Band: Sun Years
Album: Come Fetch My Soul
VÖ: 16.06.2023
Label/Vertrieb: Yep Roc Records
SunYears, das neue Projekt des schwedischen Sängers und Songwriters Peter Morén von Peter Bjorn and John, stellt heute die erste Single und den Titelsong des Debütalbums Come Fetch My Soul! vor, das am 16. Juni über Yep Roc Records erscheint.
"Wenn man älter wird, fällt es einem leichter, Songs zu schreiben, weil man auf eine andere Art und Weise verletzlicher wird", erklärt Morén über den mutigen und offenherzigen Song Come Fetch My Soul!" mit Jess Williamson und bietet an: Es geht darum, von der Liebe, die man für seinen Partner empfindet, überwältigt zu werden, und um das Gefühl, sich in die Hände von etwas oder jemand anderem zu begeben". Sehen Sie sich das offizielle Video zu Come Fetch My Soul" an, das von Vince Bigos inszeniert und animiert wurde.
Die melodische Weisheit des 10-Track-Albums fühlt sich sofort vertraut an und ist doch unerforschtes Terrain für Morén, der eine Sammlung von Liedern liefert, die sich sofort zeitlos anfühlen. Die Bandbreite reicht von wehmütigem Folk und Beatles-eskem Pop bis hin zu psychedelischem Gitarren-Jangle und schimmernden Balladen. Das Album ist das Ergebnis nostalgischer Hörgewohnheiten und thematisch von Träumen inspiriert, vor allem der rockabilly-eske Track "Last Night I Dreamt I Met Phil & Don", der von einer Traumbegegnung mit den Pop-Legenden der Everly Brothers inspiriert wurde.
Für das Album holte sich Morén die Indie-Künstler Ron Sexsmith, Jess Williamson, Eric Johnson (Fruit Bats, Bonny Light Horseman) und Kathryn Williams ins Boot, was zu mehreren Duetten auf dem Album führte. Das abschließende Stück "Wake Up", das während eines Songwriting-Retreats entstand, wird von Ren Harvieu gesungen. "Während dieser Reise haben wir viel zusammen in verschiedenen Gruppen gesungen", erklärt Morén, "und es war diese Spiritualität des Singens mit anderen Menschen, die ich in diese Platte einbringen wollte."
SunYears ist ein Name mit offenem Ende, der sich sowohl auf den klassischen Sound von Sun Records aus den 1950er Jahren als auch auf den Lauf der Zeit selbst bezieht. Als er nicht mehr auf Tournee ging, entdeckte Morén seine Liebe zum einsamen Gitarrenspiel und die Kunst der Zusammenarbeit wieder, die er mit einer engen Gruppe von Freunden und Gleichgesinnten in seiner Heimatstadt Stockholm pflegte. "Diese Erfahrungen haben etwas in mir geweckt", erinnert er sich. "Zu sehen, wie andere Leute Musik machen, und in andere Umgebungen ein- und auszutauchen, war wirklich inspirierend."
Produziert von Peter Morén, Ruben Engzell und Daniel Bengtson, gemastert von Magnus Lindberg und gemischt von Niklas Berglöf, wurden alle Songs des Albums von Peter Morén geschrieben, mit Ausnahme von "Wake Up", das von Peter Morén, Kathryn Williams und Ren Harvieu geschrieben wurde.
Come Fetch My Soul! Tracklisting:
1. Come Fetch My Soul! (feat. Jess Williamson)
2. Day To Day Way
3. Two Birds, Mid-Flight
4. Granddad’s Song (feat. Ron Sexsmith)
5. A Dog’s Life
6. Slipping Away
7. These Quiet Tunes
8. Last Night I Dreamt That I Met Phil & Don (Feat. Fruit Bats)
9. Wordy
10. Wake Up! (feat. Ren Harvieu & Kathryn Williams)
The album is available for pre-order here.
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SunYears biography 2023
Peter Morén’s SunYears project represents a new chapter for the storied Swedish singer-songwriter, and the debut album Come Fetch My Soul is a beautiful way of announcing its arrival. The melodic wisdom of these ten songs will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s already a fan of his work in Peter Bjorn and John, as well as his considerable solo career thus far. But Come Fetch My Soul also feels like unexplored territory for Morén, who digs deep into the music of his past and brings a bevy of exciting fresh collaborators to deliver a collection of tunes that feel instantly timeless, like the best music does.
Come Fetch My Soul has, in a way, been in the works for some time now, with some songs dating back to the release of PB&J’s Breakin’ Point back in 2016. But SunYears’ figurative birth actually took place shortly after the release of the group’s last full-length Endless Dream in 2020—right when the world shut down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a U.S. tour totally scrapped, Morén rediscovered his love of guitar playing in solitude—as well as the art of collaboration, as he collaborated with other musicians on their work alongside his own songwriting work. “Those experiences brewed something in me,” Morén recalls. “Looking at how other people make music, and dipping in and out of other environments, was really inspiring.”
The origins of SunYears lie in Morén’s desire to “do something different” apart from his previous work—not quite a solo affair, but not a full-band effort either, instead representing a series of collaborations with Morén’s tight-knit group of friends and peers in his hometown of Stockholm. Its name is open-ended when it comes to meaning, referencing both the classic-sounding music of the Sun Records label in the 1950s as well as the passage of time itself—and the maturity that comes with aging was certainly on Morén’s mind while putting his pen to these songs’ lyrics. “As you get older, it gets easier to write songs because you become more vulnerable in a different way,” he explains, describing the bold and open-hearted title track as “about being overwhelmed by the love you have for your partner, and this feeling of putting yourself in the hands of something or someone else.”
Indeed, Come Fetch My Soul is defined by togetherness and communion, as Morén enlisted fellow indie scions like Ron Sexsmith, Jess Williamson, Eric Johnson (Fruit Bats, Bonny Light Horseman), and Kathryn Williams to pitch in with vocals and feedback. This collaborative energy, which resulted in multiple duets throughout the album, drew inspiration from Morén’s gigging experience with legendary Go-Betweens co-founder Robert Forster, as well as recent studio work with Scottish artist James Yorkston. With a massive melodic swell and contributions from Williams and Ren Harvieu, closing track “Wake Up” was originally written during a songwriting retreat with Williams: “During that trip, we sang a lot together in different groups,” Morén explains, “and it was that spirituality of singing with other people that I wanted to bring into this record.”
With a variety of sonic styles ranging from wistful folk and expansive, Beatles-esque pop to psychedelic guitar jangle and shimmering balladry, Come Fetch My Soul is the result of Morén’s nostalgic listening habits over the last few years (“I went back to a lot of stuff I was listening to in my early twenties, which happens in troubled times”). Thematically, Morén is literally pulling from the stuff dreams are made of—like on the Johnson-featuring rockabilly-esque tune “Last Night I Dreamt I Met Phil & Don,” which takes lyrical inspiration from a dream he had where he met pop legends the Everly Brothers. “I often dream about musicians I love, and in that particular dream I met them in the Army, which is weird because I never did military service myself,” he recalls with a chuckle. “We ended up jamming together. The lyrics of the song is that dream, so I wanted the settings of the song to have a rockabilly ‘50s vibe.”
Despite evoking the music of the past, Come Fetch My Soul ultimately embodies Morén’s desire to look to the future, both of the project and of his career as a songwriter in general. “At my age, I’m becoming more relaxed when it comes to how I make music,” he reflects. “I feel more comfortable now, and I could make music like this for the rest of my life.” And with this latest batch of songs in his arsenal, why would you want to stop him?
