Toronto's Decoration Day Announce Debut Album 'Makeshift Future' | Share "Lanark County"
Toronto folk band Decoration Day today announce their debut album Makeshift Future, set for release on September 18th and share the first single “Lanark County”.
On Makeshift Future the band tells us that the only certainty in life is that it is uncertain. Vocalist and pianist Mara Nesrallah explains, “Makeshift Future is the thesis of the entire album, which is questioning how we are going to move through our lives. When you're not met with a certain vision, if that doesn't manifest, or if there's a different truth or reality, then how are you to move through that challenge?”
Listen/Share: Decoration Day “Lanark County”
The first single, “Lanark County,” is described by guitarist and songwriter Justin Orok as a vision song. "It follows a kind of surreal dream logic,” says Justin. “The imagery comes out of this just-below-the-surface hostility I would feel when visiting idyllic small town Ontario; somehow, it ended up sounding almost biblical. Shortly after writing this song, I ended up moving to Lanark County, and started to understand where that hostile feeling comes from. There's a different kind of spiritual energy here, and even though I'm not a particularly religious person, I still feel it in the day-to-day routine and the way that time passes.”
Makeshift Future follows the band’s first EP, Blind Contour, released in 2017. Vocals on record are shared between Mara Nesrallah, multi-instrumentalist Tiffany Wu, and guitarist Justin Orok and a lush musical backdrop is provided by clarinetist Naomi McCarroll-Butler, violinist Andrew Chung, and guest musicians Liam Cole on percussion and Ben Heard on upright bass.
The album was recorded last summer, a premonition, perhaps, of a moment in which we’d need a resource to understand uncertainty. Change comes swiftly, usually without concern. How do we adapt and move through? Makeshift Future allows the band, and its listeners, to remain so ardently present in their music and in life itself, open to whatever comes next.
