LISTEN / SHARE “COME HOME TONIGHT” HERE
BUY / STREAM “COME HOME TONIGHT” HERE
LOUIE SANCHEZ, THE PROJECT OF PANTAYO’S EIRENE CLOMA, TO RELEASE SELF-TITLED DEBUT EP, OUT NOVEMBER 8, 2024 VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS
PRE-SAVE LOUIE SANCHEZ EP HERE
EIRENE CLOMA OPENS UP ABOUT EXPERIENCE SERVING IN THE CANADIAN MILITARY
Photo Credit : Sarah Bodri // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Recently, Louis Sanchez (Eirene Cloma of Pantayo) announced their upcoming self-titled EP, out November 8 via Next Door Records, and today they share the second single from the collection. “Come Home Tonight” is a song “for my father, a commercial boat captain and Freemason,” says Cloma. “A song of compassion and understanding of the complexities of being a Filipino immigrant father and husband in the diaspora trying to find meaning and identity. I wrote this in one go the evening before a show when I was processing my relationship with my father and my longing for emotional closeness with him. I think I was listening to a lot of Gillian Welch at that time. The recording was inspired by being on the water, almost like a Maritime folk song.”
LISTEN / SHARE “COME HOME TONIGHT” HERE
BUY / STREAM “COME HOME TONIGHT” HERE
Cloma also opens up about their experience serving in the Canadian Military and how playing music helped them cope while being deployed to Kandahar as a young adult.
"In September 2009, I deployed to Kandahar Airfield (KAF) on Op Athena as a Material Management Technician. At 21, I was the youngest logistician and co-managed the camp warehouse for the National Support Element, a unit of over 500 personnel overseeing transportation, supplies, and maintenance of the combat mission in Afghanistan.K AF had guitars and other instruments on base and I would practice in an aisle of the after hours. On this deployment, I would cycle through feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. Being in a combat operation, it was hard to feel at ease."
"I balanced the stress and rigidity of the army with creativity. I spent a lot of my down time during training and deployment listening, playing, recording, and writing. Sometimes song ideas would come to me while in the field or in the middle of a brief. Music was a reminder of who I was outside of the military. Throughout my service in both the army and navy, I would feel that tension inside me that was expressive, imaginative, and boundless but also trying to fit into the expectations of military thought and conduct. Singing and playing helped soothe worries as I navigated young adulthood in the military."
MORE ABOUT LOUIE SANCHEZ
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.”
WATCH / SHARE “ONE THING I CAN AFFORD” HERE
BUY / STREAM “ONE THING I CAN AFFORD” HERE
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 “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.
PRE-SAVE LOUIE SANCHEZ EP HERE
LOUIE SANCHEZ TRACKLIST
01 One Thing I Can Afford
02 Come Home Tonight
03 Notice Me
04 Here With Me Now
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