While we’re all at home feeling gratitude for the technological advances that have allowed us to stay in close contact with friends and family during social isolation, it’s easy to forget how much we’ve grown to rely on phones and computers for so much of our personal experiences and memories. Sometimes it takes a busted laptop or lost phone to have this realization—as was the case with Woodson Black, the songwriter set to release his debut record as Haux later this summer.
Thinking back on a voicemail from his late aunt—one of the last messages he ever received from her before she passed away—Black was inspired to write his latest single from Violence in a Quiet Mind, an impressively gentle acoustic ballad matching the cabin fever of early Bon Iver and the baroque acoustics of Fleet Foxes.
“I wrote ‘Calico’ in a kind of daze one day last March,” he shares of the new track. “I lost my phone when I was writing the album and had forgotten to back up my voicemails, including one from my aunt calling to say happy birthday. It was one of the last times I heard from her before she died from an overdose. Losing it felt like I somehow lost my last connection to her, which triggered a very strange and confused grieving process for me. From this I wrote ‘Calico,’ and I couldn’t help but feel like this song was maybe my last time with her—like the song itself was my aunt’s final resting place in my mind.”
You can stream the song below, and note the new release date for Violence, which is now set to drop July 17 via Color Study. You can pre-order it here.
