This Friday Canadian songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist Mitch Davis will release his debut album The Haunt, on Arbutus Records. Before then he is dropping a final single from the album titled “Left Inside” a slower, smoother number that shows an even more depth to Mitch’s music. 

Davis is a mainstay of the vibrant Montréal music scene, with a musical background encompassing everything from rock bands (Faith Healer) to avant-garde (Elle Barbara’s Black Space) to jazz and hip-hop (Cadence Weapon). The Haunt is a synthesis of his many musical interests, stretching back to his childhood when he played drums in the church band and saxophone in his school band (he plays both on The Haunt.) 

Davis blends jazz, funk, sunshine pop, rock, and a host of surprising sonic easter eggs into a record so seamlessly integrated it often feels like a full band effort. Many of the songs were inspired by Davis’s experiences trying to online date in the midst of the pandemic, with curfews and lockdowns adding even more complications to an already lonely endeavor.

The Haunt is a breezy, upbeat listen, very much in tune with the spirit of 70s pop that Davis loves for the way it strikes a balance between complexity and brevity. These are composed, layered songs made with care, but also made to make you smile. Not only fun for the listener, The Haunt sounds like it was fun to make—and it was. ”As soon as I start working on something, I don’t get tired. I can’t,” says Davis. “It’s like I get drunk on the music or something.” Yet the record is also very personal, pondering over the ways memories, both good and bad, can continue to linger long after the people and things that inspired them have disappeared into the ether—thus the title of The Haunt.

Photo Courtesy: Richmond Lam