I am incredibly grateful—and relieved—to finally announce a release date for the third album from my solo project Collective Unconscious. Continuing my artistic journey with the elements, Air is a collection of the best songs I wrote between 2011 and 2019. I wrote the final couple songs after the birth of my daughter and started pre-production in June 2019. We started recording in January 2020, with the intention of a fall 2020 release. THEN THIS LITTLE THING HAPPENED WHICH MADE IN-PERSON SESSION WORK REALLY DIFFICULT—you may have heard of about it, idk.
So, there are a lot of mixed feelings with this album’s release. I sometimes fear people will connect these songs with the pandemia, even though they were all written—and some recorded—beforehand. (Fire is my covid album and is almost in post-production, but more on that later, lol). Perhaps that was always the purpose of this material; the pandemic had to happen before this album could. Who knows?
I didn’t realize the life-long artistic journey I was starting when we first put out Water in 2009. Heck, on that first album, I wasn’t aware of how deeply I was working with the elements at all. I just had watery themed tunes and a deep drive to have the album flow like the river that inspired the title track. When I was working on Earth, it became more apparent what was happening and I not only worked with the element for lyrics and chords, but also arrangement and production. That album was produced in some tiny cabins out in the country, with bare bones instrumentation and post-production. Both Water and Earth wanted to come into being swiftly. They had things they wanted to say and they wanted those things said quickly. Air was NOTHING like working with the other two elements. Air was constantly changing, incredibly difficult to pin down and—in a very Saturnian fashion—wanted me and my life to go through complete metamorphosis before it would allow itself to settle into form. I HAD TO CHANGE in order to be allowed to work with the element. In my research, I also found a strong connection between the element Air and divination which led to the Tarot theme throughout. In line with the mutable nature of the element, I rewrote the album multiple times from scratch. Many lyrics and whole songs were completely scrapped or disassembled and collaged back together. In the end, I wrote about 30 songs which continued to refine until it became this 10 song album that I am incredibly proud of. In keeping with the genre differences that each element wanted, Air is a tribute to the music of my coming of age. So, lots of 90’s alt rock, grunge and Canadiana vibes.
This album features gobsmacking performances by some of the best musicians I know, including: Ryan Foster (Knibb High School Football Rules, The Equation) on guitar, Dennis Boisvert (Cadillac Junkies, AUDio SQUADron, Moksha) on drums, and Stephanie Urquhart (Stephanie Urquhart Quartet, Experience Points) on piano. It also features some lyrics from former collaborators Julien Constantin and Derek Gannon. Oh, and I am on it too of course!
It never could have happened without the divine intervention and honest opinions of such wonderful human beings as: Reinette Schabert, Aaron Macri, Diedre Brattland, Mel Priestley, Julia Shaw, Jessica Brandsma, Joanna Boisvert and my parents. I am humbled to have had so many willing and helpful hands get me to where I needed to be.
Air releases on all digital purchasing sites August 30th, 2022. Pre-orders start on August 19th, 2022 and receive all the singles before the album officially lands at the end of the month!
Have a listen to the first single ‘Magicians & Sorcerers‘ here.