Found Light Laura Veirs

• 1 Autumn Song 03:38
• 2 Ring Song 03:12
• 3 Seaside Haiku 03:07
• 4 Naked Hymn 04:00
• 5 My Lantern 03:01
• 6 Signal 04:10
• 7 Can't Help But Sing 02:59
• 8 Eucalyptus 04:26
• 9 New Arms 02:58
• 10 Sword Song 02:54
• 11 Time Will Show You 04:07
• 12 T & O 02:19
• 13 Komorebi 02:20
• 14 Winter Windows 02:54
• Total Runtime 46:05

Info for Found Light

Laura Veirs today announces her new album, Found Light, out 8th July. While it’s technically the 12th studio album from the esteemed Portland, OR-based artist, it also, in many ways, feels like her debut: Found Light is her very first record with co-production credits (alongside Shahzad Ismaily),and finds Veirs embracing a self-sovereignty and artistic independence she’d never known previously. Lead single “Winter Windows”, replete with energetic, fuzzed-out guitars and driving percussion, is a showcase of this feminist liberation, and its playful video sees Veirs dancing to the beat of her own drum in her basement—a perfect mirroring of the cathartic experience found within the album. “I love how this video captures feelings of freedom and strength and weirdness, despite the lyrics in this song being quite heavy in places,” explains Veirs. “I hope this video conveys the confidence and sense of aliveness that I feel now as a solo woman in the world after a tough two and a half years of going through my divorce and the pandemic.”

The song, she says, is “very much about the strength of mothers and the power that women in cooperation have to shape their own lives and the lives of children. It’s about us taking the reins of life and sharing our internal light and power. I believe these rays of strength echo outward and foster love that is passed through the generations. It was fun to stretch my vocals on the high chorus near the end. This song gets at my punk roots but feels confident and current to my life right now.”

If 2020’s My Echo—written and mixed just prior to her 2019 split from her long-time husband, her long-time producer, and the father of her two sons—was Veirs’ divorce album, Found Light is about what comes after. The separation left her questioning her identity as an artist: had that part of her, which seemed intractably intertwined with her partner for so long, been swallowed in the split? Would she ever make music again? Historically, Veirs handled her song’s most fundamental elements — the writing and the singing — but she always left arrangement and production decisions to her partner, even down to the final tracklist. Though she co-owned a studio with him, she never led the charge in it, and she had never played guitar while singing on tape at the same time. Despite having put out a dozen albums, she wondered if she actually had the know-how to make one without him.

Absolutely and emphatically: Yes. Following a string of brief sessions (some with Death Cab for Cutie multi-instrumentalist Dave Depper, and some alone in her own home), she booked time at Portland’s Jackpot Studios, then called her old friend Ismaily and asked him to join. They clicked and opted to co-produce the album. Ismaily offered guidance and insight, but gave her space to make her own choices and invite her own guests, like Sam Amidon and Karl Blau. She finally sang while she played guitar, realizing perhaps for the first time she was actually great at something she’d done most of her life.

Veirs spent months doubting herself, doubting her ability to make an album without the aegis of her ex-partner. But after her divorce, she started writing, exercising, painting, playing, and seeing other people, both romantically and artistically. She was discovering new sides of herself, or even rediscovering ones she’d lost — in both cases, finding new light. Found Light is a provocative document of it all, from her paintings that adorn it to her tales of lovers and woes and realizations therein. Despite the sadness and suffering that prompted these 14 graceful wonders, they are ultimately a testament to the inspiration of independence, to shaping new possibilities for yourself even after great loss. Found Light is a reminder that we are always capable of something more.

Laura Veirs

Laura Veirs
A prolific songwriter for nearly twenty years, Laura Veirs proves the depth of her musical skill on her tenth solo album, 'The Lookout'. Here is a batch of inimitable, churning, exquisite folk-pop songs; a concept album about the fragility of precious things.

Produced by Grammy-nominated Tucker Martine, Veirs' longtime collaborator, 'The Lookout' is a soundtrack for turbulent times, full of allusions to protectors: the camper stoking a watch fire, a mother tending her children, a sailor in a crows nest and a lightning rod channeling energy.

"'The Lookout' is about the need to pay attention to the fleeting beauty of life and to not be complacent; it's about the importance of looking out for each other," says Veirs. "I'm addressing what's happening around me with the chaos of post-election America, the racial divides in our country, and a personal reckoning with the realities of midlife: I have friends who've died; I struggle with how to balance life as an artist with parenting young children."

Written and produced on the heels of Veirs' acclaimed album with Neko Case and kd Lang ('case/lang/veirs'), 'The Lookout' integrates the fluency of collaboration with Veirs' notorious work ethic. The twelve songs on the album are the result of a years' worth of daily writing in her attic studio in Portland, Ore.

"Twenty years ago when I was just starting out with my punk band, it never occurred to me to write five versions of a song," says Veirs.

"I've learned to see how malleable lyrics and melodies can be. I have more tools as a musician so I write many versions of songs until I find the right fit." Such range is demonstrated on the operatic vocals of 'The Meadow' and the intricate finger picking on 'Watch Fire.' 'The Lookout', the album's title track, is an ecstatic anthem to trusted relationships.

'The Lookout' draws on the talents of a time-tested crew of musicians: Karl Blau, Steve Moore, Eli Moore, Eyvind Kang and Martine.

Says Veirs, "These guys are a good hang, ego-free and wonderful players who just want to serve the songs." Sufjan Stevens and Jim James provide guest vocals.

For Martine, who fell, almost two decades ago, for Veirs' unique sound after listening to a tape cassette she'd sent him in the mail, this album reflects a bar that keeps getting raised. Both familiar and strange, 'The Lookout' gets better with repeated listens, warming to the skin like a cherished saddlebag, critical for the journey ahead.

This album contains no booklet.