Field Guide, the project of Dylan MacDonald, will release his self-titled album, on October 28th via Birthday Cake Records. Along with the news, the artist has shared the single and video for album track “Leave You Lonely.” Dylan explains of the song, “”Leave You Lonely is about devotion. It’s about fighting complacency. Having doubts is human, but swallowing those feelings can often lead us into a haze of disconnection. It’s rare to hold only one feeling at a time and I’ve been learning to embrace the myriad of emotions that come with being alive, and in love.”

“This video was made en route from Sierra Vista Arizona to San Diego California. Despite the fact that ‘Leave You Lonely’ was recorded during one of Manitoba’s coldest winters in decades, the desert seemed to have a place in the story of the song. The intense heat made us move slow. That lethargy paired with the choice of a slow frame rate made me feel as though I could move my body to the music without feeling as inhibited as I normally might. Filming this video felt a lot like listening back to a demo of a new song, or even mixes of the final recording — I’ll often wander around the house or outside on a walk feeling pleased to have accurately captured my interior world in song.

Melody is what makes words fall out of my mouth. It’s disarming. When I find a melody that represents my internal world, I drop my guard. I allow the words to appear out of thin air without judgement. A lot of these songs came to life that way. I wasn’t trying to make anything, but the songs became a home for words that I wasn’t yet ready to write on the page, ”MacDonald says.

The past few years haven’t allowed for much escape from our interior worlds. There’s been a lot to move through, and many things can be true at once. This album lives at the sometimes-tense intersection of those truths–loving someone dearly while being pulled toward something new, feeling joy in the melancholy, a gratitude for deep friendship and an uncertainty of one’s place in it.”

The album is also alive with the people and places that surrounded its creation. Vocals and acoustic guitars were recorded near Riding Mountain National Park in a woodstove-heated cabin during one of Manitoba’s coldest winters in years. Bass and drums were tracked at Breakglass Studios in Montreal, a room that already felt familiar from falling in love with the records of tour-mate Leif Vollebekk. Final overdubbing took place at Monarch Studios in Vancouver surrounded by trusted engineers and friends. And constant inspiration was found in his circle of Winnipeg creators working away on their own projects. Like The Big Pink house–Boy Golden, Slow Spirit, Roman Clarke, Kris Ulrich and others dropped in on each other to share demos and often lend their sounds to each other’s albums.

Pre order Field Guide by Field Guide HERE