Second album a step up for folk-pop artist

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This article was published 14/11/2019 (2178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The sophomore slump can be a real fear for musicians: a standout debut becomes the catalyst for a much-anticipated second release, the path to which is paved with self-doubt, pressure and a painful songwriting process.

But that’s only the case if an artist is concerned their first album will always be considered their best. Not so for Manitoba indie-folk-pop musician Micah Erenberg.

“I didn’t think my first record was very good in the first place,” jokes the soon-to-be 27-year-old over the phone from Iceland, where he is spending some time between tour legs.

Many folks would disagree with that assessment, however. Erenberg became a bit of a Winnipeg darling following the release of his solo debut, 2016’s Poor Mic’s Toe, his vintage-inspired pop hooks and quirky-yet-thoughtful lyrics exhibiting his skills as a writer and composer.

His new record, Love Is Gonna Find You, which dropped Oct. 4, follows a similar style, but feels both more emotionally delicate and more confident. The production is tighter and the stories are stronger as he discusses ideas of loneliness, human connection, love and the loss of it.

“There’s a little bit more knowledge or a little bit more… I’ll write a lyric and know it’s not good enough and that I’ll have to do it again, whereas before, or with some of the older songs, I might have just written them not thinking so much about that stuff,” Erenberg says.

“It was maybe even a bit more subconscious, which is not a bad thing at all, and in fact I’ve really sort of tried to go back to that point, kind of stripping away the knowledge that you’ve written so many other songs and you can say, ‘Oh, I’ve done that before and it didn’t work.’

“Those things get in the way, ultimately, because sometimes you don’t know if a song is good when you’re writing it… There’s definitely a change, but I’m also trying not to let the other ones influence the new ones or the ones I’m writing right now.”

That thematic through line wasn’t intentional, Erenberg says, but as he sifted through a collection of more than 80 demos, both old and new, he noticed the tracks he was drawn to the most all carried a similar lyrical tone to them.

“I think it was pretty natural, really. I didn’t conceptualize the idea, those were just the most meaningful songs for me at that moment,” Erenberg says. “At that point, those were the best songs that I had.”

Erenberg grew up (and is moving back to) Matlock, a “resort community” on the shores of Lake Winnipeg about 80 kilometres north of Winnipeg, and while he’s not yet ready to announce what his future plans are, he does reveal he’s already been working on another batch of new music. There’s no release date as of yet, but themes and sounds are starting to come together and it’s unlike anything he’s done in the past, he says.

“Whatever it’s going to be, it’s going to be different and more organic.”

Erenberg celebrates the release of Love Is Gonna Find You locally Thursday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., at the West End Cultural Centre; Saskatchewan’s Ellen Froese & the Hot Toddies and Winnipeg-based band Mise En Scene are also on the bill.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @NireRabel