Solo

Montreal songwriter and producer Jesse Mac Cormack has announced his upcoming album SOLO, to be released on April 8th via Secret City Records. 

Today he has also shared his new song “Blue World”, for which he has released a dynamic live studio performance video, available to stream now. 

“Betrayal leads to more betrayal. As sheep, we follow and copy/paste behaviors,” writes Mac Cormack of the themes embedded in “Blue World.” This prophetic warning is a fitting starting point for SOLO – an acknowledgement of one’s own fallibility that also serves as a moment of clarity, and a source of confidence on the pathway towards transformation. 

In the deepest depths of the Pandemic, with a relationship in its ending, Mac Cormack recalls sending a text to his therapist: “I’m not meeting with you every week just to hang out,” the bilingual musician wrote. “Je veux que ça saigne”—for the work to “bleed.” To mean something. The next time they met, his therapist explained: “That message you sent me? You were really sending it to yourself. You were taking a decision.” 

That decision—to move forward, to change and have the courage to love yourself—is the journey of the past two years and also of SOLO, which gleams and shivers and pulses with the heartbeat of an artist in beautiful evolution. A softer album than his debut LP Now (2019), it is nonetheless riven by the fear and flood of disappointment that marked these recent years—and the singer’s childhood. 

As on Now, Mac Cormack plays almost every instrument himself, surrounded by a soundtrack of one. Across 10 rippling tracks, the singer summons a sonic world that’s razor-edged and intimate, influenced by the textured electronics of James Blake, Little Dragon, Caribou and SUUNS. Drum machines stutter under blooms of synths; curses float below swirls of loving sound.  

Multi-talented, Mac Cormack also produced all the volumes of Helena Deland’s acclaimed Altogether Unaccompanied, as well as several recordings for Rosie Valland, Philippe Brach, Sara-Danielle, Lonny and many others. A home-studio wizard and blazing guitarist, he was tapped to salute his love for Stevie Ray Vaughan and Muddy Waters at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Jesse has forged a solid background that has been influenced by notable encounters and collaborations with such bands as Patrick Watson, The Barr Brothers, Cat Power, Half Moon Run and Cri.