Portland, Oregon – June 27th, 2023 – It’s no small feat to develop a relationship with one of your songwriting heroes. It’s another to obtain their blessing on a cover song of theirs you’ll be releasing. Such is the case with Portland/New Zealand indie folk singer-songwriter Brandon De La Cruz.
De La Cruz’s upcoming single, “I Love You Babe,” – which is set to release July 14th – is a deep cut from highly-heralded cult-favorite folk songwriter Michael Hurley. The track embodies both gravity and tenderness, and the quiet, distant picking that opens the track creates a meditative, steady rhythm for the singer’s honey-steeped voice to float over. The bridges are colored by doo-wop style “la-la’s” that provide the perfect counterbalance to a minimal, spacious arrangement. “I Love You Babe” is pristinely sculpted, with light and shadow supporting and revealing each other in the interplay of its parts.
Hurley himself had this to say about De La Cruz’s cover of his song:
“That song of mine [“I Love You Babe”] he did was recorded at one of the sessions for the second Folkways album I was supposed to record, but I never finished it due to a move to Boston from Bucks County, and when I came back to New York some months later, the Folkways office had been closed. I had no knowledge of what to do then but get back on the train to Cambridge… I couldn’t see how anybody could like [the song], but Brandon De La Cruz brings it into a new day, don’t he? It sounds like new music to me.”
All of De La Cruz’s tracks on his upcoming album, Two Kilos of Blue, may be considered a reflection of his tenure as a staffer at Mississippi Records in Portland, Oregon, which is where his bond with Hurley bloomed. Samples of folk and country blues recordings issued from the early 20th century by Mississippi are used in De La Cruz’s upcoming album to subtly layer and build to his unique arrangements. “I Love You Babe” is the one conspicuously sample-free track.
“When I was in Portland, I started working at this cafe called Sweedeedee, which is named after one of his songs, which was in the same building as Mississippi Records, which is a label that put out a lot of his music. I started working at the cafe without much knowledge of him, and I worked there for 4-5 years, and he’d come in a couple times a month. After getting to know him a bit, his records slowly grew on me. Eventually I worked at the label in the store room and got to know him even more. And when I first heard [“I Love You Babe”], I just knew I loved it. It’s so little known, and I love the way it feels when I sing it. You know how there’s certain songs, you can’t really explain why, but they make you feel so good to sing like in your body? That one hit me in that way.”
“I Love You Babe” follows De La Cruz’s first single, “Disguise,” which came out June 2nd. Accompanying the upcoming release of “I Love You Babe” is an intimate performance video of the song De La Cruz just put out.
Brandon De La Cruz is a folk artist whose lyricism is uniquely shaped by his interest in mythology, ceremony and RH Blyth’s translations of Japanese haiku. He grew up in the suburbs of Southern California’s Inland Empire and has lived and performed regularly in Portland, Oregon, Berkeley, California, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). While living in Los Angeles, he religiously attended Jon Brion’s weekly improvised performances at Largo. In Portland, he worked at Mississippi Records and collaborated with filmmaker Vanessa Renwick. His last three records were inspired by the works of Rainer Maria Rilke, Joan Didion and Ovid, while his upcoming album, Two Kilos of Blue, draws from the images and experiences of his own life from the past decade.
The upcoming record is linked thematically by love, loss, spirits, seasons, shades of blue and the moon. Painstakingly recorded and arranged over two years at the artist’s studio in Kirikiriroa, New Zealand, from March to September 2021, each track is a balancing act of consideration and spontaneity. Simultaneous unfolding layers of voices, samples and guitars reveal a narrative steeped in longing and mystery. Many of the songs directly invoke ‘Blue’, while others imply it through their atmosphere. Notable tracks include ‘I Love You Babe,’ and ‘Disguise,’ a meditative, psychedelic reverie propelled along by a pitched sample of Big Boy Cleveland’s ‘Quill Blues.’ The title of the album refers to a saying of Cezanne’s: “Two kilos of blue is a lot bluer than one,” which in reference to these songs could speak to the layering of shades and moods in each voice, in each song – compounding to create a dark, plumbless opus.
De La Cruz is scheduled to be featured on Radio New Zealand’s (RNZ) program ’Bookmarks’ today June 27th to promote the new single and upcoming album.
“I Love You Babe” is slated for release July 14th.
For More On Brandon De La Cruz: Spotify || Bandcamp || YouTube
