Moving away from the folk-country sound we heard on his two original 2020 releases, Indigo and Songs of Old and Windsor, Williston Irvine leans into an indie style on his latest single, “Heart on Fire.” While still maintaining a gritty folk feel, the track demonstrates a new direction for the artist and acts as a taste of what Irvine has in store.
The track comes as the first single off Irvine’s upcoming album, which aims to fuse together his favourite genres: folk, indie, country and pop. The single was also released alongside an acoustic cover of the Tom Petty track “Keeping Me Alive,” which will not appear on the album.
“Heart on Fire,” as well as the rest of his upcoming album, were entirely written, recorded and produced by Irvine himself.
“I decided ‘Heart on Fire’ would be the first single from the new album because I keep referring to it as my ‘Everest’ of the process; I just could NOT get it to sound how I wanted it to, or even just to sound good for the longest time,” says Irvine.
“In pre-production, it was my favourite song of the bunch, and it quickly became my least favourite. After leaving it alone for over a month and almost cutting it from the record, I went back to it and made it click!”
The track was written about Irvine’s love for Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy as well as his time spent near Digby. In the lyrics, he also expresses a longing for being accepted and blending into the crowd.
Musically, the song fits into Irvine’s established sound while still straying far enough to be new and different. It keeps the sharp twang and the grit but has an overall indie-folk feel.
Williston Irvine upcoming self-titled album is expected to be released sometime this early this spring, rounding off a prolific 12 months for the musician. This will be his fourth album released since April 2020, the third of which to be entirely comprised of original material.