Confessional singer-songwriter Luis Mojica has released his new single 'City Friends'. Earlier, he announced his new album 'How A Stranger Is Made', to be released in early October, while teasing the first single 'The Ranger'.
This album features production from Mercury Prize winning producers David Baron (Bat For Lashes, Peter Murphy, Lenny Kravitz, The Lumineers) and Simone Felice (The Lumineers, Bat For Lashes, Dan Mangan) and mixing by three-time Grammy award-winning producer Justin Guip (Levon Helm). Mojica's new long-play is intimate and empathic - a beautiful tapestry of piano-driven songs that quite intimately express his healing journey through shamanism, sexuality, trauma and ecstatic joy. "I wrote this song while walking in NYC's East Village. The St. Mark's bookstore had just closed, my favorite tree in Washington Square Park was severed in half, and all around me my beloved neighborhood was changing so rapidly. I walked around feeling so much loss and, this song, became a container for me to pour all kinds of loss I had experienced into it. The loss of friendships, lovers, cities, cultures, identity of self. I finished the song years after leaving the city for Woodstock, NY. You can hear a duality in the track: a somber, lonely piano and vocals against an upbeat drum and then a full on ecstatic sounding chorus. It was my way of celebrating the loss, the gentrification, and the betrayal - in hindsight. It all brought me to a new life that was much better for me. So I became grateful for the forced growth and transformation," says Luis Mojica.Listen to "City Friends" below.
ALBUM CREDITS
Written, arranged, and performed by Luis Mojica except 'Stranger Song' (written by Leonard Cohen)
'Queen Song' produced by Simon Felice & David Baron
'Cowboys' mixed by Fredo Viola
'Stranger Song' mixed, recorded and co-produced by Fredo Viola
Other songs mixed by Justin Guip
Piano and vocals recorded by Jason Sarubbi
Evan Glen Adams - drums
Caelan Manning - saxophone
Sister Ursuline - cello
Rebecca Moore - violin on 'The Ranger'
Anders Bostrom - flute
Al Romao - Percussion and arrangement on 'Witch Love'
Jason Sarubbi - bass & bass arrangements on 'The Ranger', 'Witch Love' and 'Invoked'
Mastering by Mike Tierney
Sept 12 Kingston, NY - BSP (with The Warp/The Weft) - 8pm
Sept 20 Catskill, NY - Avalon
Sept 21 Woodstock, NY - Colony (Leonard Cohen tribute)
Oct. 09 Brooklyn, NY - Pete's Candy Store
Oct. 19 Kingston, NY - BSP (as part of VegFest)
Oct. 25 Burlington, VT - Radio Bean
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