Cam Maclean Releases New Single 'Thief'

Cam Maclean (ex-Vesuvio Solo) is will release his new album Secret Verses out May 13 (pre-order). In anticipation of Friday's release date, Cam is sharing a new single "Thief" from the upcoming album.

On the song Cam says, "I wrote 'Thief' during a particularly hard month in the pandemic, trying to speak to the experience of writing songs on my own - with nothing going on in my life outside of my apartment. My record's title, Secret Verses, is taken from a line in the song - 'you write the secret verses that contain a single thought, that is somehow multiplied a thousand ways.' This came out of the experience of ruminating on musical and lyrical ideas that just didn't work, until I realized that my writer's block itself - in light of the lack of real-life inspiration - was the real life experience that I had to write about."

"Thief" follows up the introspective single "Visions," released last month. The song is a folk composition with Beatlesque harmonies and ambience explores themes of quest, mystery and the slow but certain transition from the cold season to spring.

"Visions" opens the B-side of Secret Verses, a dichotomous album that begins with the soft-rock aesthetic Maclean began to hone with Vesuvio Solo and which, past the middle, becomes more meditative and emotive, reflecting the intimate songwriter music Maclean grew up listening to. The text of "Visions" was inspired by the chance encounter of a stranger on a winter walk - a stranger with whom Maclean developed a lasting relationship: the kind of connection that seemed even more significant in the context of pandemic isolation.

"Visions" is the first track from Secret Verses to focus primarily on the aforementioned meditative qualities of songwriter Maclean. It was the integration of this new contemplative aspect that first convinced Rollie Pemberton (aka Cadence Weapon), recipient of the most recent Polaris Prize, and longtime friend of Maclean, to produce the album - on many songs of which he perceives a certain halo of Nick Drake.

Between Maclean's past influences and Pemberton's sophisticated studio work, Secret Verses assembles brilliantly variegated lines and shapes to form an object addressing a panoply of emotions, ideas and musical possibilities: an album of unrevealed words and vector bridges.

Cam Maclean is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, music teacher and multi-instrumentalist based in Montreal. Maclean had a long collaboration with Thom Gillies (TOPS, Blue Material) with whom he formed Vesuvio Solo, which was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize for their debut album Favors, (2014) and their sophomore LP Don't Leave Me in the Dark (2016). Maclean and Gillies bridged musical differences and visions, touring broadly and playing festivals in North America and Europe.

Maclean went on to release his debut solo LP Wait for Love in 2018. The record was well-received for its blend of crafted lyricism, inspired by singer-songwriter traditions, and contemporary indie-pop. Nylon Magazine touted Maclean as one of "five Montreal-based musicians you need to know," and similar praise came from outlets such as Noisey, Week in Pop and Gorilla vs. Bear, as well as Canadian news and media outlets such as ET Canada and Le Devoir.

After playing Wait for Love on the Canadian festival circuit for a year and a half, Maclean completed a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in late 2019, where he began writing songs for what would become his second full-length record. After sharing early demos of these songs with longtime collaborator and friend Rollie Pemberton (Cadence Weapon), Pemberton suggested that he produce Maclean's second record.

Listen to the new single here:

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