beatiful is an understatement  😎 😍 😘 🤩 😊 👌 🙏

Side A

Pull Me to Pieces

Twisted Attraction

How To Be Human

The Beautiful Victorious

Bravo!

Aftermath

Flowers On The Wall

To find oneself in a strange paradise means to explore the depth of feelings between wild abandon and poignant despair—you might call them peaks and valleys, or ups and downs, or ebb and flow. Another word for it? Love. 

On Strange Paradise, Halifax indie-folk upstart Braden Lam explores a relationship in its entirety, an independent redemption story that takes his lived experience and expands it into a fictional narrative that traces the early blush of infatuation to the hard-won moment of acceptance that it’s over. After multiple singles with Colin Buchanan, on this project Lam has added producers Daniel Ledwell and Joshua Van Tassel, and co-writers Adelle Elwood (aka Keeper E.), Blanche Israël (Jeremy Dutcher), and Jordan Coaker (of Quote the Raven) to the team. While too many cooks can make a record sound disjointed and wandering, here Lam pulls his collaborators into a cohesive album that keeps his lyrical prowess, honey vocals, and catchy melodies as its center, while nudging out toward the margins with lush arrangements and surprising darkness. Much like the record's theme, this approach strikes a unique balance between experimental naivete and the ever-familiar comfort sounds of Canadian folk and rock. 

At less than two minutes, “Offering” sets up the EP’s six-song arc with the proverbial meeting of two bodies. “Second Wind” considers how this could be a new start, Lam repeating “I’m ready / I’m ready” until it stretches his voice out high and furtive. “Don’t Let Go” covers the insecurity of not knowing where you stand with someone: “How many heart attacks,” he sings on the foot-stomping bridge, “do I need to fake?” The one-two punch of “White Dress”—contemplative and melancholy, as the narrator watches their love get married—and “Death Threat”—an encounter between the same two people who were no longer available (“and the way you grabbed my thigh/I knew hearts would get hurt that night”)—exhibit Lam’s maturation as a writer, revealing regret and jadedness that only come with the earned wisdom of time.

The album closes out with the gentle lullaby “Linen Sheets,” written and sung with his wife Faith over a plaintive pedal steel, as they drift off after an exhausting day, preparing to start all over again the next. With Strange Paradise, Braden Lam has written, performed, and released three EPs, including Inside Four Walls (2020), and Driftwood People (2018), using each as an exploration of his voice and sound, honing in on his musical identity, working toward a full-length debut. He’s been nominated for multiple East Coast Music and Music Nova Scotia Awards, endorsed by RBCxMusic and Harmony Guitars, and awarded a SOCAN Foundation Award for Young Canadian Songwriters. Lam has showcased and toured around the world including at FOCUS Wales and Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival, in Ireland and across Canada. After his Strange Paradise release shows in April, he’ll showcase at the ECMAs, The Great Escape festival in England, and tour Europe with Pillow Fite.

second wind

Man Overboard

Oh night is young
The moon is shining on your pale face
Our freedom's full of all the winds caught in our sail

In the night my lips are sealed
I want your body coming in close to me
I wanna be caught in the moment

Hear my silence and trust your instincts
I wanna to feel your lips like ecstasy
I wanna be your reason to stay

I want your day
I've been lifted from the ground up
So filled with time
There’s no stress when you’re around

In the night my lips are sealed
I want your body coming in close to me
I wanna be caught in the moment

I can hear your silence echoing
I can feel that your rhythm is from the sea
Let me catch you in the moment

You told me why
After rain you’re chasing sunshine
And I’m not shy
If you let me I’ll be there

In the night my lips are sealed
I want your body coming in close to me
I wanna be caught in the moment

I wanna be your reason to stay tonight
I wanna have you in my arms all night
Let us stay here in this moment

Night and Day

Cerulean

In Light of My Absence

Stream/download: https://ffm.to/bl-smoking-gun Canadian indie-folk songwriter and CBC Music “artist to watch” Braden Lam of Halifax, Nova Scotia announces a new single Smoking Gun feat. Mia Kelly available on all streaming platforms Wednesday August 30th. The song, co-written with Gabrielle Papillon, features Mia Kelly on vocals - an emerging singer-songwriter from Gatineau, Quebec with “a knockout voice” (Ottawa Citizen). Braden and Mia met via mutual friends in the Canadian folk family and quickly bonded over their shared influences in folk, rock, and blues music. Smoking Gun is a love song for the wallflowers - an evocative story of shy love, the kind that simmers in friendship before boiling over with passion. The pair are celebrating the release of their single with the YOU & I TOUR in house concerts, speakeasy clubs, and breweries across Western and Central Canada this September.

Written by Braden Lam and Gabrielle Papillon
Performed by Braden Lam and Mia Kelly
Produced/Engineered by Braden Lam and Daniel Ledwell
Mixed by Daniel Ledwell
Mastered by Parachute Mastering
Titles by Paul Atwood

Smoking Gun feat. Mia Kelly

Caledonia on my mind

Contact: contactfreyrflodgren@gmail.com

New album NIGHT & DAY is out now. Stream on Soundcloud or here:
https://freyr.ffm.to/nightanddayalbum

Night and Day

FREYR

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