Polaris Music Prize-nominated Canadian songwriter Kalle Mattson's cover of Drake's "Hotline Bling" is premiering today via Earmilk, listen here. Earmilk praises the track, saying "Surrounding Kalle's personable vocals is a mixture of weightless instrumentals made up of a simplistic acoustic guitar that churns into buoyant, multi-layered electrogaze."
Mattson's
Avalanche EP is out now on HOME Music Co. Get the EP
here and stream it via Spotify
here. To celebrate the release, Mattson will tour North America this fall, playing a string of dates in his native Canada and several shows in the U.S. including New York's Rockwood Music Hall, Boston's Café 939 and Chicago's Beat Kitchen. See below for full tour routing.
Watch Mattson's short film on the making of
Avalanche here.
NPR Music recently premiered the video for "Avalanche" as a First Watch. Filmed in one day on a sound stage in Toronto, the video features Mattson recreating the covers of 35 classic albums that influenced his work. Mattson and the crew sourced props, costumes and more to faithfully stage iconic covers including Ramones'Ramones,
Jay Z's The Blueprint,
Elliott Smith's Figure 8, The Clash'sLondon Calling and many more. Watch the video
here.
"I've had the video concept in my head for a long time actually," Mattson says. "I remember being 10 or 11 years old flipping through theRolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time magazine and choosing what records to borrow out of my dad's collection based on the covers alone. All of the albums we recreated are super important to me & the video sort of serves as a window into what has influenced me growing up discovering music for the first time and then eventually writing songs. One of my main worries was that this would seem like a bit of an ego trip inserting my face into a famous Dylan cover or something but I really think it came out as a work of love for the artists, their records and the covers that also make those albums so special."
Avalanche was produced by Colin Munroe (Sky Ferreira, Kendrick Lamar), mixed by Alex Aldi (Passion Pit) and engineered by Marcus Paquin (The National, Local Natives). The EP was written over the course of March 2015 and picks up where Mattson's previous full length left off.
That album, Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold was released in 2014 to widespread critical acclaim, nominated for the
Polaris Music Prize and led to Mattson playing more than 160 shows across nine countries, including dates with Hozier and many others. Born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Mattson debuted with 2009's Whisper Bee and released a second full length, Anchors, in 2011. Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold was inspired by Mattson's mother's death and his return to his hometown for the first time in five years. Mattson's song "Left Behind" will be featured in Episode 3 of this season of "Royal Pains" on NBC.
KALLE MATTSON LIVE:
September 22 /// Boston, MA /// Café 939
September 23 /// Danbury, CT /// Heirloom Arts Theatre
September 24 /// New York, NY ///
Rockwood Music Hall
September 28 /// Chicago, IL /// Beat Kitchen-Downstairs
October 1 /// Winnipeg, MB /// The Handsome Daughter
October 2 /// Regina, SK /// O'Hanlon's Pub
October 4 /// Revelstoke, BC /// The Last Drop
October 5 /// Vancouver, BC /// Guilty & Company
October 6 /// Victoria, BC /// Copper Owl
October 8 /// Calgary, AB /// The Gateway at SAIT
October 9 /// Edmonton, AB /// Up + Downtown Music + Arts Festival
October 10 /// Saskatoon, SK /// The
Capitol Music Club
October 15 /// Sault /// Ste. Marie, ON Lop Lops
October 16 /// Sault /// Ste. Marie, ON Lop Lops
October 17 /// North Bay, ON /// Raven and Republic
November 19 /// Hanover, Germany /// Feinkostlampe
November 20 /// Breda, Netherlands /// Mezz
November 21 /// Brussels, Belgium /// Botanique
November 22 /// Münster, Germany /// Pension Schmidt
November 23 /// Hamburg, Germany /// Molotow Sky Bar
November 25 /// Berlin, Germany /// Monarch
November 26 /// Karlsruhe, Germany /// Kohi
November 27 /// Freiburg, Germany /// The Great Räng Teng Teng
November 28 /// Nyon, Switzerland /// La Parenthese
November 30 /// Berne, Switzerland /// CAFÉ KAIRO
December 1 /// Vienna, Austria /// B 72
December 3 /// Dresden, Germany /// Ostpol
December 4 /// Saarbrucken, Germany /// Sparte 4
December 5 /// Cologne, Germany /// Die Wohngemainschaft
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