STATUS / NON-STATUS FOLLOW ACCLAIMED LP WITH A COLLECTION OF TRACKS HELD BACK FROM THE RELEASE
LISTEN / SHARE / BUY / STREAM JANUARY 3RD EP HERE
PRAISE FOR SURELY TRAVEL
“If there’s one thing that sets Status/Non-Status apart from other pandemic-era debuts, it’s that they didn’t let little things like lockdowns hold them back. From their stellar 2021 EP 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years to this year’s full-length, Surely Travel, they let their wanderlust inform their songs and subject matter. …In writing a record about hitting the road, Sturgeon and the band opened new routes to sonic experimentation that signal that Status/Non-Status are not afraid to carve out their own path.” • Jim Di Gioia - Dominionated Favourite 50 of 2022
“Surely Travel is a record about telling truths. Status/Non-Status's semi-conceptual album about touring, the music industry and everything left behind in the pursuit of art continues to evolve and morph in new and provoking creative directions, with every listen rewarding listeners with a uniquely beautiful experience.” EXCLAIM! - Best Albums of 2022
Photo Credit : Steven Lourenco // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, Status/Non-Status is expanding on their acclaimed LP, Surely Travel, with a collection of songs held back from the initial release, the January 3rd EP. “While each song is deeply personal, at the time it felt as though they pushed the album further into the rural-folk spectrum than we envisioned for ourselves, but together now make for a sentimental journey that sounds just right on the cold winds of winter,” says songwriter Adam Sturgeon.
The EP’s title track, “January 3rd” is a song of reflection, “a call to a more natural way of existing but trapped within the busy people, streets and lights of a broken city,” says Sturgeon. “I wrote this while living in Flint, Michigan and it was the first song we recorded for Surely Travel, where in a song we are all just trying to be free.”
“Johnny's Song” could be about “any kid, anywhere,” Sturgeon continues. “In this case a specific kid - Johnny, who was trying his best to persevere despite a harsh reality at home, each day bringing a new challenge but finding hope within the cold terrain of the Arctic tundra and being on the land.”
And the EP concludes with “Glide”, “a dedication to our dear mother, mentor and friend who slipped into the ice and never came home,” says Sturgeon. “Emotions got the better of me through tracking so I walked away from the song and left it unfinished. Still can't listen to it to this day.”
BUY / STREAM JANUARY 3RD EP HERE
MORE ABOUT SURELY TRAVEL
What’s revealed when you archive the quiet moments during time spent on the road? For Adam Sturgeon, the result is a crystalline glimpse into the unseen — and gratifying — moments of personal renovation we rarely pay attention to; where a blown out tire incites calm rather than rage, and moments of frustration invite grace instead of judgement. This is the vantage of Surely Travel, the newest album by Status/Non-Status, the evolving musical project of the Anishinaabe artist and community worker, and a close-knit group of collaborators.
While Status / Non-Status’ previous album Warrior Down was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize and was shortlisted for the 2022 SOCAN Songwriter Prize for album track “Find A Home”, recently, Sturgeon joined Zoon’s Daniel Monkman to form OMBIIGIZI whose debut album, Sewn Together, was shortlisted for the 2022 Polaris Music Prize.
WATCH / SHARE “MAINLY CROWS” HERE
Exploring their expansive, sky-sweeping folk rock from a fresh angle, Status/Non-Status drive head-on into a natural complement to the earth-shaking sonic landscapes they’re known for. A loose concept album written as a travel log of animals in flight, the record brims with open air reflections, while gazing out of a blurry window and acknowledging what it can’t see clearly. Blending the melted psychedelic gauze of distorted Americana, with thundering flashes of post rock, Sturgeon implements softness generously. At the core, remembering that lyrics that break through universally sing with clarity about experiences that “chop at the knees.”
WATCH / SHARE “MASHKIKI SUNSET” HERE
Recorded over 10 days at Deadpan Studios in Sudbury, the goal was to chisel things down down to the bone. Where past records built atmosphere out of heavy swaths of sound, overlaid with harmonies, the band opted for a single vocal take, a Wurlitzer, and ran a $100 classical guitar through an amp. Written in the company of others, whether from the back of a van, or with a baby on the other side of the door, Sturgeon wrote sections of the record in near silence — whispered lyrics and muted bass riffs that started as lullabies, only to be blown out later. It interlaces the album’s material composition with its central inspiration: the allure of touring from coast to coast, and the reality of over-indexing on time spent in an unreliable, stuffy van; the wrenching sacrifice of time away from loved ones, in favour of only seeing a gas station and vacant roads for hours on end.
WATCH / SHARE “BLOWN TIRE” HERE
Where the acclaimed Warrior Down (2019), and its celebrated follow-up the 1,2,3,4,500 Years EP (2020) required a mighty sonic landscape to fit its lofty reckonings of nationhood, trauma and familial memory, Surely Travel tightens its scope, but not its ambition. Instead, peering inward to examine the self within its surroundings, and to underscore identity and indigeneity from the smallest spaces or ordinary experiences. Conjuring the awe of sunshowers through the rearview mirror, Surely Travel intentionally doesn’t over-promise optimism, but rather celebrates the small wins of a human-sized approach to resilience and healing.
JANUARY 3RD EP TRACKLIST
01 January 3rd
02 Johnny’s Song
03 Glide