[Cover photo credit to Jack Sykes]
On his third full-length collection, Turn Up the Dark, which will be released independently on March 31, 2023, Toronto singer/songwriter David Backshell builds on his storytelling tradition. The record’s first single and video, “Revival”, are out now.
With the help collaborators Graham MacDonald and Michael Zahorak on bass and keys, backing vocalists Chantal Sylvestre and producer Remy Perrin, Backshell has also expanded and amplified his sound.
Backshell comments:
I’m not comparing myself to Dylan, but if Bringing it all Back Home was his mix of acoustic and rock songs, that would be my last album, and this one is, like, Highway 61 Revisited.
Some of the ideas on the album consider the role of memory and changing identity. Are we the same person who we used to be? Does that affect our ways of remembering?
While he usually gets oversaturated by his songwriting, Backshell notes that this time around, he’s satisfied.
He adds:
Typically, as soon as I finish a project, I get sick of it within about a week and I just want to do something new. This album was pretty much done by 2020, and the fact that I still like this three years later means it can’t be that bad.
