Louis York Announces New Album THE HEART OF THE MATTER, Shares "I Found A Home"
Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony recorded the project in Tennessee with collaborators Nathan Chapman and Kyle Bolden.
Louis York has announced their new album The Heart of the Matter, which will release on November 6 via their label Weirdo Workshop. After years spent shaping the sound of modern-day pop, R&B and hip-hop from behind the scenes, the chart-topping composer duo of Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony celebrate the artistry they have discovered since moving their creative headquarters to Nashville a decade ago.
The debut single 'I Found A Home' is fueled by southern rock guitars and stacked harmonies. The song releases today alongside a music video that pays homage to Louis York's adopted hometown: 'I took a winding road to Music City, but I think I'm starting to like this country life.'
The duo on their new single: 'This song marks our arrival and settling into Nashville. It is our physical home and also our musical home. You can hear all of Nashville's influence on our band in this one song. It's East St. Louis, it's New York, it's Broadway, it's the Ryman, it's the Bluebird Cafe, it's Southern Rock, it's Country, and it's R&B/Soul.'
With their roots in East St. Louis and New York City, Louis York didn't come to Tennessee chasing country music. They came chasing great storytelling and even better songs. What they found was an inspiring community that fueled their creativity. They launched an artistic collective called Weirdo Workshop, started the Tiny Book Club initiative, and interviewed their own musical heroes on the Emmy-nominated podcast We Sound Crazy. They also kept writing songs, and over the last decade The Heart of the Matter slowly took shape.
Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony know their way around a great song. Their combined discography reads like a highlights reel of 21st century music, stacked with hits from multi-platinum recording artists including Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, Whitney Houston, Ne-Yo and more. The Heart of the Matter builds on that foundation with a shared DNA of pop melodies, country storytelling, R&B swagger, gospel uplift, and folk traditions. This is an album rooted in the very idea that American music has always been interconnected, that genres share common ancestry, and that great songs will outlive trends.
'We've dabbled in almost every genre of music as producers and songwriters,' says Harmony, 'but once you sit down to write something for yourself, it can take awhile to find your true voice. For us, it was a 10-year process to fully understand that Louis York is two songwriters, two singers, two producers, two creative people who really have something to say about music, spirituality, and manhood. In the past, maybe we were creating music from the head. This time, we were creating from the heart… and that could have only happened in Nashville.'
Written and recorded in Tennessee, The Heart of the Matter reintroduces Kelly and Harmony as champions of new American soul. The album features collaborations with friends including Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift, Lady A) and Kyle Bolden (Stevie Wonder, The Jacksons), but Louis York handled much of the work themselves as vocalists, songwriters and producers. Between recording sessions, the pair continued immersing themselves in everything Nashville had to offer. The result is a record that feels lived-in rather than borrowed, presented by two lifelong explorers honoring every road that led them to Nashville. The Heart of the Matter marks their arrival.
