Field Guide: You Could Be Free

By Kerry Doole

Field Guide - You Could Be Free (Birthday Cake Records): On Oct. 28, this Western Canadian singer/songwriter (real name Dylan MacDonald) releases a self-titled sophomore full-length album, preceded by this track that came out yesterday (Sept. 21).

You Could Be Free typifies the Field Guide sound, one featuring understated and gently warm melodies and vocals and sparse instrumentation and production. 

Discussing the song in a label press release, MacDonald notes that “It’s tough to see your own struggles affect someone you love—watching them take on your heaviness can really bring on a feeling of guilt. When I wrote this, I was feeling a need to be pushed out of the dark place that I was in, I felt myself thinking ‘don’t accept this from me’.

MacDonald describes the full album in a press release as "the truest, rawest songs that I’ve ever written. I’ve never felt so sure about something I’ve made before. And now, it’s yours.” “Melody is what makes words fall out of my mouth,” he adds. “It’s disarming. When I find a melody that represents my internal world, I drop my guard. I allow the words to appear out of thin air without judgment. A lot of these songs came to life that way. I wasn’t trying to make anything, but the songs became a home for words that I wasn’t yet ready to write on the page.”

MacDonald produced and co-engineered the album, utilizing a woodstove-heated cabin during one of Manitoba’s coldest winters in years, Montreal's noted Breakglass Studio, and Monarch Studios in Vancouver.

Field Guide has built fans online and on the road. He has toured in support of the likes of Leif Vollebekk and Bahamas, both clearly kindred spirits, and he is currently touring Europe, playing shows in support of Penny & Sparrow, Sept. 22 to Oct. 1. An artist to be watched

Links

Website

Instagram

Publicity: Ken Beattie, Killbeat

Management - David Landreth / Stu Anderson

Agent - Paquin