Friday 26 September 2014

Royal Wood, New Album, 'The Burning Bright' plus Irish Shows



Royal Wood, 'Forever and Ever'


Info: Canadian artist Royal Wood returns to Ireland for the release of his fifth album, The Burning Bright which he wrote in Slane last year. The album is out on the 3rd of October and he will play in Boyle's of Slane in Co.Meath on the 6th of October, followed by a show in Whelans of Wexford Street on Wednesday, the 8th of October. Royal Wood is currently one of Canada's most successful musicians with a huge following in his home country and consistently strong reviews from the domestic music press. The singer-songwriter will also be performing on The Late Late Show tonight so be sure to tune in if you're putting the feet up at home this evening. 

Press Release: 

For this outstanding new album to get underway Royal packed his bags and withdrew to his ancestral home of Ireland to Slane, County Meath in spring 2013. Here he locked himself away in a cabin with no internet, TV or phone lines to write the album in the aftermath of his collapsed marriage.

A prolific songwriter and captivating performer, Canada’s Royal Wood showcases the full extent of his talents on this brand new album which has already been released in Canada to critical acclaim and is set to be realised in Ireland on Friday 3rd October alongside its Europe/UK release scheduled for the same date.

2012 saw Wood have a chart-topping release with the JUNO-nominated We Were Born to Glory, which firmly established him as one of Canada’s most accomplished alt-pop singer/songwriters, producers, arrangers and multi-instrumentalists. This was the second JUNO award Royal was nominated for and he has also been previously nominated for the iTunes Songwriter of the Year in 2011. The Burning Bright is the product of multiple worlds – a culmination of five weeks spent writing in Slane, recording at home and in Los Angeles with producer Bill Lefler (Dashboard Confessional, Gym Class Heroes, Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump).

The record also found Wood collaborating in new ways: with Lefler and fellow Canadian singer/songwriter Simon Wilcox – with whom he wrote the sticky and wickedly buoyant first single 'Forever and Ever' – with long-time guitarist/co-producer Dean Drouillard, and with the spectral voices in the hills of County Meath. This track was also used in an advert for Charm Diamonds that ran during Super Bowl 2014!

The Burning Bright may scan as a breakup record; witness lyrics like “Well I once believed in a fairy-tale, now I’m holding a coffin nail,” exhaled regretfully in the song 'Promises' and pretty much the whole of the achingly tender 'I Wish You Well.' But it’s actually a compass pointing forward, spinning on the honest, from-the-gut creativity that propelled Wood into music in the first place.

Yet ask Wood if the stakes felt higher for The Burning Bright given its emotional heft and arrival on the heels of a bona fide hit and he says, 'No'. 'To be honest, the stakes felt higher on the last album. This time, I finally made the decision to simply make art again for the sake of making art. It is its own reward and what happens next is just a part of the journey in making it.'

With this new album the alt-pop singer has crafted a record that follows in the same vein of being an honest, unflinching look at what it’s like when a relationship is over.  'I always want to perform honest music that I connect with and am touched by. And if that means I have to go out there emotionally, then I will go there emotionally'.


Look / Like / Listen / Follow: 

Website: http://www.royalwood.ca/

Bookface: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalWood

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/royalwoodmusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoyalWood