Bernice have announced their new album Cruisin‘ will arrive on April 23rd on Telephone Explosion, they recently shared the album’s lead single “Underneath My Toe.”

The origins of Cruisin’ began in Spring, 2021 during a writing retreat at a family farm in Bond Head, Ontario. Members of the band luxuriated in slow time, tinkering with lyrics and melodies, sharing meals, knitting. From this communal gathering, the concept of “dedication” emerged as a guiding theme. Specifically, developing songs in an almost epistolary form; as love letters or check-ins for friends, community members, pets and other more elusive acquaintances (a longtime working title for the project was “Songs For People”).

“Underneath My Toe”, was one of the first pieces developed under this theme, and finds the group at their most graceful and direct. Beginning with songwriter/vocalist Robin Dann singing simply ‘Hi / I miss you all the time’, the composition proceeds to shift subtly between soft jazz balladry and low-bit funk, revelling in the intimate beauty of a long-time-no-see letter to a dear old friend. It’s a neat encapsulation of the magic of Bernice in this more intimate mode. The rec room funk of Mario Kart 64 bent in a rich expression of emotion.

Dann says of the song:

“We were really missing our friend Devon Sproule. We were missing a lot of friends back when we wrote this album. Thom and I sat down and asked ourselves what we wanted to say to her, what does any friend want to say to their pal who’s far away? Toe became the balm for the missing feeling, and when we shared it with her, she (as usual) distilled the feeling perfectly, saying “It feels like two important things smooshed together: how complicated it feels to be a person, and to live with other people, in a house or a city…and then how simple love can feel, like love from an animal friend, or how it feels to be connected to the Earth.”

Bernice
Cruisin‘
Track List
Telephone Explosion

1. Entrance Music
2. Second Judy
3. Underneath My Toe
4. Little Miss Timme (feat. Panteen)
5. Barbara, It’s Your Tree
6. Begin Again
7. Always a Lover
8. To Live On Carrots
9. I Am Brave
10. Dog Needs Love
11. Yoohoo
12. Are You Breathing
13. No Effort To Exist
14. Little Guy
15. 7

Pre-order Cruisin’ by Bernice HERE