Wyatt C. Louis Announces Debut Album, Chandler With New Single,”In Emerald”
Wyatt C. Louis has announced their debut album Chandler, coming out on revered indie-label Royal Mountain Records, on May 24th, alongside their new single, “In Emerald”. Alongside the single, they will also head out on tour supporting Noah Reid across the Midwest in the US.
Following last year’s “Bobtail Road“, “In Emerald” is a shimmering, sun-soaked ode to a weekend away with your partner, and features the lapping pedal steel of City and Colour’s Matt Kelly.
On the track, Wyatt explains,
“Driving to the west coast with nitotêmak in December 2021, we set out to see Adrianne Lenker play Washington Hall. This venture around my 27th birthday also gave me time to reflect on such a fruitful year. Started to write the lyrics shortly after returning.”
They continue,
“I remember that day trip to Oregon, with the smell of the ocean in our hair. Pockets full of saltwater taffy. Taking in landscape through the lens of a film camera. “In Emerald” encapsulates many special moments for me, it was a pleasure to bring this one to life.”
Wyatt will be on tour with Noah Reid from January 10th, starting at Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, MN. The full dates are below.
Walking the line between genres like an easy path rather than a tightrope, carried by textural and ethereal songs, Wyatt C. Louis gently pours their heart into effortless vocals, which comes through clearly on their debut album Chandler, a title referencing their middle name. Louis, a nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) singer-songwriter born and raised in parts of Treaty Six Territory, lets the amalgamation of those places shine through on these tracks about life and love.
Out via Royal Mountain Records on May 24th, 2024, Chandler is suffused with a soft comfort that glows with feelings of familiarity and ease. Louis found levity through collaboration on this album recorded at singer-songwriter and producer Phenix Warren’s studio, Alta Sound, in Calgary, AB with Colin Carbonera stepping in as producer/engineer, Kyle Donauer playing drums, and Jesse Shire on the bass.
“It’s such a comforting space for bringing a couple people in. It’s pretty small, but it does the job really well,” says Louis of collaborating at Warren’s.
A new experience, and the result is upbeat yet thoughtful. Together, they made the kind of songs that show off Louis’ contradictions of paying homage to the country music ingrained in their childhood’s geography, with an indie and roots spin that makes it something all its own.
To the rock ‘n’ roll classic inspiration passed down like tradition from their father who played plenty of Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, and Beatles records in the house when Louis was growing up — Louis mixes in softer-voiced influences, like Leif Vollebekk, Feist, and William Prince from Peguis First Nation, MB. Through studying voice at Red Deer College, they were able to fine-tune this instrument, gaining control and understanding that allowed them to deliver their effortlessly light vocals that are nonetheless charged with emotion.
On the 2020 single “Dancing with Sue,” Louis taps into femininity of all kinds, crediting friends, family members, and mentors as inspiration on this playful and lighthearted track born from a place of love.
“It’s an ode to all my teachers growing up, and for the people who really saw what I’d be at a young age,” says Louis.
The song points to how they play with stauncher notions of gender divides, tracing a curve through the straight and narrow of masculinity and femininity. In doing so, Louis plays with binary notions that feel strongly rooted in Calgary’s at times more traditional, Stampede-influenced ways.
“There’s a really big world in country music here, and I find myself colouring outside those lines,” they say.
Though fixed borders are malleable for Louis, surroundings still impact their art, with sensations and textures getting personified through sound. Nature takes its rightful place in storytelling-style pieces even when urban landscapes set the tune. “Sundog” brings forth a time and season’s weather, the frigid winters in Moh’kinstsis lightened by warm Chinook winds, embodied through the lushness of saxophone to add a layer of balminess to the deep freeze. On lead single “In Emerald”, a hazy birthday weekend spent in Seattle as City and Colour’s Matt Kelly’s pedal laps throughout like the soft waves on the Pacific Coast, while the Wild Pink collaboration “Oh Vibrant Sky” sees Louis sweltering on a long summer day as they watch acts on a festival stage.
Wyatt C. Louis’ soulful and emotive tunes allow them to venture beyond their normal routes. With Chandler, they’re seeking to head in directions where the music leads, with the sounds of their home guiding the way, like a Nordic sundog’s light shining through the coldest of days.
Tour Dates
Jan 10 – Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN
Jan 12 – Saint Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI
Jan 13 – Park West – Chicago, IL
Jan 15 – Delmar Hall – St Louis, MO
Jan 16 – The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN
Jan 17 – The Bluestone – Columbus, OH
Jan 18 – Bogarts – Cincinnati, OH
Jan 19 – Brooklyn Bowl – Nashville, TN
Jan 20 – Buckhead Theatre – Atlanta, GA
Jan 26 – Paramount Theatre – Austin, TX
Jan 27 – House Of Blues – Houston, TX
All dates supporting Noah Reid
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