Hello,
Welcome to SWT. Today we’re excited to talk about an exciting upcoming new album we think you’ll enjoy – Shayfer James’ latest album Summoning, which comes out Friday, June 13.
First let’s give some context: Shayfer James is a New York-based singer-songwriter, composer, and pianist. James has been creating music for the past decade and a half. In addition to a scattering of singles and EPs, he’s also released the following full-length albums: The Owl & The Elephant (2010), Counterfeit Arcade (2011), Shipwreck (2023), and The Ninth Hour: A Musical (2023).
According to the album’s press release, James is widely “known for his hauntingly beautiful and bombastic music that blends pop, cabaret, classical, soul, and rock elements. Shayfer has created a whimsical world full of dark cabaret, fantasy, and community with his live performances providing an outlet for his fans to feel accepted, authentically themselves in a carefree environment without judgment.”
Certainly, a mixture that sounds appetizing on paper and even more so in action.
Says Shayfer via press release on the creation of Summoning, “I decided to sequester myself away on the frozen oceanside of New Brunswick, Canada, because I knew I had a new album in me. I didn’t know what it would sound like or what it would be about, but I knew it was in there and that I wanted to be alone and somewhere beautifully cold when I wrote it.”
“The four weeks I spent writing Summoning were lush with gorgeous sunrises, flocking crows, and self-acceptance. It felt like a spell. A summoning of self. I felt tapped into the ether, and there’s really no better word to describe my time on Cape Tormentine other than ‘magic.’”
Below, Shayfer tells SWT about the inspiration for several of the tracks:
“Lighthouse Keeper”
The cottage where I wrote seven of the ten songs on Summoning was within line of sight of the old, defunct Cape Tormentine lighthouse in New Brunswick, Canada. I remember the first line, “I think I’ll be a lighthouse keeper,” came to mind as I was looking at the lighthouse at sunset. The music came really quickly and organically alongside the lyrics, but the maritime feel wasn’t intentional; it just sort of happened which, I suppose, makes sense.
“One Foot In The Grave”
This was the first time I’ve ever really dug into writing a horn arrangement, which is kind of surprising now that I think of it, because my favorite musical eras, golden age and Motown, are often heavy on horns. I composed the horn parts using a sample library called East West Sounds, and then had charts made so horn players could track the parts in the studio.
I’ve talked about this a bit on social media, but the song started, as they all do, with no clear theme. I wrote the verses stream-of-consciousness, and after rereading them, it struck me that this song is really for my fans. That drove my approach to writing the chorus and bridge. Also, there’s a percussion loop on the track that’s actually a pile driver I recorded with my iPhone a few blocks from my apartment months before I sequestered to write the album. It was driving huge steel columns into the ground, and the groove it created caught my ear. When I got up to Cape Tormentine, I looped the recording and wrote the piano part for “One Foot In The Grave” using it as a foundation.
“Headed Home”
This was one of the three songs on the album that I didn’t write in Cape Tormentine. I wrote it in about 20 minutes in the summer of 2022 on an out-of-tune guitar. For me, it’s really about imagining what it might feel like to be totally at home with someone. The idea that wherever you are with a person, can be home. I recorded a demo of it on my phone just minutes after I wrote it, and I plan on releasing that raw version so folks can hear it.
Below is the full tracklist for the album:
- Imagine That
- One Foot In the Grave
- The Moral
- Make a Wish
- Headed Home
- Lighthouse Keeper
- Yellow House
- Hell of a Dream
- Reverie
- Winter Hymn
The album offers a wonderfully rich textured bombardment of sounds to the ears, with lyrics that touch on some pretty universal topics such as self-awareness, our human connection to each other, and the tension between isolation and belonging. Lyrically, he tightropes between confidence and chaos. It’s easy to get entranced by the James mix of dark humor, vulnerability, and poetic narratives that accompany his playful melodies. The songs feature James pushing the boundaries of his songwriting abilities. He knows how to create cinematic and grand moments, and when to soften and become more intimate. It’s a fantastic addition that we think longtime fans will enjoy.
You can follow Shayfer James on his website, Instagram, X and TikTok, and listen to his music on YouTube and Bandcamp. You can also find more links here and a list of his tour dates here.
Happy listening!
Want to add more music to your life? Here’s a quick link to more albums that we previewed last year.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
