Erika Lamon captures the storminess of love in her latest single Yellow Sundress – showcasing today on Tinnitist.
A preview of the Kingston, Ont. folk-rock songstress’s upcoming debut album Hues, Yellow Sundress begins and ends with the ticking of a clock, creating a feeling of suspense and time running out, and it maintains that metronome beat under thunderous piano and introspective vocals. The song deals with a cut-off relationship where there’s a shortage of honesty, as well as some internal conflict on the part of the narrator. The moodiness of the piano and Lamon’s willingness to delve into complexity is reminiscent of some of the best of Tori Amos, though the inclusion of a piano track on Hues arrived as somewhat of a surprise to Lamon.
“I grew up playing the piano but I stopped practising when I left for university,” she says. “If there’s one thing I know about playing an instrument, it’s that it’s not like riding a bicycle. Getting back into it is long and discouraging. You’ve lost the ease with which you used to play, and touching the keys can conjure a sense of loss. But sometimes, in this beginner state, ideas flow naturally.”
And then Yellow Sundress began to emerge. “I sat down at the piano, and started fiddling with the keys. A main piano line appeared,” she recalls. “I had some half-finished lyrics hanging around nearby, written a couple of days prior, so I reached out for them.”
The clock element is a very deliberate part of the song. “All I could see was a guilt-laden love story unraveling as time ran out in the background, the ever-ticking clock,” Lamon says. “The clock and keys intertwining in the beginning still give me shivers. I get that ‘the movie’s about to start’ feeling.”
Lamon has been charming crowds with a sound steeped in reverie ever since her debut in 2013. In 2017, she released her self-titled debut EP, then spent the next two years performing and touring from Toronto to Charlottetown. In 2020, she released the single Omen. Hues is set for release on Sept. 9.
Check out Yellow Sundress above, sample more songs from Erika Lamon below, and find her at her website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
