“It’s about being less self-critical and accepting the side of me that’s weird, insecure and has faults.” - Hannah Georgas
Read MoreSlow Leaves
Alt image: Hannah Georgas
Slow Leaves
Slowcity.ca Open Mic: summersets, Slow Leaves, Flasher, Bodywash, Luka Kuplowsky, Mark Bragg, NQ Arbuckle, and Alexis Normand
By Will McGuirk
“I guess these songs serve as a reminder for myself, since I’m forgetful, that all moments are equal in that they pass through us once only in long stretches of boredom or by bursts of love and death. In the meantime, I only hope not to let any more go by unnoticed.” - Grant Davidson, Slow Leaves
‘Perfect Blue’ (the song) is an exploration of the many facets of my own cultural identity. Being both British and Japanese has often felt like a compromise. While it might be easy to romanticize this duality, the reality is that it’s impossible to wholly belong to either culture.” - Chris Steward, Bodywash
“the song is a recognition of the unanswerable. It is an attunement to the spiritual worlds that intersect and illuminate our daily lives.” - Luka Kuplowsky
Whitehorse
Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Andrew Bird and Phoebe Bridgers, Digging Roots, Whitehorse, Jill Barber and Slow Leaves, Jason Collett, JEEN, Ayoni, and Sunglaciers
By Will McGuirk
“I came across this Emily Dickinson poem and found it to be the most vivid description of an inner world I’ve ever encountered,” - Andrew Bird
“This duet playfully pulls back the curtain on a romantic proposition, exposing the inherent pragmatism in joining forces with another person,” - Jill Barber
"I let go of some swagger and embraced intimacy and joy and wonder. I hear this in the record and it makes me very happy to have made it.” - Jason Collett
Lal, photo by Nadja Sayej
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Slow Leaves, LAL, Charlie Houston, Middle Kids, and much more music
By Will McGuirk
Fast and furious babies not slow and level like we like - but with everyone home and tech so close those who make songs are making a lot of them so this open mic is going late. But lets start with slow - Slow Leaves, one of my fave finds in the last couple of years, authentically heartfelt, its the perfect sound for times like these; small, isolated, longing yet finding the warmth, the purpose, in the small slow things, in the domestic, the familiar, the inevitable. Yes hunker down, we are in for the long haul, we are in for the lockdown but with Slow Leaves in the ears we will get through it . . Slow Leaves is Grant Davidson, take the time.
“The song inspired an idea where the people and their surroundings are stuck in their own behavior, both physically and mentally. It’s a deeply touching song moved by a lot of energy, where the illustrations and the motions reflect a feeling of my interpretation of the song’s intention and atmosphere, without being too distinct.” - video director and animator Jonna Hallberg
“Respect the Gift" is about using our ‘gifts’ for good, and not taking for granted the everyday freedoms and luxuries we have. There’s never been a more important time to appreciate all that we find precious, especially given the world we’re living in today,” - Adrian Sutherland
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Slow Leaves, Scott Hardware, Alex Izenberg, Ada Lea, Kadeema, Lukas Nelson & the Promise of the Real, and 100 Mile House
By Will McGuirk
Say you survive, most will, so say you’re a lucky one, say we get back to something resembling what we had, say you are talking to your grandchildren about this time, what will you say you did? You have time now, for all the projects, for all the records, for all the lessons, to learn a language, to birdwatch, to stargaze, to knit, too cook, to slow down and look at your neighbourhood and your neighbour, say you don’t die, then what? Did you help or hinder, grow or standstill like time.
“This song is a defence of my fears, conceits, and contradictions. Some of us were born with broken hearts and find comfort in slipping into sentimentality as though into an old pair of slippers. The video intends to be as transparent as the song.” - Grant Davidson
Slow Leaves, photo by Grant Davidson
Slowcity.ca Open Mic - "Now it’s a doom that's within our grasp. It’s in the air. It’s between us."
“There’s a direct line between the sort of doominess of ‘No Cities Left ‘ and this album. You could go straight from ‘Lovers Rock’ to ‘No Cities Left’ and it’s like they're interlocked. But it's a different kind of doom. Around 2001, it felt like, ‘We have no control. We don't know what's going to happen next.’ Now it’s a doom that's within our grasp. It’s in the air. It’s between us. But we do nothing about it.” - Murray Lightburn.
By Will McGuirk
It may be we all need this time. It may be we all need to slow down and digest the information we have consumed over the last day, week, month, year, years. It may be isolation will be good for our digestion. It may be we will emerge into a different world, not physically, but different. And it may be one in which we see the value of a pause. I hope it includes one where those who build pause into their business model emerge as winners. I have such a hope as I see people turn to music for solace and for communication, as a shared language. My hope is the acoustic environment, suggested by Marshall McLuhan as a consequence of electronic media, is one with pillars of music supporting it. And maybe when we emerge, if we do, we are willing to pay our musicians, our artists, our poets and storytellers their true value, because this time may be demonstrated just how much we need our artists, and I am guessing it may be, if not more than bottled water at least more than toilet paper.
Some music to hoard so.
“This song encapsulates the feeling of losing touch, reflecting the distance between two people that comes from a disparity in perceptions, emotions, and perspectives.” - Blurr
”This song is a reminder that by embracing those who love us within ourselves, we can find a sense of home and belonging in our own skin.” - Carmanah
“I’m a daydreamer of sorts, a little bit lost between some hard reality I can’t yet grasp and a dream from which I’m not sure how to wake,” says Davidson. “It would be easy to call this an artistic space, but I know it’s more so just a place in which to hide from things I won’t confront. Each morning I wake up with a sink full of dishes and a head full of wishes. I’m never sure which mess to clean up first.” - Slow Leaves