Leif Vollebekk, will release his new full-length New Ways on November 1st via Secret City Records. Along with the album announcement, Vollebekk has dropped the first single “Hot Tears,” which is now available to stream. Vollebekk, will take New Ways, on the road with him, including shows in Los Angeles and London.

“I often think of Leonard Cohen’s line, ‘I hope you’re keeping some kind of record,’” he says. “So I did.” It was like he was pretending you can compose a soundtrack to your own life (which perhaps you can). Whereas Twin Solitude was about self-reflection, New Ways is about engaging and changing, touching and being touched. It’s a physical record, with louder and tighter grooves, and the rawest lyrics the musician has ever recorded. A portrait of beauty, desire, longing, risk, remembrance—without an instant of regret.

“Anything that I wouldn’t ever want to tell anyone—I just put it on the record,” Vollebekk says: tenderness and violence, sex and rebirth, Plato and Julie Delpy. A story told through details—“the sun through my eyelids,” “a sign on the highway covered in rain.” There’s the heat of the night and the cool blue of morning, hints of Prince and Bill Withers. ”That last record I made for me,” Vollebekk admits. “This one is for somebody else.”

“Hot Tears” is a song that was written when my senses were much more focused and I saw colours much more vividly. The sky often looked like it could have easily been pulled from scenes of [Terrence Malick’s] The Tree of Life. It was the last song I wrote for the record. It was all recorded live: vocals, drums and piano. I wanted this song to sound as hot and rough as possible and make the lyrics fight their way through. The video, beautifully directed by long-time friend and collaborator Kaveh Nabatian, was Leif’s idea : For months I had been imagining a video with golden light pouring out behind a silhouette when the minor chord hit. Kaveh introduced me to Axelle Munezero : she moved the way I heard the music. Needless to say, when I saw Axelle’s choreography for the first time, I was blown away.

New Ways was recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and Studio Breakglass in Montreal, it features Olivier Fairfield (Timber Timbre) and Homer Steinweiss (The Dap-Kings, Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson) on drums, and additional vocal by Angie McMahon. It was mixed by Chris Allen in NYC (Yoko Ono, Fleet Foxes, Sigur Rós, Margaret Glaspy) and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound (David Byrne, The War On Drugs, Gregory Alan Isakov, Tame Impala, Father John Misty, Bob Dylan, Patrick Watson).

Leif Vollebekk
New Ways
Track List

1. The Way That You Feel
2. Never Be Back
3. Hot Tears
4. Transatlantic Flight
5. Phaedrus
6. Blood Brother
7. Change
8. I’m Not Your Lover
9. Wait a While
10. Apalachee Plain

Leif Vollebekk
Live Dates

09/11 Los Angeles, CA @ Morrocan Lounge
11/06 Bristol, UK @ SWX *
11/07 London, UK @ Electric Brixton *
11/08 Glasgow, UK @ The Garage *
11/09 Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz *
11/12 Groningen, Netherlands @ Lutherse Kerk
11/13 Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso *
11/16 Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall *
11/17 Hamburg, DE @ Markthalle *
11/19 Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg *
11/21 Munich, DE @ Technikum *
11/22 Vienna, AU @ Arena *
11/23 Zurich, CH @ X-Tra *
11/24 Stans, Switzerland @ Chäslager
11/26 Paris, FR @ Le Trianon *
11/27 Brussels, BE @ AB *
11/29 Montreal, QC @ Le National (Album Launch)

*Supporting Half Moon Run