WATCH / SHARE “WORDS FOR HER” HERE
BUY / STREAM “WORDS FOR HER” HERE
NEW ALBUM, MOODY31, OUT TODAY, APRIL 29, 2022 VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS
BUY / STREAM MOODY31 HERE
Photo Credit : Joshua C. Rille // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
“Softness in Queerness – Newness within a deeply familiar feeling.” These are the sentiments at the heart of the new single from Lydia Persaud (Per-sAHd) entitled “Words For Her” from her new album, Moody31, out today via Next Door Records. “Saying I love you for the first time, vulnerability within certainty,” continues Persaud. “Sometimes you can’t hold it in any longer as it would be a disservice to the experience being shared. This song came as an unintentional life sequel to ‘Unsung.’ I did get to sing of the love that I longed to know. A love that changed me from the moment it started, softening and opening my heart in ways I hadn’t yet experienced.
“When I wrote this tune, I channeled my love for Nat King Cole. Anything that he sings is instantly the most lush and romantic sentiment ever sung. I wrote the song and sent it to my partner but without any words, just melody and chords. Shyly sharing the poem that is lyric for the song later on, we both recorded a version together during covid, this version ended up being the duo arrangement on the album. Originally entitled ‘Words For You’, I made it a little more intimate, a little more Queer and here we are now. Dedicated to my love.”
Filmed at The Great Hall in Toronto with Josh Rille and Ayo Tsalithaba the video for “Words For Her” captures the beauty found in the moment right before saying the words, a moment that many remember all their lives. The visuals reflect pouring over journal entries and multiple drafts of letters to find the right words, with thoughts and papers swirling around.
WATCH / SHARE “WORDS FOR HER” HERE
MORE ABOUT MOODY31
Moody31 will introduce us to the full spectrum of emotion. Shimmery runs fall alongside precise enunciations that slightly quiver on pitch. A singer with daring range, she stretches words – subtly melismatic, smooth, slantly gospel – to their full emotional capacity. Her sophomore record remodels a multitude of influences into a dynamic and harmonious original. Described by producer Scott McCannell as “Roberta Flack sitting in with Bill Withers' band at a folk festival,” Moody31 recombines jazz, R&B, and folk stylings to create soul music in its most literal sense.
WATCH / SHARE “I GOT YOU” HERE
It’s tempting to want to deconstruct her amalgam into its distinct parts, tracing each track’s reference points and divergencies. On “Let Me Be There For You” homage is paid to the beautifully haunting background vocals of Motown legend Mavin Gaye, while the ukelele fingerpicking on “Think Of Me” is approached with the lyrical sensitivities of a storyteller. Without fidelity to a single source of inspiration, Persaud’s arrangements are kaleidoscopic: layered sounds that mimic the prismatic moods of the album. It’s here that brokenness, loss of identity, and glorified independence commingle with self-assurance, acceptance and new beginnings.
“I Got You” is a bouncy love-letter to oneself, while “Words For Her” is fraught with the anticipation of saying ‘I love you’ for the first time in a blossoming romance. This is a summer album, with Persaud’s honeyed tone warming each track, but one that complicates the expected feel-good nature of the season. Imagine riding your bike through the city on a near-perfect July day, on the heels of a recent heartbreak.
WATCH / SHARE “GOOD FOR US” HERE
The title track “Moody31” is a surprising instrumental strip-down: diminished and major 7-chords fall alongside lush yet anguished vocals. The effect is a deep vulnerability crossed with absolute self-possession. It’s these antithetical desires that cut to the core of Moody31: to love and be loved without losing oneself in the process.
Persaud met producer and bassist Scott McCannell of Safe Spaceship Music in 2019. “Scott and I shared the same desire to create something new while preserving the classic warmth of the 70s soul and jazz sounds we love.” The two began compiling a collection of demos that eventually became Moody31. “The baritone ukulele was the foundational instrument I used to write the record,” Persaud says. “I would teach Scott a new song, and, to avoid perfectionism, we would record a rough demo while the song was loose and fresh.” With all the bed-tracks recorded in one room, the songs have a live, jazz-combo quality. Kyla Charter and James Baley’s backing vocals are full of disco-esque call-and-response, while Chino de Villa’s steady drums lend heartbeat from start to finish.
BUY / STREAM MOODY31 HERE
MORE ABOUT LYDIA PERSAUD
A fixture of Toronto’s music community and a sought-after collaborator, Persaud has had a colourful decade performing to small clubs with her jazz project (2012 - 2016), to crate diggers with The Soul Motivators (2011-2015), to folkies at festivals with The O’Pears (2013-2019), and to rock nostalgics with Dwayne Gretzky (2017-present). She’s shared the stage with Lee Fields, Richard Bona, David Crosby, Gordon Lightfoot, Jackie Richardson, Divine Brown, and Justin Nozuka, among many others. She’s also a member of the Queer Songbook Orchestra, and host of the upcoming docuseries, New World Beat.
“After ten years of playing music, I’m beginning to bring my multiple experiences into what I’m doing. I make music to honestly connect with others who might feel the same way. I hope Moody31 celebrates and validates the human experience in all its contradictions: how new love can be experienced alongside deep loss, how one can crave solitude and connection, simultaneously. It’s beautiful to embrace all of our moods - it’s living.”
MOODY31 TRACKLIST
01 Good For Us
02 I Got You
03 Think Of Me
04 Moody31
05 Unsung
06 Words For Her
07 Let Me Be There For You
08 Outro