Montreal's Half Moon Run returns with the first new music for 2023 with a propulsive, affirming sonic journey with new song, “You Can Let Go” out on the band's new label, BMG.
“In the back of my mind was a beautiful, truthful shouting,” says one of the group's three singers, songwriters + multi instrumentalists, Devon Portielje. The song's verses recall the inducing cardiac panic of the group's earliest hits, at least until the fever breaks and the chorus transcends into the sublime harmonies they have become universally known for. Portielje continues, “A tumultuous, transformative journey through the dark places of the mind towards, hopefully, the light.”
It's no wonder transformation and self-reflection is on their minds. Since Half Moon Run’s last album, A Blemish in the Great Light (Glassnote/Universal, 2019), there’s been a global pandemic and a sea-change in the live music industry. Meanwhile, the band’s put out three releases—two EPs and a collection of reworked “isolation versions” of older songs.
They netted two Juno Awards both for 'Adult Alternative Album of the Year' in 2020 for A Blemish in the Great Light, and again in 2022 for their EP Inwards & Onwards. In 2021 they were nominated for 'Group of the Year' and also in 2016 for 'Breakthrough Group.' Half Moon run also saw their fourth member, multi-instrumentalist Isaac Symonds, depart the band to move out West over these past years of change. The remaining trio— Devon Portielje, Conner Molander, and Dylan Phillips—are also the band’s founding trio and the foundation moving forward.
The past few years has largely kept the band from doing what they indisputably excel at: touring, that which has become synonymous with the band's name, fame, global accolades and dedicated audiences they have single-handedly built since they began internationally touring their first album Dark Eyes in 2012. In the latter half 2022, Half Moon Run did play a select few dates, and unsurprisingly, some of their most successful shows yet: there were over 45,000 people on the Plains of Abraham for the final night of the Festival d’été de Québec; and ADISQ awarded the band another Félix (their fifth) for Best Anglophone Show of 2022.
Half Moon Run has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting organizations working for equity, access, and dignity for all.
creatively intertwining the emotional qualities of folk, indie rock, slowcore, and more into their spirited arrangements, and they continue the tradition with their latest single 'How Come My Body'.
Kingston Grand Theatre, Rosen Auditorium
218 Princess St.
Kingston ON K7L1B2
Canada
