Sound CheckJesse Labelle reveals the secrets behind his new album, “Two”
After years of struggle, growth and self-discovery, Toronto singer-songwriter Jesse Labelle has released the follow-up to his 2010 album, "Perfect Accident," aptly titled, "Two."
"Two" is a record that was born after Labelle's first attempt at a sophomore album was rejected by his label which pushed him to develop his craft in a new and exciting way.
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"I look back at 'Perfect Accident' as the dress rehearsal," Labelle told Yahoo! Canada Music before the album's debut. "It was a great first record to make and I'm really proud of it, but it was a warm-up for what I'm doing now. I wanted to make an album where I could go out and perform the hell out of it vocally."
He was hailed as the next John Mayer with his soft vocal grace and melodic guitar riffs, but Labelle's style has changed considerably on "Two" and in no small part, because of the new and dynamic range of his voice.
"My singing really progressed due to touring," Labelle said. "It's a lot of touring and a lot of playing live and learning about myself. I really ended up pushing my voice in a good way and I started wanting to really sing… I think a lot of people would look at it as a lot of hard work, but I started feeling like I was really connecting with the words just by singing them louder and higher and with more emotion."
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"Two" is aptly named for many reasons: the two years it took to create it, being the second record in Labelle's discography and because of an important lyric in the first song on the album, "Won't Let You Down."
"The lyric in 'Won't Let You Down' is 'There's two to every story/Two sides of a heart/One that fears the end/And one that fears the start,'" Labelle said. "That to me summed up the entire album because I write about love and human connection and that's always something that I've felt very close to especially when I'm looking for inspiration."
He also said, "That lyric is the push and pull about how you sometimes have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other one, the yin and the yang, and that's what I wanted to show on this album. To me, that lyric [sums up] the whole album and I felt like, if I only said that, that it would have actually worked."
Putting together the ideal producing team for "Two" was something Labelle was very clear on and he was adamant about making sure that he secured the talented Thomas "Tawgs" Salter who has worked with the likes of Fefe Dobson, Josh Groban and Lights.
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"He's really, really versatile," Labelle said of the Canadian producer. "I was looking for a way to take the idea of a singer/songwriter and modernize it and bring it into something more contemporary. I've always been a pop artist and into pop music and I'd been searching for a way to make a pop record that sounds like something new and exciting and one of the artists that I believe has always done that is Lights."
Labelle continued, "Lights is a fantastic songwriter and as a producer, Tawgs is able to capture her music and put it into this world where he maintains the integrity of the song but makes it a lot larger. He was my dream producer and it took a while to get him but I didn't want to make this record without him."
The album's lead single, "Heartbreak Coverup," features Labelle's Wax Records label mate and Juno Award-nominated artist Alyssa Reid who also co-wrote the record's second single, "One Last Night," featuring Toronto rap rockers, Nixon.
"I've gotten really comfortable with the idea of family and bringing other people into my work," Labelle said. "I wanted to branch out [on this album] and have other artists work with me and spread the love."
Another way Labelle is spreading the love is by bringing his initiative The Big Picture Project, which aims to help teach others about how to reach their own charitable goals, back into the foreground now that his album has been completed.
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Describing the project, Labelle said, "It revolves around a school called Sirua Aulo in Kenya, which means "beautiful sunrise" in Swahili. I travelled there a couple of years ago and donated a bunch of instruments and started a music program in the school."
Labelle adds that for every copy of "Two" sold, one dollar will be donated to The Big Picture Project.
To learn more about The Big Picture Project head here and here, and check out "Heartbreak Coverup" featured below.
