Jessye DeSilva with Brody Bond

Jessye DeSilva’s (they/them) version of the Jersey Devil has nothing to do with folklore. 

Unfold the map that is their latest album Landscapes and you’ll learn the devil is in the details of their sincere piano serenades, modeled after the sweeping ‘70s folk rock DeSilva was weaned on. But before that, the so-called devil was in a vilified queer child, hiding in a room and pouring out their tears over a broken piano. 

The new album from the Boston musician recalls the trauma of growing up queer in a Baptist household on “Devil in New Jersey” with a vulnerable appoach; it mimics the tunes their family bonded over while cleaning the house on weekends, effectively mixing the good and bad kind of formative childhood memories. 

That’s just what DeSilva does on Landscapes: they reconcile, and with remarkable grace. The new LP forges a path through the triumphant and trembling moments from DeSilva’s upbringing, using a live band to channel the fresh sound of classic records from Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and Jackson Browne.

“I’ve done a lot of healing this year in terms of my childhood and the interwoven dynamics of my family and how that has affected who I am and how I move through the world today,” DeSilva reflects. “I think that in many ways — maybe not totally consciously – those early musical influences from my parents showed up in the writing, arranging, and recording of this album.”

DeSilva traces their musical tenderness back to childhood piano lessons and years spent singing in their father’s Baptist church. In college, their vocal training as a countertenor honed their hearty vocals not just for their solo career, but for their career as an Assistant Professor of Voice at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music. 

After being named one of American Songwriter’s “10 LGBTQ+ Artists You Should Know” in 2021, DeSilva eagerly showcases the diversity of their life’s Landscapes on April 12, 2022, preceded by singles “Siren Song” and “Hibernate.” The Matt Malikowski-produced record reaches outwards from their inner world, inviting listeners to journey with them through 10 tracks’ worth of breathtaking peaks and challenging valleys. 

Following two years of pandemic-related introspection, it’s an invitation DeSilva deeply hopes you accept.  

“I think that during a time in which so many of us have been stuck inside, often alone in small spaces, we’ve begun to trek through our inner landscapes,” they add. “Then the past year in particular for me was about going back ‘out into the world,’ and relearning how I’m able to ground myself in that larger space, and how space and season and landscape impacts my relationships with others.”

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There is an ancient Japanese art called “Kintsugi” where broken teaware is mended by applying lacquer mixed with gold. The newly re-bonded fragments embody the idea of “beauty through brokenness.” The cracks are highlighted, not hidden, and the newly restored piece is considered even more beautiful and valuable than the original teaware. The art, the mending, and the healing represent rebirth.

Baltimore, Maryland-based singer-songwriter Brody Bond’s The Mo(µ)rning EPs tell this type of rebirth story. The resulting concept album, comprised of two conjoined EPs — the darker themed Mourning and the uplifting Morning — are about encountering the disordering and reordering of our lives. Joy comes in the morning, as the saying goes, but the discovery of this project is that joy also comes in the mourning. The album will be preceded by the single Before Love’s Arrival.

“When things you love turn out not to be what you thought they were, it’s heartbreaking. But it’s also disorienting, and that’s the terrifying part,” Brody shares. “But I’m learning that this type of pain might also serve to save any of us from what we thought was our salvation. If disillusionment is getting rid of illusions about reality, then it’s actually a gift, even though it’s a sadness.”

This 12-track body of work wasn’t informed by any preconceived or self-conscious influences. The Mo(µ)rning EPs record represents art by means of necessity. “In writing these songs, I wasn’t making a statement with regard to music styles. I was just trying to capture the ether around me, and put that into a language that was helpful for me, and will hopefully be helpful to others,” Brody confesses. The songs are emotive pop-rock with enlightened lyrics, dreamy ambient textures, purposeful grooves, folk-pop intimacy, and jazzy and modern soul flourishes. The Mo(µ)rning EPs project is produced by Jeremy Casella (Indelible Grace, Tennessee to Love Campaign) at different Nashville recording studios, including the iconic Sound Emporium, and the recordings features a cast of A-List players who collective resume includes working with Kacey Musgraves, U2, Norah Jones, Kelly Clarkson, and Alison Krauss and Union Station.

The project also wasn’t informed by any strategic career goals. Brody has been making music since he was a kid. But in 2019, he found himself writing songs unexpectedly. While the songs came at a challenging time of self-growth, Brody found they were broadly resonant. At intimate house shows, opening up for a nationally-known act, and through an exclusive crowd-funding campaign, Brody discovered these songs mattered to others, as many people sang along and cried along to songs they had just heard.

The Mo(µ)rning EPs release is divided into two distinct halves, The Mourning, a path of descent and disorientation, and The Morning, the way out of the darkness through faith, change, and acceptance. The opening track “Original Invisible” is a gorgeous dose of dreamy acoustic pop lavished with ethereal synthetic textures. The courageously confessional “My Fantasy” balances pop-folk with a jazzy chordal sensibility. The project’s transition song, “What's In The Way Is The Way,” cross-fades into “Anchor To The Wind”—both are in the same key, and this represents the bridge from mourning to morning. The transition here recalibrates the listener to embrace Morning, the EP and feeling. The tracks in this suite shine with the light of rebirth. “Anchor To The Wind” is soaring folk-pop; “Fly With You” is elegantly essential singer-songwriter pop; and the song cycle concludes gloriously, with the stately “To Let The Love In.”