Toronto Indie Rock Band Jane’s Party Release First Single of 2023 “Ships On An Ocean”
Revered indie rock outfit Jane’s Party has released “Ships On An Ocean,” their first single following the 2022 release of their LP, Live Again. They also announce a Toronto show on June 1 with Ferraro, presented by Indie88 at Horseshoe Tavern. Tickets are available here. The song title pays homage to the line “ships that pass in the night,” from the poem “Tales of a Wayside Inn” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Tom Ionesu (guitar/vocals) found inspiration in
“the idea that we can come so close to one another for a brief period of time, and then just sail off into the night. I thought it really captured a lethargic and hopeless feeling that the main character in the song takes on. The metaphor helped me get inside that perspective and to write from that place.”
He goes on to explain that it was initially
“inspired by one of my best friends’ breakups with a long-time girlfriend. I’d gotten home after meeting him for coffee and pretty much wrote the song in one sitting. I didn’t plan to write it, but the imagery and mood of his experience I think seeped into my subconscious. Writing a song about a breakup isn’t exactly fresh ground to write on, which is why it often takes a good concept, an interesting perspective, or some good lines to get me excited about it. Things like the vintage lightbulb in a swanky downtown bar, the expensive beer beginning to taste like a cheap one (this bottle of import tastes domestic tonight – I’m not sure if I’ve heard hopelessness and defeat described like that before), and the drawn-out feeling of a movie character taking forever to die were all things I had on my mind at the time.”
“After the song was written, many recorded demo versions circulated, spanning several years. The challenge with recording it was creating the contrast in intensity between the verse and chorus. The realization I had was that you can’t paint the entire thing with one brush. You almost need to write two songs – an intimate quiet one, and a loud intense one – and then stitch them together in the most shocking way possible. The recording sessions turned out this way too, almost by chance. We started off recording the song at Pineship Sound with Carlin Nicholson (Zeus) and Mike O’Brien (Zeus, Bahamas), which has a wonderfully gritty and muscular sound. Most of what we recorded there ended up in the choruses. About a year later we did a session at All Day Coconut with Gavin Gardiner. Gavin’s studio provided most of the softer elements in the track. We spent the final few months mixing sounds between the two studios, and filling in any gaps with material recorded in our home studios. The bass for example was edited together between all 3 studios, and has quite a different sound throughout.”
As for the artwork,
“the cover is in a linocut style. I drew inspiration from the work of Elizabeth Catlett, Leopoldo Méndez, and Emmy Lou Packard. I wanted the visuals to communicate simplicity and a child-like honesty and vulnerability. The protagonist in the song is singing from a place of absolute defeat. There’s no confidence or will to even interrupt the slow-motion breakup he’s going through – in a way he’s dropped all barriers, knowing there’s nothing he can do about any of it. It is very difficult to get sharp lines and precision in the linocut art style. You’re working with a chisel and ink. It’s very raw and imperfect. You have to learn to use the imprecision of the medium to your advantage and weave it into the art concept in a way that makes it look deliberate. That really captured the artistic essence of the song.”