Washington
21 April 2009
"Dreams" is just one of the 10 songs Slaid Cleaves wrote for Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, his first collection of original material since 2004's "Wishbones."
When asked about the dour title, Slaid explained that some of the songs on the album were inspired by a new exercise program. In 2007, he began running to improve his health.
"We live next door to a cemetery," he said. "And I was running through the cemetery. I was running past gravestones on my daily run. And I just started noticing inscriptions on the tombstones, epitaphs. I started to get interested in epitaphs. I went online and found these [web]sites where they list epitaphs from cemeteries. The ones I was looking at were in New England from the 1700s. And I just found some really cool words. One of the songs on this record, two of the three verses are entirely lifted from gravestone epitaphs. So, that's how thematically the album began."
That song is called Temporary.
The way this album was produced is just as unusual as its inspiration. By the time he finished recording Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, Slaid had worked with three different producers. The project started with Gurf Morlix in charge.
Gurf Morlix (left), VOA's Katherine Cole, and Slaid Cleaves at 2009 SXSW Festival |
Following the U.S. release of Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, Slaid will spend the next several months touring North America before setting off on a tour of the U.K. and Holland in October. For more information, visit his website at http://www.slaid.com.
The only cover song on Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away" is a Ray Bonneville track, Run Jolee Run. It's a song Slaid wanted to put on his last CD, Unsung, but he just couldn't get the right sound until now.