New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Adventurous folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist JEREMY SQUIRES will release his 11th full-length album UNRAVEL on July 30 via Blackbird Record Label. It was written following the loss of his grandmother (who raised him) and two tracks were recorded in her home as a way of saying goodbye, making this his most intimate and personal material to date. UNRAVEL's 10 tracks merge distinctive songcraft with deeply felt vocals and musical performances that aim for the head and the heart.
SQUIRES has shared its haunting and evocative debut single "Only In My Dreams"—released across digital platforms last Friday, May 21-with a music video that provides an introspective look at SQUIRES' daily life filmed at various locations around his hometown of rural North Carolina. Stream "Only In My Dreams" here: https://smithmusic.ffm.to/jeremysquires_onlyinmydreams
"'Only In My Dreams' is an escape from reality but at the same time is a recollection of a specific moment in my life that I tried to portray in vivid detail," SQUIRES says. "I wanted to bring the listener into that moment and share how different feelings can manifest and I wanted to expand on that."
""I do a lot of driving through rural North Carolina," he explains. "I always have my cameras and my phone on me and I get inspired by colors, country scenery, textures, the water, the sky, etc. The imagery in this video is of places that I frequent in my hometown, in surrounding counties and in my own backyard. I wanted to capture the dreamlike aspect of these beautiful places and I feel that it flowed with the song."
Music and family has always been central to SQUIRES' story from the start. When he was 11, his grandmother bought him an acoustic guitar in an antique store. He played and toured with punk bands as a young adult, until his son was born in 2001. His songwriting began to blossom-as heard on his first two albums originally released in 2012 (A Place to Hide and In the Dark) which he remastered and released during the pandemic. His music reflects his experiences of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD and the trauma he's endured throughout his life including losing his mother to opioid addiction and passing on his mental health issues to his son.
"My granny was the foundation of our family, and because my mom, my dad and my grandparents have all passed away, she was the last thing I had really," reveals SQUIRES. "When she passed away, I felt like things were unraveling, but unraveling isn't just a negative thing. It could be something unraveling into something beautiful, like a different story is about to start, or another chapter. For me I felt like things were going to fall apart, and then everything was OK in the end."
On UNRAVEL, SQUIRES experiments with new instruments—writing his first ever song on bass—and influences by building tracks with friends such as Erin Tate (ex-Minus The Bear) while somehow maintaining to effortlessly weave each track into a cohesive statement. "When I listened back to this album, it seems like you can really see and feel what I was talking or singing about…it's like a story," he shares. "Lyrically it seems more in-depth. There's something about this album that is more dreamy. I can see where it's definitely different than anything that I've released."
UNRAVEL Track Listing:
1. My Last Song
2. Fade
3. Only In My Dreams
4. Aurora
5. Unravel
6.
Dream Walking
7. Burst
8. Crosses
9. Diminish
10. Borderline