Single Release: "Alison" by Burn the Louvre
This indie-rock duo ask you to view situationships from another angle, on "Alison".
Hamiltonian rock duo Jordan Speare and Sean Cooper are Burn The Louvre: an indie-rock, singer-songwriter inspired band with a punk spirit, dedicated to releasing a fresh track once a month leading up to their Silhouettes project- and in late March they released "Alison", a single about the messiness of situationships and stepping outside of your own perspective.
"Sean & I both have very different musical influences which I think blend together really well for what we’re doing," said Speare. "Great example: Sean’s more into The Rolling Stones, whereas I grew up on The Beatles. Beyond that, I’m kind of all over the map. I love me some good hip hop, like Mos Def, k-os, Kendrick Lamar, but I also love my punk music, like, The Clash, The Dirty Nil, PUP."
Vocalist Jordan Speare also has a soft spot for female singer-songwriters, like Lana Del Rey, Phoebe Bridgers, Emily Haines, Amy Winehouse, Heather Valley, Hayley Williams, Joss Stone, LifeandtheTribe, POLICA, and more.
"Sean has really excellent taste in music, he likes a lot of really cool bands, there are a bunch that he introduced me to actually, so that was a nice bonus of having him join the band!" said Speare. "Sean likes anything that’s got an experimental spirit. He loves rock n’ roll, but is very particular about it. He likes bands and artists that think outside the box like Pavement, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Strokes, Beck, Galaxie 500, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Replacements, The Byrds, a lot of bands like that."
"Alison" was actually written about five years ago, when Speare was about 27 years old.
"It feels funny to finally be releasing all of these "new" songs in 2022 when I had written most of them between the ages of 24 to 27," said Speare.
The single didn't take long to record, as did most of the singles off of the upcoming record- Speare already had the guitar riff and most of the music figured out, all he needed was the lyrics. "I was talking with this girl at the time named Alison," said Speare. "I was messing around with the song one day and "Al-is-son" just came out. "Been wondering how you been," came next, and off of that I finished the rest of the song within an hour or two. So I basically borrowed Alison's name for this song because I needed three syllables and her name fit perfectly!"
Although this specific "Alison" story is borrowed, Speare's vision of the every-girl "Alison" represents a particular type of person everyone has met. "So while the Alison I know inspired some of the lyrics, "Alison" is not actually about a specific person," said Speare. "It is about a type of person. Everybody has known an "Alison" before, someone who comes into your life very quickly only to leave just as fast. I'd like to think that a girl like Alison always leaves on a positive note. The moral of this story is that just because a relationship or interaction may be temporary, that doesn't mean that it can't be meaningful."
Mickey Ellsworth recorded, mixed, and mastered all eleven songs on the upcoming project Silhouettes. "We recorded most of the instrumentals for this one at B Town Sound in Burlington, ON and we recorded all of the vocals and overdubs at Mickey's home studio," said Speare. "Because I had recorded this entire album before Sean joined the band, my friend Andrew Billone of Hamilton rock band Silvertone Hills played all the lead guitar and bass on this song for me, while I sang, played my guitars and did most of the percussion with some help from Mickey. I kind of knew when I first started writing "Alison" that I wanted it to be a duet with someone else singing Alison's lines in the song. A duet just made sense with the call & response style of the lyrics. So I am very, very glad that my friend & fellow singer/songwriter Stephanie Deshane agreed to sing with me on this song. She did an incredible job and honestly "Alison" would not have been nearly as much of a stand-out without her help."
The lead vocalist of Burn the Louvre hopes his song encourages people to re-think past relationships, and dissect the stigmas surrounding casual relationships. "I firmly believe that just because something is temporary that doesn't mean that it can't be meaningful," said Speare. "Alison gave me some good advice a long time ago, and was nice enough to listen to me. We must not have been meant for anything more than that, but she told me some things I needed to hear at that point in my life. In the song, it's Alison who's very honest about not wanting anything serious with the protagonist, and he kind of has no choice but to accept that. Which is really what this song is about, accepting people for who they are, even if we know they're only here for a short time. I still keep in touch with Alison here and there, she actually really liked the song, I told her it was meant to be fiction!"
You can help support Jordan Speare, Sean Cooper and Burn The Louvre by following the band on socials, streaming their music, and purchasing their art on the Bandcamp link below.
Upcoming gigs:
X