Jerry Leger shares new single “Slow Night In Nowhere Town” from upcoming Donlands LP
On his new album Donlands, internationally acclaimed Toronto singer/songwriter Jerry Leger has teamed up with legendary Canadian producer/engineer Mark Howard (Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Neil Young), whose trademark atmospheric sound adds an entirely new dimension to Leger’s approach. Named after the street in Toronto’s east end where it was recorded, in what once was the Donlands Theatre, Donlands presents Jerry Leger as he’s never been heard before.
Jerry has unveiled the second single from Donlands, “Slow Night In Nowhere Town,” Donlands is officially out on October 27 via Latent Recordings/Warner Music Canada.
Leger says of “Slow Night In Nowhere Town,”
“To me, this song has a cinematic quality. I see bright neon lights and no one around. It has a windshield wiper rhythm, which I think is perfect for the atmosphere of the track.”
Leger began collaborating with Howard by sending him 20 demos and was pleasantly surprised when they basically agreed on which 10 should comprise the record. From there, he describes the process as treating each song like a blank canvas, building up arrangements with the help of engineer Aaron Goldstein, who also added pedal steel and guitar to several tracks. But overall, Leger says it all came down to the atmosphere Howard created. He says the experience felt almost like creating a film noir soundtrack, with something unknown always lurking in the shadows.
“Not a lot of people make records like Mark Howard anymore,” Leger says. “After I got to tell him how much Tom Waits’s Real Gone meant to me, I fell right into the experience. Like all my albums, we recorded Donlands mostly live in the studio with my band, The Situation [Dan Mock, Kyle Sullivan, Alan Zemaitis] in a circle—no headphones, just listening and existing, breathing as a whole. To me, it’s a record that lives in its own world. Since I was a little kid, I’ve loved how recordings like The Flamingos’ ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ and ‘Pledging My Love’ by Johnny Ace sound so haunting. I knew Mark could get us that, with the right choice of material.”