SMOKEY “BLEAK HERITAGE” - August 16 on Lonesome Records
SMOKEY (AB) is Nickelas Johnson, a musician and multidisciplinary artist from northern Alberta, Canada. Drawing from lofi anti-folk and garage experiments, he creates a kind of spooky country music. He is joined live and on record by Aaron Parker, Aladean Kheroufi, Gavin Dunn and Paul Arnusch.
BLEAK HERITAGE:
After re-emerging a couple years ago with a string of singles (Horsecock, Springtime, Sudden Death, Ready To Die), BLEAK HERITAGE is SMOKEY’s first full length album since 2016’s SMOKEY & THE FEEELINGS. The title BLEAK HERITAGE isn’t an indictment as much as an appraisal of resources: can you build anything from this inheritance? Where did you come from, where did you go?
I lifted the title BLEAK HERITAGE from an old paperback I found- an amusingly incongruous title for a romance novel. I enjoy how collage re-contextualizes contrasting elements, so I plopped it on a photo of my great-grandpa and me from the only time we met. Turns out, it binds together this collection of songs into a meaningful package. I’ve been reflecting on a death fixation that has morphed from something morbid into something maybe sacred. We’re all blinking in the debris of generational gambles, and some of us are faced with a conundrum: do we want things to end because we don’t want to live, or because we want to live a way we haven’t allowed ourselves to? I have people I love, so I’ve chosen joy as a preferred delusion.
This collection of songs represents disparate periods of writing. I’ve collated them because they feel connected, but they were written and recorded over years—some live off the floor with the band, some alone at home or at Mossy Trails. Many were shaped in studios with friends like Chris Dadge, Aladean Kheroufi, and Patrick Michalak. I’m not chasing coherence or innovation really, just trying to write songs to excite myself as my heroes die off.
Thematically, the record plays with wonder and horror, mysticism and death, acceptance. It’s loving and it’s idiotic and it’s horny. Sonically, it’s more acoustic and features more percussion- steel drum, empty bottles, a bell from my grandparents’ farm. It’s decidedly leaning away from using overdrive pedals to announce dynamic shifts, instead manifesting builds naturally.
BLEAK HERITAGE is out August 16 on Lonesome Records.
The release of BLEAK HERITAGE will be celebrated AUGUST 16 at BLEAK PARTY, a day-long block party in the loading dock of Bent Stick Brewing in Edmonton, Alberta, featuring SMOKEY, JEFF CLARKE (from the BLACK LIPS and DEMON’S CLAWS), BIG EVIL RAT, KIP LILY, and a special solo performance from BEN DISASTER. BLEAK PARTY is presented by DOUBLE LUNCH PRODUCTIONS and HOT PLAINS. Tickets available at bentstickbrewing.com
Watch READY TO DIE
Watch SUDDEN DEATH
Watch HORSECOCK
Watch SPRINGTIME
Watch YOUR BEAST
BLEAK HERITAGE tracklist:
- In A Boat 06:27
- Job (Get a Job) 03:37
- Springtime 02:37
- Your Beast 05:18
- Jesus x3 02:13
- Bleak Heritage 00:50
- Coyotes 03:05
- Horsecock 02:40
- Milk of the Universe 04:20
- Sudden Death 03:37
- Throat 04:01
- Ready To Die 04:07
- Less Is Lots 02:14
