Haken vocalist Ross Jennings is now streaming his chill new single "Catcher In The Rye." Jennings compares the song to something potentially written by Harry Nilsson or Elbow, both of which are dead-on (and are intriguing comparisons).
"'Catcher in the Rye' is probably my favourite piece on the album for a number of reasons," said Jennings.
"It came to me as I was making final decisions on which songs to put on the album and which order etc… and as if something tapped me on the shoulder as if to say 'you're album isn't done' another song just came to me. It's an all too familiar tale of the songs that take 15 minutes to write… this was one of those!
"Musically 'Catcher In the Rye' is somewhat of a cross between 'Everybody's Talkin' by Harry Nilsson and Elbow's 'Sad Captains', most evident in the inclusion of a brass solo performed by Norwegians 'Blasemafian'. Vikram Shankar performed my Piano ideas deliciously adding some Bruce Springsteen-esque influence to the choruses too. I'm more than proud to wear those influences on my sleeve here.
"The lyrics aren't based on the famous novel J.D Salinger, but the song does share its title because it was the last book a late friend of mine lent to me before sadly passing away. The lyrics are about how much I miss him, touching on some memories we had and the ones we never made. I deeply feel like this song was his gift to me from the great beyond which is why it's such a special one for me.
"After several unfortunate cancellations and schedule clashes with various film-makers, in the end I was forced to get creative and shoot the video myself. Despite not being the initial vision for the video, this ended up being a far more fitting visual companion than what I had in my head. I fortunately have some film-making experience but most importantly I had the last minute help of Kyros' Shelby Logan Warne to edit my footage, and she absolutely amazingly brought it all to life. Amidst the stress of deadlines, sometimes you just have to have faith and trust that things will work out for the best."
The single is off Jennings' coming solo album A Shadow Of My Future Self featuring Jennings on vocals and guitar, Nathan Navarro (Devin Townsend) on bass, Vikram Shankar (Redemption, Lux Terminus, Silent Skies) on keyboards, and Simen Sandnes (Arkentype) on drums. Pre-orders for A Shadow Of My Future Self are available here.
