Willem James Cowan gives up his Apartment (and so much more) in his bittersweet new single — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The London, Ont., singer-songwriter’s intimate latest release will ring true to anyone and everyone who can remember the first time they moved in with a romantic partner — only to end up having to pack up and pack it in when things went awry. Over a gently tugging, lightly chugging track that splits the diff between indie-folk, pop and rock, Cowan takes one last look around while leaving an apologetic note for his ex, wishing he’d done better — and flashing forward through random moments a future without them:
“Three days from now
I’ll be away in Kingston
Hyper-aware of the crowd
Ready to leave in an instant
Three weeks from today
I will be deep in a stupor
A camera-worthy display
The empathy may elude her.”
“Apartment was written in my bedroom at home, and at my friend’s cottage in Kingston,” says Cowan of the track, whose stream-of-consciousness style feels more like a confessional monologue than a typical pop song. “It’s a short little number about upending my life and moving back home.”
Thankfully, Cowan’s musical life is only moving forward. His sweeping folk anthems have been capturing ears across eastern Canada since 2018. Across three releases and various singles, he has explored the uncharted corners of his soul and his sound, sometimes alone with a guitar and sometimes backed by a collective of musicians known as The Friends of the Cove.
On the titular track of his 2022 album Mourning In The Morningtime, Cowan sings that he is “out of thoughts and out of rhymes.” This is just one example of the stark vulnerability that characterizes his musical identity, even if it couldn’t be further from the truth. The lush instrumentation of Cowan’s production is always in service of soft-spoken truths and an eye to the future.
Check out Apartment above, hear more from Willem James Cowan below and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.
