Premiere: JP Lancaster - Solemn Hymns
Kamloops has got it going on! The little BC city has a robust music scene for such a small community. Earlier this week we told you about the forthcoming album from Kamloops band Echo Beach and premiered the music video for “Test Pilot” and today we are heading back to that same city to premiere a new single from JP Lancaster’s forthcoming debut album.
Lancaster is one of the focal points behind his city’s spectacular music scene. From show promoter, to local label owner/operator, to impeccable songwriter, he helped organize a city full of artistic minds in need of a mentor. He has since stepped back from promoting shows and now focusses solely on his label, Factotum Co., and his solo music…. music that is garnering a lot of buzz. At the beginning of March, he released a wonderful EP entitled Shapes In The Dark, and is ready to follow that up with his debut album called Around Town on May 28th.
Today we are very excited to premiere “Solemn Hymns.” This premiere comes to you today in the form of a video edit of a 1970's Soviet anti-Western propaganda film. Lancaster says the video is a nod to the oddities that exist beneath the surface of most everything around us.
When asked about the song itself, he revealed:
"An overarching theme of the album is decay, particularly through the lens of the backwardness of mid-sized cities and small towns. While I was writing and recording this album I was teaching at a high school with a noted haunting. A few blocks away there is a mass grave for murderers who were tried and hanged at the turn of the 20th century. There is a residential school and an abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium in town. The song isn't necessarily about ghosts or the occult, although I've had enough strange experiences in all of those places to become open minded to that sort of thing."
Enjoy “Solemn Hymns” below and pre-order Around Town here. (Unfortunately the vinyl is already sold-out)