the popular and critical response to his latest solo album abundantly demonstrates.
Released on April 19 through Cadence Recordings, Hindsight is a bold statement from an artist who continues to grow in confidence, fearlessness and who is not about to allow convention or restrictions of style, tone and genre denude his creativity.
The album is an inspired collaboration between Landreth, already an experienced, critically and popularly acclaimed singer/songwriter in his own right and for his work in Bros. Landreth, and Roman Clarke, who can rightly be claimed to be a bit of a musical prodigy. It was Clarke, in fact, who provided the push Landreth needed to feel free to explore different musical and lyrical channels without fear of upsetting the expectations of others, or in deviating too far from what is perceived to be his ‘place’ within the music industry.
“Roman Clarke is a young, up-and-coming multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, producer, engineer – you name it, he kind of does everything under the sun. And he is like, 22 or something from southern Manitoba, just outside Brandon. He had a band with a bunch of buddies, and they were in a bit of a supergroup of young, up-and-coming guys in that part of the world. He had been writing some stuff on his own and came out and opened up for the Bros. Landreth in 2017 and I was just really kind of taken with his work ethic and obviously his music, which I already loved. But just getting to know him and watch him work was really inspiring,” said Landreth.
“I told him I thought it would be a cool experiment to see what would happen if we made music together. And he was right into it. So, the rest wound up being history after that. We wrote a ton of stuff together – pretty much all the writing actually. And he also operated as the producer for the album. I gave him free rein. I mean, I acted as executive producer at the end of the day, I have ultimate veto power, but I wanted this record to be truly a collaboration between he and I. And that is what it wound up being. He was the producer and co-writer, he wound up playing drums on the record and played keyboards on a couple of tines and sang some background vocals.
“And I tell ya, it was kind of eye opening to watch someone that young and so talented work. Part of his strength is that he just creates unabashedly. Whereas some artists have certain hang-ups about staying in their lane, or having to live up to someone else’s expectations, Roman is always like, ‘I am just going to go wherever the song takes me. And even if that means ruining the song, then that’s where that song wanted to go.’ It was so refreshing to watch somebody work on something without ego. There were a lot of times during the process where I remember saying to myself, ‘holy crap, I wouldn’t have thought of that on my own.’ I learned a lot from him.”
Seeing how fearlessly Clarke threw himself into the writing and recording process caused Landreth to rethink some of his own approaches and methodologies, making Hindsight more of a challenging enterprise in some respects, than his previous solo outing, the more roots-infused 2017 record Whiskey.
“This record was essentially us saying, let’s not find the sound that we think people want to hear from Joey Landreth, let’s find the right sound for the songs. If that means putting the guitar down and setting up a synthesizer than that’s what we’re going to do. If it means where normally I would put three-part harmonies arranged in a very particular way, if that’s not necessarily what the song calls for, then we’re not going to do it. It was really an exercise for me in letting go of my own preconceived notions and letting these songs become whoever they wanted to be. And I think that’s hard for any artist because you always want to put your own stamp on something,” Landreth said.
“As artists we sometimes latch onto these things that are idiosyncratic, or your own perception of who you are as an artist. ‘I need to have harmonies sound this way; I need to have the guitar recorded this way in order for it to be me.’ And while that is always nice to feel that you have a bit of an identity, that’s not necessarily the healthier environment for art to be made. I was challenged to just push the boundaries of what I was comfortable with, and it was definitely challenging for me to step out of that rootsy, straightforward singer/songwriter idiom.”
Not that Landreth sounds SO much different on Hindsight as to be unrecognizable. His deeply emotive voice is the connective tissue between these different musical, melodic and rhythmic explorations. If anything, the new record has allowed for more lush productions to infuse greater power and compelling soundscapes to the compositions, as well as allowing him to stretch as a guitar player along different paths.
“Roman is a drummer first, but he is also a really lovely keyboard player and a lot of his own music has a ton of keyboards, lots of synths, lots of acoustic piano – it’s very piano heavy. He as the producer would say, ‘okay, in my head I am hearing this synth part that kind of sounds like this and goes like that.’ I would then go into my big Tupperware tub of pedals and would start to craft sounds to see if I could come up with a guitar sound that would fulfill the sound that he was hearing in his head. So, in a way, it almost felt like Roman was playing me and my guitar like a piano, which was super fun. And, again, it was a step outside of my comfort zone because I was so used to doing a lot of that myself. It was really, really fun to let somebody else into that process and let them take it in places I never would have thought to take it,” he said.
Hindsight is the album’s title and also the main concept, lyrically. Landreth said the songs that came tumbling out of his fertile mind since Whiskey was released seemed to be more reflective and existential and, dare we say it, taking on a more worldly and mature look at life.
“I have been telling people that this is what a record from 30-year-old Joe sounds like. It’s me looking back over the last 30 years and taking stock. There are a lot of pieces of me on this record. There are a lot of pieces of many other people that are in my life on this record. And there’s definitely some fiction in there too. The overarching message, as I said, is that this is what it sounds like when I look back over the last 30 years: the mistakes I feel like I have made, things that I have learned. As much as anything, the first song on the album, Forgiveness is me sort of exorcising some demons and trying to make sense of what it means to move on. When something shitty happens, how do you actually move on, but move on in a way that’s real? How do you truly get over things? What does that look like, what does it sound like, what does it feel like?” he said.
“Father Son Holy Spirit is a reflection on trying to have faith and losing your faith and coming to terms with what having faith means nowadays to a person like me. I sort of experimented with spirituality in my mid-teens, I was looking for that sense of self and sense of belonging. I later turned to religion and found a bunch of things that I really loved and found a bunch of things that I really didn’t love. For a long time, I had myself convinced that I lost faith, but this song talks about the complications of that and sometimes the consequences of putting everything in your life into one thing, and then realizing that no one thing is going to necessarily satisfy you or fix the things you feel are wrong. At the end of the day, you have to take responsibility over all those things and figure them out yourself.”
By contrast to these more existential elements is the lush and beautifully composed song Letting You Go, which is lyrically about the difficulties in trying to break up with someone, but is also a tour de force musically as the song’s denouement carries on with delightfully constructed instrumental passages that give an powerfully compelling musical infrastructure for the song.
“I started writing that years and years and years ago. It was basically a break up song that I started writing around the time of the first Bros. Landreth record, to be honest. Roman and I sat down to do some writing one day, and we were struggling to come up with an idea. So, I said that I had this thing that I have never really finished, and I have been coming back to lately. And he looked at it and we just sort of finished the story. It’s about breaking somebody’s heart over the phone, which is an awful thing to do. And the musical part after kind of demonstrates how its not over once you hang up, that the feelings and emotions carry on for a while,” Landreth said.
“I think we originally thought the song could just fade out but so many fun little musical moments happened when we were jamming after the main part of the song was over that I realized I couldn’t bring myself to lose them, because there’s some really cool music there. I think the radio people would love it if we were to finish somewhere around the three and a half minute mark, but I wanted to let the song ride because, f*** it, it’s my record. If someone really wants a radio edit, I will make them a radio edit, but other than that, this is how I want this song to sound, this is how I want this record to sound. Just let the band play.”
Speaking of letting the band play, Landreth is currently in the U.K. before heading across the Channel for shows in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, whereupon he returns to Canada for some select dates throughout the month of June.
For more information on upcoming tour dates, the new album Hindsight, and news about forthcoming Bros. Landreth material, visit http://www.joeylandreth.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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