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“This song is about change and the unknown,” reflects Jon Bryant. “Dostoevsky said ‘Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what we fear most’. And when it comes to our relationships, change is inevitable. We either evolve or die, grow or atrophy. Nothing stays the same and although it’s painful, letting go of the past - good and bad - is necessary to prepare us for what’s next. I think of this song as a relationship that leaves one universe for another”.
‘Lightspeed’ will join previous single releases, the soulful summertime groove of ‘Candied Tangerines’, and the effortlessly sultry serenade ‘Tied Up’, on the new EP which sees Bryant leaning into his funkier side.
Life was good when Jon Bryant got the inspiration for what was going to become his funky, soulful ‘Psychidyllic Salutations’ EP. It was early 2020, when bars and restaurants were still very much open—and Bryant, while visiting Los Angeles, had dropped by the historic Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel pool for a lazy Sunday lounge. But what started out as a solo mission for a margarita and a dip turned into a much more substantial social affair, as a larger group took Bryant into their party’s wing.
It wasn’t long after that experience that Bryant found himself back at home in Vancouver, with the world shutting down. The polar contrast of going from “being more alive than ever” to being stuck inside kept bringing him back to that perfect day in LA, which had eventually turned into a perfect night as well. So, Bryant decided to write music about it, following up his acclaimed 2019 LP Cult Classic, written in the aftermath of leaving the NXIVM cult, and the subsequent EPs, Half Bad and Back to Love.
Listening to it, you’d imagine Bryant wrote the tracks as they appear, flowing into one another, but the EP’s 6 songs were the laborious result of a self-applied challenge to write 50 songs in 50 days. In the end, he actually had more than 50 songs. He revisited the full batch with fresh ears, looking for the ones that gave him goosebumps. By the time he whittled it down to 6 tracks, he found the story of his wild 24 hours in LA looking back at him.
The end result is one of the most wide-ranging releases of Bryant’s career.
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