Danceland celebrate love’s beginnings with their gorgeous and nostalgic single Sapphire — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Remembering the first night you met your significant other can bring back vivid memories. Or in the case of Joe Ferland, guitarist and singer for Toronto neo-jam band Danceland, it can help stoke the fires of creation. The result is Sapphire, a winding but wonderful new single from the band’s Licky album that sounds fresh and exciting — while conjuring up images of late ‘’60s greats like Janis Joplin and The Grateful Dead.
“It is about the night that (Danceland singer and Ferland’s wife) Jale and my love affair began,” Ferland says. “We had been hanging out and playing in bands together. Then, one night, a bunch of friends went to a dance club called Sapphire that our bandmate and friend was bar tending at. Jale and I danced all night.”
Sapphire, written and produced by the duo, kicks off with a smooth, laid-back groove as Jale’s vocals lead the way. The chorus is busier but beautiful, bringing to mind Edie Brickell, Phish and Joss Stone at her funkiest. Sapphire takes a surprising turn two minutes in, creating a huge wall of sound thanks to Jale, Ferland, drummer Brad Park and guest saxophonist Cameron Draper. Keyboardist Jeff Heisholt and bassist Ryan Spratt flesh out the five-minute omnipotent odyssey, helping ensure Sapphire is a diamond.
“This is another tune I had been carrying in my head for a year or so,” Ferland explains. “I had the chorus changes and chorus lyrics. When we scheduled the date to record (bed tracks) for another round of tunes, I finished the verses and middle, and Jale and I fleshed out the rest of the lyrics.”
Recorded and mixed by Carlin Nicholson at Toronto’s Pineship Sound and mastered by Philip Shaw Bova, the single is the followup to Steve Earle, also found on Licky. The single continues a wave of momentum from Danceland, which originated when Ferland (a huge fan of the Dead who got his start in pop-punk and rock bands in New York in the ’90) met Jale and relocated to Windsor and then Toronto. The rigours of the music business burned him out, but after a decade away, his passion was ignited when he visited his terminally ill mother and heard a radio program of Dead songs.
They led the tribute act Cherry Garcia Band until the pandemic threw another wrench into their lives. Writing their own material while isolated in Huron County, the couple named their new group after a local roadway. In 2022, they released the debut album Pink Lem, mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Gregg Rubin (Ben Folds, Avett Brothers) and returned to the never-ending road.
Check out Sapphire above, listen to the Licky album below, and step into Danceland’s world on their website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
