LISTEN: Leif Vollebekk - 'Long Blue Light' & '29 #Strafford APTS'

Without wanting to understate his acclaim, I'd posit that for a lot of you, Leif Vollebekk is one of the best singer-songwriters that you haven't heard of. I hadn't until last year, when I started to receive press for his record New Ways. It was released just over a year ago, while he was touring with fellow Canadians Half Moon Run. I caught them both playing in London and Leif's set was frankly incredible. Utterly compelling. I adore the record, and can't get enough of Blood Brother. So much love for it. 

Following on from the release of the Rest EP earlier this year, Leif is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the record with another two-track release which has me all sorts of excited. Audible gasp upon finding out that one track was a Bon Iver cover. Heavenly. He explains that Long Blue Light is a brand new track which was recorded "during the sessions for New Ways, live with just myself and a drummer, Homer Steinweiss. I had all but abandoned it but this year I kept coming back to it. I added some overdubs and had Cindy Cashdollar finish it off with a gorgeous dobro part. It was supposed to fade out but I rather liked how it just falls apart at the end." 

Talking about the Bon Iver cover (hold onto your hats, folks) Leif explains his fascination of the record: "when that Bon Iver album, 22, A Million, came out, it put something of a spell on me. It acted on me the way records of my youth did. I could take a walk in that record and see things. I still do. I started playing around with this song some December evening way up north, when the light of dusk lasts hours and hours and everything goes blue. The snow, the faces, the houses. The two songs are a bit wrapped up together."

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WATCH: Leif Vollebekk - 'Apalachee Plain'

It's been a couple of months since Leif Vollebekk did us all the favour of sharing his gorgeous record New Ways into the world. Closing up the record beautifully with sublime country sounds, Apalachee Plain features pedal steel from Cindy Cashdollar, vocals from Angie McMahon and some harmonica to finish it all off. As the latest single from the record, the track has been given a video treatment, with Leif himself seen against the backdrop of a black and white Icelandic landscape - the beauty of the video definitely matches the beauty of the track here.

The video's director Joe Connor explains that "I wanted to create a photographic video for this track which used mixed media, Icelandic landscapes and portrait photography to give an other-worldly vibe to the track, putting Leif and his voice at the centre of the visuals. 

Following an Australian tour, Leif soon heads to Europe and plays a run of UK dates in late April/early May. Remaining tickets here.

27th April: Bush Hall, London (sold out)
28th: Bush Hall, London (sold out)
29th: Exchange, Bristol
30th: Soup Kitchen, Manchester
1st May: Poetry Club, Glasgow
2nd: Soundhouse, Dublin

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WATCH: Leif Vollebekk - 'Blood Brother'

A few weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Leif Vollebekk opening up for fellow Canadians Half Moon Run in Brixton. Having listened to his new album New Ways before the show, he was as talented and mesmerising on stage as I'd expected, and I really enjoyed his set. One of my favourite tracks from the album is Blood Brother and I'm excited to see that there is now a music video for the track! The cinematic new video sees Leif hand-cuffed to a seat on a vacant open-top bus as it drives through recognisable parts of central London. Having danced his way to freedom, Leif  gets off of the bus, passing his burden to another passenger.

The video's director Joe Connor (Mumford & Sons, Coldplay) elaborates on the concept behind it: "Leif is an artist whose music takes me to a dreamlike space. I wanted to create a video that found Leif in the middle of a story, where he has come from and where he is going is unknown but the beauty in this video is that here we find an artist, handcuffed and adrift in a city in the early hours of the morning. This beautiful video presents London in the most spectacular way and sets Leif as a quiet voice amongst the rolling city.” 

He's just announced a European headline tour for April 2020, with a second London show after the first sold out in a couple of days. UK listings below - tickets here.

27th April: Bush Hall, London

28th: Bush Hall, London

29th: Exchange, Bristol

30th: Soup Kitchen, Manchester

1st May: Poetry Club, Glasgow

2nd: Soundhouse, Dublin

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LIVE: Half Moon Run & Leif Vollebekk at Electric Brixton (7/11/19)

Last Thursday I had the utter joy of seeing Montreal indie rockers Half Moon Run headlining Electric Brixton at the London date of their tour supporting brand new album A Blemish in the Great Light. The album was released at the start of the month and I'm really enjoying it, with highlights for me being the single Favourite Boy, the quite intense and immense (over seven minutes long) Razorblade and the lyrically humorous Jello on my Mind.

Opening up for the band for the current run of European shows is fellow Canadian Leif Vollebekk , who created the perfect atmosphere for the show. It's a pretty positive sign when a support act can get some crowd participation going in the first track of their set. When not helping with harmonies or clapping/clicking, the crowd was mostly quiet for his set, respecting and clearly enjoying his music.  There was a really endearing effortlessness as he made up the setlist on the spot. Flitting between the piano and guitar, Leif's musicality was as compelling as his beautifully unique vocals which really captured my heart when I first heard his music through single Hot Tears a few months back. If you like the track below, he released his album New Ways on the same day as HMR - listen here.

Once Leif had finished up, it wasn't long until Half Moon Run took to the stage. I last saw them back in 2015 when they headlined the much smaller Oslo in Hackney, and I'd forgotten quite how impressive a live band they are. All multi-instrumentalists, they're each usually playing more than one instrument at once, or at least switching between one or two seamlessly within tracks. Drums and keys? No problem. Guitar, harmonica and keys? Easy. Slide guitar and guitar? Not an issue. All of this while coming together to create the sublime four part harmonies that the band are loved for. The result of these various additional instruments is that the band are able to create a much richer soundscape, with far more depth than you might expect from a four-piece band.

The setlist featured a mix of tracks from all three albums; the new record, their debut Dark Eyes and second album Sun Leads Me On. The newer tracks were received incredibly well and it seemed the crowd had already learned a lot of the lyrics, despite having had just under a week to do so! Favourites from the past two albums elicited a lot of singalongs, mainly on the likes of Call Me In The Afternoon and Full Circle, two of their best known songs from the debut. A highlight of the set was a stripped back performance of Sun Leads Me On at the front of the stage around one microphone, with the band showing that they can tackle the quieter tracks just as well.

There was a slightly overwhelming response from the crowd as the band took back to the stage for the encore, with unfailing clapping and cheering, which the band lapped up. Eventually, Dev asked for quiet for a "serious" song... cue Jello on my Mind. It was a really superb evening with two brilliant artists and a whole lot of talent on show. If you get the chance to see either of them live - be sure to take it. In fact, Communion have London shows coming up with both of them - Half Moon Run are at the Roundhouse on 12th March (tickets here) while Leif Vollebekk headlines Bush Hall on 28th April (tickets here.)

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WATCH: Leif Vollebekk - 'Hot Tears'

Let me introduce Leif Vollebekk - the Montreal artist is a new name to me, but I'm falling for his recent single Hot Tears pretty quickly. It's the first track to be taken from his upcoming record New Ways, which is due for release on November 1st via Montreal indie label Secret City Records. Pre-order and pre-save here.

He explains that the track was written "when my senses were much more focused and I saw colours more vividly. The sky often looked like it could have easily been pulled from scenes of [Terrence Malick's] The Tree of Life. It was the last song I wrote for the record. It was all recorded live: vocals, drums and piano. I wanted this song to sound as hot and rough as possible and make the lyrics fight their way through." 

The accompanying video was directed by Kaveh Nabatian, with Leif explaining "for months I had been imagining a video with golden light pouring out behind a silhouette when the minor chord hit. Kaveh introduced me to Axelle Munezero and she moved the way I heard the music [...] when I saw Axelle's choreography for the first time, I was blown away." 

The album announcement brings with it a run of dates in support of the release, including a European tour opening up for fellow Montreal act Half Moon Run (who are a ridiculously talented bunch!) - tickets and dates here.

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