Jordan Klassen: Milk and Honey
Ethereal vocals are complemented by a gently beguiling production.
By Kerry Doole
Jordan Klassen - Milk and Honey (Fontana North): This highly-regarded Vancouver-based singer/songwriter is preparing to release his sixth album in early 2022, the follow-up to 2020's Tell Me What To Do, and this advance single helps whet the appetite.
In a press release, Klassen explains that "Milk and Honey is a song I wrote during the pandemic that explores the gap between presence and anticipation, idleness and perseverance, the shadow side and the light side of waiting. It's a song about feeling constrained, held up, waiting for something better to unfold. And learning how to exist and even make the best of that space.”
The new video for the track from director Joey Lopez embodies this idea. He explains that "for Milk And Honey I wanted to deconstruct the original themes Jordan and I had come up with initially for the video. The thing I wanted to use to express the themes of the songs was movement. I wanted to avoid being direct with the scenes and instead wanted to focus on the body language of dancers. I felt rather than interpreting the song directly I should instead use what I thought inspired the song – longing, nostalgia, loss and the toll it takes on our mental health."
The ethereal quality of Klassen's voice is to the fore here, complemented by a sparse but gently beguiling production, and intriguing lyrics (a sample: "The boys of east Strathcona live alone, With their visions of Utopia and cell phones, Just waiting on the world to change").
Over the course of a recording career now spanning 12 years, Klassen has toured throughout Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States. To date, he has garnered over 10 million streams worldwide. One interesting fact: his mother, Lianna Klassen, was nominated for a Juno award in 1999 in the Best Gospel Album category.
Links
Publicity: Ken Beattie, Killbeat
Management & Booking: High Tide Artists - Alex Wyder
Aya NakamuraMarion Gomez/Billboard France