Yukon-based singer/songwriter Declan O’Donovan will bring songs from his latest album Broken Sky to Char’s Landing on Friday, June 30.
Broken Sky is the follow-up to O’Donovan’s self-titled debut album, released in 2012.
“Broken Sky is both the title of a song and the title of the record, and for that the song writing sort of draws a line throughout all the songs on the record which is this concept of the broken sky,” O’Donovan said. “lyrically I suppose what I was sort of writing toward was a metaphor for the idea that the world is not as you would want or expect it to be. Something as fundamental as the sky can still appear fragile or broken.”
Broken Sky was recorded in Montreal with producer Jean Massicotte.
“It took me about a year to put all the song writing together,” O’Donovan said. “We worked with a Montreal studio and all Montreal musicians so some really fantastic people like members of the Patrick Watson band and the Barr Brothers.”
O’Donovan is a piano player, where he says the majority of his songwriting occurs, but also on the acoustic guitar.
“A word that Jean Massicotte, the producer, and I used when we first approached finding the sound for this record was a landscape. We didn’t want it to be busy it’s just we wanted lots of space, lots of a size,” O’Donovan said. “We brought on some really brilliant guitar players.”
He says in terms of genre, his music comes from the fundamentals of folk music and song writing craft.
“This new record is much more contemporary, it leans into adult alternative and some rock and some indie sounds as well,” he said.
O’Donovan has a full schedule of touring on the horizon and will play around Vancouver Island for his first time.
“The record just came out a couple weeks ago and I’m going to try to tour it as much as possible over the next year or two,” he said. “I love traveling. I’m the kind of person that gets a little bit uncomfortable if I stand still for too long, so moving around always feels like something’s being developed.”
Tickets for the Char’s Landing show are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Show starts at 8 p.m.
“I have a brilliant guitar player that plays with me and a drummer and a base player that can take the same song to a different place every night, and in addition we have a lot of fun,” O’Donovan said.
Find O’Donovan’s Broken Sky on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, and other digital retailers and streaming services.