SOPHOMORE LP NEW KIND OF FAMILIAR OUT MAY 3, PRODUCED BY MATTHEW BARBER
Americana Folk Act Clever Hopes, fronted by Andrew Shaver, shares the latest single featured on the forthcoming sophomore album.
The horn-blasted tune finds him fully fallen into a big love.
“Thrown it Open is about giving yourself permission to embrace all of the unknowns that come with a new love,” shares Andrew. “It’s about slowing down and acknowledging the significant, sometimes disorienting, changes. It’s about accepting help as you navigate your new environs – both physical and mental – while making sure you’re able to solidify things on your own because, let’s face it, eventually, everyone shifts their focus and moves on. But mostly, it’s about the terrific JJ Cale-inspired groove.”
Between writing his debut Clever Hopes album, Artefact, and the songs that comprise the eagerly-awaited sophomore album, New Kind of Familiar, set to arrive on May 3rd (Independent), Shaver experienced his fair share of significant events—falling in love, moving to Nova Scotia, becoming a father. These are the things occupying his mind on the new record, and yet, they don’t exist in a vacuum; Shaver rejects tidy narratives and time’s linear arrow and instead lets the album take shape with the same flow and verve of real life, bouncing back and forth in his lyrics between memory, the glorious, the complicated present, and anticipation.
The result is appropriately dreamy, drifting, rhythmic, and charged.
“There was a lot of looking back on Artefact,” Shaver says. “New Kind of Familiar is far more forward looking; there are songs on which I’ve been able to celebrate the place I’m in now – a place of stability and clarity. There’s a song that deals directly with the question of death, and one about the birth of my son, or essentially, rebirth.“
The new collection of songs, helmed by producer Matthew Barber, showcases Andrew on vocals and acoustic guitar, with the notable talents of Eva Foote on vocals and Joe Grass (renowned for producing Elisapie’s remarkable album “Inuktitut”) contributing on guitar. Additionally, the single “Thrown it Open” includes Barber on vocals, acclaimed artist Afie Jurvanen (Bahamas) on guitar, Steve O’Connor on keys, Kyle Cunjak on bass, Kev Foran on trumpet, and JUNO award-winning producer Joshua Van Tassel on drums (known for his work with The Fortunate Ones, Christine Bougie, David Myles). This impressive collaboration was recorded at Joel Plaskett’s studio, Fang Recording, located just down the road from Andrew’s new home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.