elkyn has announced his debut album ‘holy spirit social club’ and shared its lead single ‘everything looks darker now’ which is out today.
To accompany the announcement, elkyn is also sharing details of a co-headline tour with ST Manville which kicks off next March.
Set for release via Curation Records on 18th March 2022, ‘holy spirit social club’ sees elkyn aka Joey Donnelly put his uncensored inner dialogue on paper, bravely airing the thoughts most wouldn’t dare expose. Whether that’s hurtful messages to one’s self, vague and elusive memories or lingering lessons from childhood, it’s all here on ‘holy spirit social club’, unfiltered and searingly honest.
This sincerity is matched in the music. While the arrangements on ‘holy spirit social club’ are far more expansive than those heard on 2020 EP ‘beech’, tender finger picks and elkyn’s distinctive half-whisper still remain at its heart. Though the pain is palpable, its impact – as you’ll hear on new single ‘everything looks darker now’ – is meditative, enveloping the listener in a safe haven where you feel free to acknowledge the darker parts of yourself.
Speaking about the single, Donnelly said: “This is about a rainy gig I played in Manchester. I invited someone and didn’t expect them to show up and when they did I shied away from them for most of it. We had a big catch up over a cigarette outside but when I left I realised how much I missed them”.
Rainy regret-tinged evenings, like this one, dominate ‘holy spirit social club’. ‘last night’ concerns the final night he spent with a friend, considering the ensuing loneliness that awaits. While ‘change’ finds him on the streets of Yorkshire, revisiting his family home and wondering whether he had fulfilled his father’s desire for him to ‘become a man’ – a sore point that resurfaces again and again on ‘holy spirit social club’.
This unflinching honesty has seen elkyn become a streaming success in recent months, with the one-off singles that followed ‘beech’ making it on to a number of Spotify editorial playlists. After a lockdown spent demoing, he entered Nave Studios with Producer Mark Gustafson, creating more complete songs than ever before. The process was so cathartic for Donnelly that he went on to name the album after the social club that once existed in the basement below the aforementioned studio.
Whilst elkyn isn’t exactly kind to himself on ‘holy spirit social club’, it does see him lift a monumental weight from his shoulders. In elkyn’s words, it’s “an interim into writing nicer songs and being nicer to myself”. In creating ‘holy spirit social club’, he has faced demons that he’s shied away from for too long, finding a way back to himself that previously felt impossible. It’s only by sitting with your darkest moments that you can begin to glimpse the light – ‘holy spirit social club’ is proof of that and a whole lot more.
Live dates:
24/11/21 Fulford Arms York
27/11/21 The Snugg Coffee House Atherton
28/11/21 Oporto Leeds
12/12/21 Delicious Clam Sheffield
18/03/22 Hyde Park Book Club Leeds
19/03/22 Fulford Arms York
20/03/22 The Castle Manchester
24/03/22 Scale Liverpool
25/03/22 JT Soar Nottingham
26/03/22 The Flapper Birmingham
27/03/22 Duffy’s Leicester
29/03/22 Strongrooms London
30/03/22 Folklore Rooms Brighton
01/04/22 Clifton Community Bookshop
02/04/22 Tiny Rebel Cardiff
