Sam Hansell Talks New and Nostalgic Nighttime Album Inopia
Cover art of Sam Hansell’s album Inopia
At just 19 years old, Ontario-based Sam Hansell has released one of the most inventive indie rock debut albums of the year. Inopia — featuring 10 unique and carefully curated mood tracks — is only the beginning for Hansell and his ever-shifting music career.
When he was 13 or 14, Hansell began learning guitar with gateway rock bands such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd inspiring and guiding him. Though he doesn’t listen to those pioneers much anymore, Hansell still credits them as being fundamental to his musicianship. In the eighth grade, he started his first band, in the ninth, he started songwriting — and things quickly took off from there.
Image courtesy of @v.y.n.z on Instagram
For Hansell’s Inopia, rock bands Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and the Pixies served as huge musical inspirations. Considering the album’s nostalgic tone, it should come as a surprise to no one that the ‘70s, in particular, were huge decades that aided in the album’s development: “In the ‘70s, there was just such a [variety] of music popping up. You had disco and punk, the folk stuff and funk, and even [hip hop] technically starting right at the end of the ‘70s. So, I think that’s a very fascinating [decade],” says Hansell. While Inopia is a rock album at its core, the same versatility seen in the decade is exemplified in all of the tracks together. Some songs have more soothing, woodwind jazz elements, like “As The Moon Ran Free,” while others are slower-paced and lean more into the folk genre, such as “Trailing Arbutus.”
Hansell likes to classify projects based on what season and time of day they most represent. “Having a release in fall — in October, was quite intentional. I don’t think [Inopia] would work as an early spring album or summer album,” Hansell says. Considering Inopia’s darker, more moody atmosphere, the artist considers the album a nighttime album as opposed to daytime. The album cover further functions to evoke a spooky, seasonal vibe, as Hansell designed and created the art himself. For the longest time, he wasn’t sure how to approach it: whether he wanted a painting, drawing or photograph. Eventually, Hansell decided on a three-dimensional, collage-style piece. The backdrop of the sky is made up of rippings from magazines, the eyes in the center are his girlfriend Marzieh’s and bared open teeth frame the entire image. The imagery sets the tone for the gorgeous and unique storytelling about loss and yearning within the album.
The entire band for Inopia is a collection of great musicianship and energy, further exemplified in their live performances together. For Hansell’s album release show, Aidan Wiebe, who mixed and co-produced the album, played bass. Ricky Chee, a saxophonist featured on a few songs added a new, jazzy flavor to certain tracks. Fantastic friends, Cora and Jacob were on drums, guitar and keyboard and in tandem, they created a lively and heartfelt atmosphere in London, Ontario’s underground pub and music venue, Poacher’s Arms. In the future, more tantalizing shows are sure to come.
Inopia opens with “Can You Blame Me Charon?,” where a deceptively peaceful piano and viola lullaby build up, abruptly transitioning into an indie rock feel at the twenty-second mark. While there are many ways to begin an album effectively, Hansell finds that one of the most effective ways is with an energetic rock opening. The lyrics themselves work as opening lyricism as they seemingly address the audience: “Are you scared? Are you lonely? / Were you hoping for more?” What’s especially cool about the song is that the piano/viola intro music blends right in with the last track on the album Inopia. They’re something of a reverse bookends, perhaps a subtle homage to Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
“Josie Jones,” a tale about youthful escapism and quite literally “setting out on your own”, comes second on the album, and served as the lead single for Inopia. For Hansell and his team, its release was a quick turnaround. Being the first song needing to be finished, the track came out as a single two weeks prior to the album. This made for an intensive mixing and finalizing process, but all that hard work paid off. “It came with challenges, but figuring out [Josie Jones] meant we were able to figure out all of the other ones,” says Hansell. A personal favorite of mine, “Josie Jones” sounds like something straight out of an early 2000s rom com, like 10 Things I Hate About You or She’s All That.
Hansell is most proud of the nine-minute “Clerambault,” partly because of its ambitious length, and haunting, romantic and increasingly eerie content, but also the inclusion of strings. As the song goes on, an emotional response beckons to be evoked. For all these reasons “Clearambault” stand out amongst other tracks on the album. Hansell composed the string arrangement for the track himself, which was a new venture for him. “I come from a rock-band background where we just sort of noodle around and figure something out, but that’s not the same language the classical musicians at [my school, Western University] speak,” Hansell says. “If you put sheet music in front of them, they’ll be able to read it and play it very well — but they want that sheet music.” So, the artist took it upon himself to write out the arrangement. With a talented violinist, violist and cellist on his team, Hansell was able to create a cinematic, hard-hitting track that transitions flawlessly into the titular track, “Inopia.”
Image courtesy of @colson.jpg on Instagram
As an album, Inopia is so sonically diverse that there is certainly a song for almost everyone. No matter where you’re coming from in the world, there’s a way to connect with Hansell’s genius lyricism and production.