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Leland Whitty of BADBADNOTGOOD shares “Glass Moon,” the second offering from his forthcoming debut solo album Anyhow due December 9th. Arriving with visuals directed by Raven Shields and Colin Medley, the cinematic jazz number magnifies Whitty’s sonic journey and further showcases his multidimensional talent as a performer, composer, and director. The new single follows “Awake,” which Glide Magazine described as having “unforgettable melodies and masterful song structure” and has been celebrated by BBC Radio 1's Benji B, BBC Radio 6's Mary Anne Hobbs, Tom Ravenscroft and Gilles Peterson, and Totally Wired's Kev Beadle.
The 7 tracks of Anyhow use Whitty's do-it-yourself approach to composition, production and multi-instrumental performances, which include guitar, synthesizer, woodwinds, and strings, to create a narrative found in jazz improvisations that draw from photographic or cinematic sources rather than a specific story. BADBADNOTGOOD’s Alex and Chester were guests on the album, alongside other friends and notably Whitty’s older brother, Lowell – which Whitty credits as being a central musical inspiration in his life. This is the first time they had the chance to fully work together. Whitty built the album from small excerpts rather than a more rigid intellectual compositional technique. He would envision the whole scope of a song, asking friends to contribute shifting the rhythm and energy of each track.
Listen to "Glass Moon" and pre-order/save Anyhow.
See tour dates below w/ BADBADNOTGOOD.
11/30/22 - Zurich, CH @ X-Tra
12/02/22 - Utrecht, NL @ Ronda
12/03/22 - Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
12/06/22 - London, UK @ Brixton Academy
12/07/22 - Paris, FR @ Le Trianon
12/09/22 - Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute
12/10/22 - Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
12/11/22 - Bristol, UK @ Academy 1
12/13/22 - Glasgow, UK @ QMU
Hiroshima-born, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Jonah Yano shares his new single and video "portrait of a dog," the title track of his forthcoming sophomore album entirely co-produced with BADBADNOTGOOD, out January 27th. The new offering arrives on the heels of Yano's stint supporting Clairo for the last leg of her North American and the entirety of her European tour dates, which wrapped up last month. He also closed the live run with a headline show of his own at Servant Jazz Quarters in London. "portrait of a dog" is a sweeping arrangement that finds Jonah gliding over keys and guitar with heartfelt vocals before the song swells into a winding guitar solo, and is accompanied by a video co-directed by Erin O'Connor, Matisse A-M and Kostadin Kolev.
Speaking on the continued theme of the visuals he's released so far, Yano says "'portrait of a dog' is a video that, like the most recent video for the song ‘always’, is made up of uninterrupted, continuous, and static shots. The thinking behind the monotonous visual information in these new videos comes from a disinterest in the ever-increasing over-saturation and pace of digital media surrounding musicians that is furthering the divide between musicians-as-artists and musicians-as-commodity."
The collaborators, Erin O’Connor, Matisse A-M, and Kostadin Kolev ('portrait of a dog'), and Nik Arthur and David May ('always'), were the directors and producers of these videos because I feel they understand why it might be interesting (and surprisingly challenging) to try and make a music video that did not grab and attempt to retain the attention of a viewer through brightly colored sets and a large amount of cutting back and forth between an array of visually stimulating shots. In trying to subtract most of the elements that exist in the average music video we found it crucial that the idea for the video at its core had to be strong enough to stand on its own for 5 straight minutes – to get the idea across without making a pointless video."
"portrait of a dog includes the previously-released singles "leslianne," "always," and "the speed of sound!," which is at the confluence of his love of folk and jazz music.
It’s a focused departure from Yano’s previous recordings – establishing a clear sonic identity throughout the album’s 12 songs to weave together two complementary narrative threads of a family archive and exploration of the family dynamics in the Japanese-Canadian household he grew up in, and a deeply personal recollection of a fading relationship. Beyond the co-production of BADBADNOTGOOD, "portrait of a dog" features additional guest work from Slauson Malone, Sea Oleena, with string arrangements by Eliza Niemi, Leland Whitty, and Yano himself. Yano's forthcoming second album follows his cover of Jessica Pratt’s "This Time Around" and his highly acclaimed 2020 debut LP souvenir, which he spoke about with Lulu Garcia-Navarro on NPR's Weekend Edition.
Multi-instrumentalist Leland Whitty of BADBADNOTGOOD announces his debut solo album Anyhow due December 9th. Across the 7-track project, Whitty uses a do-it-yourself approach to composition, production and multi-instrument performance to create an album that is a look inward, expressing something personal – a reflection of the experience of music itself.
Along with the album's announcement, Whitty shares the lead single "Awake." The new song combines synthesized keys, descending strings and layered horns combining cinematic composition with jazz and rock influences. Anyhow features Whitty on guitar, synthesizer, woodwinds, production, composition and strings. For the narrative across the album, Whitty drew from photographic or cinematic sources rather than a specific story. The aim was for the production and arrangement to imply the kind of structural narrative found in jazz improvisation.
BADBADNOTGOOD’s Alex and Chester were also guests on the album, alongside other friends and notably Whitty’s older brother, Lowell – which Whitty credits as being a central musical inspiration in his life. This is the first time they had the chance to fully work together. Whitty built the album from small excerpts rather than have a more rigid intellectual compositional technique. He would envision the whole scope of a song, asking friends to contribute to shift each tracks’ rhythm and energy. Whitty’s role was both performer, composer and in some way a director, asking contributors to execute in an organic way and editing the results.
Anyhow follows Whitty's work on several film score projects in 2020, including Disappearance at Clifton Hill (Albert Shin) and Learn to Swim (Thyrone Tommy) along with the stand-alone single "Violet Nights" created with a l l i e and Birthday Boy in 2021.
Read more about it on Consequence.
Hiroshima-born, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Jonah Yano shares his new single "leslianne." The track is his second offering from his forthcoming sophomore album Portrait of a Dog, which is entirely produced alongside BADBADNOTGOOD, out January 27th via Innovative Leisure. From the very start of its rapid run time of just under two minutes, "leslianne" lays out a spacious, intricate tapestry of keys and strings for Jonah's soft story of a girl finding her way home.
For the past month, Yano has been supporting Clairo for the last leg of her North American and the entirety of her European tour dates. Yano has two more dates opening for Clairo in London before he closes the live run with a headline show of his own at Servant Jazz Quarters in London this Wednesday.
portrait of a dog includes the previously-released singles "always", which arrived with a video shot on location in Five Islands, Nova Scotia, and "the speed of sound!," which is at the confluence of his love of folk and jazz music. The 12-track project is an exploration of themes present throughout most of Yano’s catalog – identity as a part of the Japanese-Canadian diaspora, contemplation of different family dynamics, and the intricacies of interpersonal relationships.
It’s a focused departure from Yano’s previous recordings – establishing a clear sonic identity throughout the album’s 12 songs to weave together two complementary narrative threads of a family homage and archive, and a deeply personal recollection of a fading relationship. Beyond the co-production of BADBADNOTGOOD, portrait of a dog features additional guest work from Slauson Malone, Sea Oleena, with string arrangements by Eliza Niemi, Leland Whitty, and Yano himself.
Hiroshima-born, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Jonah Yano announces his forthcoming second album portrait of a dog on January 27th, 2023. Following a highly acclaimed 2020 which included the release of the debut LP souvenir, and collaborations with BADBADNOTGOOD, Yano quietly released a cover of Jessica Pratt’s "This Time Around" and took some time away from releasing music to write and record his forthcoming album. Yano was recently announced as the opening act for the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Clairo for the last leg of her North American and the entirety of her European tour dates.
Along with the announcement, Yano is also sharing the first offering from the new album in the form of a double single. The first, "always," features simple songwriting, a solid groove, and an excellent piano solo, and "the speed of sound!," a personal favorite of Yano’s, is at the confluence of his love of folk and jazz music. The visual for "always" is a study of the wide-ranging tides in Five Islands, Nova Scotia, where Yano wanders The Bay of Fundy to reveal a sprawling bed of red clay at low tide. Speaking on the song and video, Yano says:
“'always' is a song that appeals to one-half of my sensibilities in music. All the piano on the record was played by my friend Felix Fox. I wrote this song for my younger brother Azusa who, at the time and just like myself, was going through some matters of the heart. Directed by Nik Arthur & David May, the video is essentially 6.5 hours of me walking in super slow motion so it looks like I’m walking regular speed while the environment changes around me.”
portrait of a dog is a 12-track exploration of themes present throughout most of Yano’s catalog – identity as a part of the Japanese-Canadian diaspora, contemplation of different family dynamics, and the intricacies of interpersonal relationships. It’s a clear departure from Yano’s previous recordings – having established a clear sonic identity throughout the album’s 12 tracks to tell a clear and succinct collection of stories guided by clear and intentional instrumentals. The LP is produced entirely in collaboration with BADBADNOTGOOD and features guest work from Slauson Malone, Sea Oleena, with string arrangements by Eliza Niemi, Leland Whitty, and Yano himself.