Loving

Loving is the collaboration of David Parry and brothers, Lucas and Jesse Henderson. The band came together several years ago as a result of their shared summers working in the capitalist ruins of western Canada’s forests. The seven tracks that came to form Loving’s eponymous debut EP were written and recorded between Victoria and Toronto in the winter of 2015. The collection of lo-fi psychedelic folk songs found success online and the band amassed an organic fanbase. Thus inspired to continue the project, Jesse and David decamped to Gabriola Island in the spring of 2017 to begin work on new material. There, they set up a recording studio in Jesse and Lucas’ late grandmother’s seaside home and demoed the songs that would form the backbone of If I Am Only My Thoughts.

Due out January 31st, 2020 on Last Gang Records, If I Am Only My Thoughts is Loving’s first full-length album. With lyrics written by both Jesse and Lucas, the lush, homespun collection of songs was recorded, mixed, and mastered by David in his basement studio in Victoria. To contrast, these songs are balmy and inviting, a series of open-ended questions that circle the uncertainties of existence. While the production on If I Am Only My Thoughts inspires a sense of ease, it is deceptively intricate. The underlying tape hiss and handcrafted aesthetic heard on Loving is still present, and that lends the album intimacy. Take the instrumental track “January,” which sounds like a harsh winter’s day spent in front of a fireplace as a crystalline piano is warmed by a string arrangement written and played by collaborator Colin Nealis.

If I Am Only My Thoughts offers listeners a space to ruminate on life’s uncertainties and acknowledge the often strange journey of being alive. That sentiment is relayed perfectly on the title track: “Adrift like light upon a riverbed, I’m going somewhere I imagine/ At least in my head, in my head, in my head.”