Dylan Menzie makes a huge leap forward with his latest album, Adolescent Nature. It’s connecting the pieces that revolve around making your own path to self discovery. It’s about exploring the inner-workings of your mind: the good and the bad, the bright rays of sunlight and the torrential downpours, the dark and the light, just every day adolescence. Have a listen.
“It speaks to adolescent life, essentially,” says Menzie of his album. “When you are writing an album, you are looking for that connecting piece that brings everything together. Adolescent Nature really revolves around that area of life and the experiences that everyone can relate to, but it’s so much more than that.”
For its title, Adolescent Nature shows a startling maturation as Menzie comes into his own. Every phrase, lyric, and note connects, something Menzie admits was missing from his previous album, Heather Avenue. “With Heather Avenue, the songs themselves didn’t really have a connection; the only way they were connected was through the place where they were written. This time, they all came together through a common theme.”
It’s feeling like the world is your oyster, while simultaneously having everything and nothing at your fingertips. Like you are acknowledged but somehow not respected. Existing in a place and transitioning. Being an adolescent is tough, but we all manage to get through it. This album is Menzie’s love story of a time in his life at the cusp of his musical journey.
“Say you’ve got to get out and you’ve got to discover all the things that there is to uncover / Leave this town and when you return, preach the wisdom of the things you have learned.”…“The seasons change, but I weather the weather / two peas in a pod, two birds of a feather / Old man winter takes the leaves from the trees / Let’s work together, my heart’s on my sleeve.” – Kenya, Dylan Menzie
Menzie’s single ‘Kenya’ is currently topping CBC’s 2016 Searchlight poll, now representing the Maritimes in the final four songs, “I really connect to Kenya, in that the whole song is written about needing to get away or experience something else. I feel like that’s a new thing. In the past thirty to forty years, it’s become more of a need in society than it was in the past: moving from a small city to a larger one or even travelling from Canada out to China or Kenya. It’s more about trailblazing or making your own path, as opposed to doing what’s expected.”
The album pulls at life’s tethers, but carries a bright tune regardless. Ending with a very commendable cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘That’s The Way’, it’s a curiously resigned but poignant choice, as if to suggest it’s all just a stretch of road each of us must inevitably travel. Menzie seems to have come out all the wiser for it.
Adolescent Nature will be available for purchase May 20th, but if you’re in Fredericton this month, you can catch Dylan performing as part of the Living Roots Festival.
For more of Menzie’s music and touring info visit www.dylanmenzie.com