Official Press Release – Jim Cuddy Announces New Album, Skyscraper Soul
August 4, 2011
Warner Music Canada recording artist Jim Cuddy is in the final stages of mixing the tracks that will make up his solo album, Skyscraper Soul, scheduled for release on Tuesday, September 27, 2011. The album was recorded in Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed Studio this past Spring.
In the spring of 2010, following extensive Blue Rodeo touring, Jim Cuddy began to write music to accompany his wife Rena’s comedic short film Four Sisters. It turned out that some of what he’d written did’t fit the film but on a creative roll he continued writing. Before long he had the kind of material he felt could make up his third solo album.
“When I write songs for my solo material, the songs tend to be a lot more personal than what I write for Blue Rodeo,” says Jim. “I come in here and sit down with all of these instruments and work at building the ideas until a song emerges. Once I’ve demoed the track and played it for the band, we work on fleshing it out.”
Production on Skyscraper Soul was handled by Cuddy, guitarist Colin Cripps and Chris Shreenan-Dyck. Jim was joined in the studio by his touring solo band, The Jim Cuddy Band (Colin Cripps, Bazil Donovan, Joel Anderson, Steve O’Connor and Anne Lindsay) and a number of Toronto’s top horn players and string players. Many of the album’s songs benefit from the spontaneity of having the musicians set up together in the studio and play live off the floor.
One of the album highlights is “Everyone Watched The Wedding,” the record’s first single, scheduled for release on Tuesday, August 16, 2011.
“I’ve never been much of a royalist but this song is about the royal wedding,” says Cuddy. “Something about this last wedding got me. When I started reading more about it I realized that there is something about it that is very inspiring. And this was truly a gift. This song just came out. I had come in to the studio to do something completely different and within half an hour I had this song completely sketched out and that doesn’t happen, usually there’s more work involved.”
Skyscraper Soul is available for pre-order here.