Opal Canyon offer safe harbour to hope and love in their comforting new single and video Come Ashore — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The first preview of the band’s upcoming sophomore album Tomorrow To The Sea (out April 8), the lofty and lilting Come Ashore is a song of hope and endurance borne from struggle and strife. It shares a sense of eternal optimism for those that choose to embrace it. That’s evident in its uplifting lyric: “Hope lives out on the ocean, sometimes it comes to shore. Like the spotlight on the singer, and a lover through the door. Let me be the light, let me be the oar. Let me be the calm in the storm. Be the light.”
Helmed by the husband-and-wife team of singer-songwriter Debra DeMuth and singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Houghton, Opal Canyon are one of those rare bands that have the ability to transport listeners to a place where serenity and serendipity exist in tandem, and emotion is expressed openly and abundantly. They bring to mind the aura of Laurel Canyon, Monterey and other evocative environs known for inspiring soothing sentiments shared with both passion and purpose. Their sophisticated soundscapes offer respite from the perils of the modern world, finding hope in distant horizons, with sounds and notions that veer from longing and regret, to satisfaction and celebration, while allowing optimism to illuminate the path forward.
Fittingly, Come Ashore helped guide them toward their album, DeMuth admits. “Opal Canyon’s journey of Tomorrow To The Sea began in the winter months of our societal lockdown. Short days, cold nights, sad news brought on a heaviness that seemed to be never ending. On my way to work as a front-line care provider, I would look to the sea for beauty and sustenance. One day when the heaviness felt like too much, I told myself that there is always hope. Hope we can always have in our hearts, if we choose it. And if we choose it, we can hold it for others. Looking at the ocean, I knew that’s where the hope lived and all we had to do was welcome it to the shore. With that arose, Come Ashore, the first song written for what would become the album.
Opal Canyon sought out producer Jon Evans to oversee Tomorrow To The Sea. Evans was recommended to DeMuth by mentor Tanya Donelly, of Belly and Throwing Muses fame. Evans’ resume includes work with Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and Ben Folds. “We wanted to create a combination of space in the recording and have the up-tempo songs feel like fun,” Evans explains. “We wanted the ballads to be as wide open as possible … like you’re looking across the sea.”
Of course, Dave and Debra didn’t arrive at this juncture without several years spent honing their talents and creating a combination that allows each of them to shine. Dave had been performing professionally since his late teens, opening for the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Violent Femmes, Cheap Trick and Neil Young with bands like The Reejers and Fancy Trash.
Debra was a single mom with a career in advertising when she moved to Massachusetts in 2002. After being diagnosed with cancer, she joined the support group Songbird Sings, a non-profit founded by Robin Lane to help heal trauma survivors through music. “Writing about my own experiences and giving it voice through song set me on a path of healing and expression that I had never experienced,” Debra recalls. “It set me on this journey of writing, not just for my own healing, but with a hope for healing others.”
Lane convinced Debra to take her talents a step further and urged her to start singing. In 2012, Lane took Debra to a Fancy Trash show where she met Dave. In 2015, they began performing together. The debut album Beauty And Loss followed in 2019, and along the way, they gathered an all-star group of colleagues and collaborators, including Ray Mason on bass, drummer Jason Smith and Bob Hennessy on electric guitar, mandolin, piano and organ.
Watch Come Ashore above, hear Beauty And Loss below, pre-save Tomorrow To The Sea HERE, and connect with Opal Canyon at their website, Facebook and Instagram.
