Dan Edmonds releases Softie, his sophomore solo album following 2016’s Ladies On The Corner. Stream the Hamilton, ON-based artist’s new full-length through your preferred platform now.
Softie can generally be described as a foray into impressionistic pop, produced by one of Canada’s masters of the genre, Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck, Alvvays). The fact that each of the LP’s 10 tracks clock in under three minutes underscores the attention to detail that went into crafting them. Edmonds estimates it took a full year to make the album, starting with sessions at Toronto’s Palace Sound before he began experimenting with the tracks at home.
Along the way, Edmonds and Walsh got the opportunity to work with The National’s Bryan Devendorf in the drummer’s hometown of Cincinnati where he laid down some percussion, live and programmed, on the songs “Another Try,” “3 O’Clock, Paris” and “Fell In Love.” Edmonds continued to tinker right up to the last minute, writing and recording “Run Into You,” mere days before the album was sent for mastering.
“In a sense, this LP dovetails traditional and contemporary elements. I was listening to a lot of Burt Bacharach at the time—his songs and arrangements remain elusive to me—and Graham was listening to Vince Staples when I met him. I’d done a lot of writing before we got together, but much of the album ended up being improvised in the studio. If we gravitated towards a tempo, or a chord structure, we recorded it and always attempted to turn it into a song,” says Dan Edmonds
Indeed, there aren’t many signs left of the brash young roots-rocker who once fronted the band Harlan Pepper, or even the lo-fi troubadour on Ladies On The Corner. Dan Edmonds has taken a risk with Softie, but one based on hard-earned experience that remains at the core of each song.