It’s no easy feat to carry the fervency of the modern love song, but Louie Sanchez has the vivid timbre and warm confidence to inject the lost art with some wayward outlaw swagger. The solo project of Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist Eirene Cloma successfully avoids familiar platitudes and unnecessary bells and whistles, opting instead for the solid songwriting of the ballad. “At the beginning, I thought I’d make a country album,” says Cloma, “And then producer [Simone Schmidt] asked me, ‘well, what is country?’ which got me thinking about how to make this record really sound like me.”

Cloma is well-known as a member of queer Filipinx kulintang ensemble Pantayo, whose self-titled debut was shortlisted for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize. Where Pantayo plays with percussive atonal delirium (what they call “lo-fi R&B gong punk”), Louie Sanchez is inspired by the self-assured croon of Filipino folk music, harana. Harana is a courtship practice in which a man serenades his beloved from outside her window, hoping to gain her attention. “When I think of harana, I think of a voice that fills the humid, tropical air. You know, like you’re listening to the radio on a warm summer evening and a song is crackling from the speaker, keeping you company.”

Themes of intimacy and distance are all over Louie Sanchez and their new self-titled EP, out November 8 via Next Door Records. Their weighty, sleek alto animates a smooth storytelling of long drives, long shifts and long days spent biding time. Today, they are sharing the EP’s first single, “One Thing I Can Afford” (co-written with Elysse Cloma), a nocturne that recovers patience as a virtue.

It’s not an overstatement to say Eirene Cloma has the rare vocal talent deep enough to lend gravity and smoky enough to fill the entire room. It shines on “I Want You To Notice Me,” where the desire for recognition is paired down to the penetrating lucidity of voice and finger-style guitar. “Here with Me Now,” has an overt country flair thanks to its pedal steel twang, but the luscious declaration of the chorus (“all i want is you/in that perfect moment/here with me now”) plays in the risky low-end of ‘adult contemporary’ - think reverent, slightly cheeky nod to the glory of the Women & Songs era, Tracy Chapman does James Taylor. ““I think of Louie as a humble, soft spoken singer,” says Cloma, “I’ve always loved solo acts. Jose Gonzalez, k.d. Lang, Paula Cole, Jim Croce — I mean, who can deny a good Sheryl Crow song?”

The EP was recorded at Gavin Gardiner’s All Day Coconut studios, with an array of musicians including Stew Crookes on pedal steel, Lucas Gadke on electric and upright bass, Laura C. Bates on fiddle, Ohbijou’s Casey Mecija on background vocals and Justin Ruppel on drums. It was produced by Simone Schmidt (One Hundred Dollars, The Highest Order, Fiver, Splitter), with arrangements by Schmidt and Cloma.

There’s a no-frills verve and serene tenderness to Louie Sanchez, where the work of romance is both an offering and an invitation – to arrive as yourself — melancholy, worn, a little rugged, with open hands.