Ontario songwriter Nick Ferrio has been recording songs under his own name since 2012, when debut Nick Ferrio & His Feelings (Shuffling Feet Records) introduced his folk/country-inspired sound. A number of records followed, each honing his craft, pushing the boundaries of folk out into various forms of rock and pop. The result is a style both intensely personal and familiar too, warm and welcoming and rooted in the classics of the genre.
This summer sees Nick Ferrio return with brand new record, Television of Roses, and the style is more apparent than ever. Intended as a document of fatherhood for his son, the record draws upon a whole host of experiences and relationships unique to Ferrio in order to get closer to what it means to love and be loved. “Being a parent has made my focus more intense,” he explains. “Thinking of life through the metaphor of a camera, the aperture has been adjusted and what is important is now much more clear. Music and family are the subject and everything else is just noise in the background.”
The album is also something of a who’s who of Candian indie music. Recorded at the rural Port William Sound studio of Jonas Bonnetta (Evening Hymns), Television of Roses sees Caylie Runciman (Boyhood), Evangeline Gentle, Lewis Parker (For Esmé), Nathan Truax (Said the Whale) and Tanner Paré (Heaps/The Kents) all help Ferrio craft the rich sound, with mixing from Gavin Gardiner (The Wooden Sky) and mastering by Philip Shaw Bova (Bahamas). Anyone familiar with the work of Bonnetta and Gardiner will recognise the depth underpinning the sound, and how it serves to ground the immediacy of the emotions with a semblance of distance and reflection.
Nowhere is this clearer than on lead single, ‘The Dam’. Pitched in the tension between fond nostalgia and life’s harsh truths, the track inverts the theme of parenthood to explore Ferrio’s relationship with his mother. There’s affection in the rhythm and energy, but recollections break the rose-tinted glow. “My mother wrote a letter to me a few years ago, asking me if I remember her before her struggles with addiction began,” Ferrio explains. “This song is a response to that letter. It explores those early years of my life, the poverty we experienced, but also my mother’s resilience and strength.”
The track pulls no punches, in the small memories of hurt and suffering, the brittle promises repeated unto truth. But the Nick Ferrio sound is capable of exploring such complexity without getting lost within it. Instead, it soars above with empathy and solidarity, capable of holding the most difficult relationships at arms length and recognising the human struggle within. “We were estranged from each other at times in our lives,” Ferrio continues, “and she passed away a year ago after being diagnosed with leukaemia. But, I played it for her before she passed and we made amends.”
Check out the video directed by Tanner Paré below:
Television of Roses is out on the 18th June and you can pre-order it now via the Nick Ferrio Bandcamp page.