Er komt een mooie tijd aan voor Lewis OfMan. Naast zijn Noord-Amerika tour kondigt de Franse zanger vandaag zijn album Cristal Medium Blue aan en brengt hij direct een nieuwe single uit genaamd Hey Lou.

De muzikaliteit van de Fransman komt absoluut niet uit de lucht vallen. Op 11-jarige leeftijd kwam OfMan namelijk al in aanraking met muzikale compositie via Garageband. Vanaf dat moment is de artiest altijd aangetrokken geweest tot vreugdevolle muziek. Het soort muziek dat je in de verte hoort klinken als de zon begint te zakken.

Op Hey Lou gaat de jonge artiest in speels duet met de Parijse zangeres Camille Jansen. In het nummer wordt het leven onderweg bezongen op de muziek van schuifelende percussie, sologitaren, een arpeggiosynthesizer en een ritmemachine. Lewis zegt hierover: “I wrote this song in Greece, pretty much at the same time I was working on ‘Highway’. The arpeggio synth and rhythm machine come from messing around with this Yamaha PS30 I had. The lyrics are really personal. It’s a song to coach yourself when you’re down, and tell yourself it’s all good”.

OfMan’s Cristal Medium Blue zal in in februari 2024 verschijnen. Op het nieuwe album vermengen akoestische en elektrische gitaren zich met luchtige zang. De plaat is in stijl ver verwijderd van zijn debuut album Sonic Poems, wat barst van de synthesizers. Het nieuwe album bestaat namelijk uit een reeks cruciale persoonlijke ervaringen uit zijn leven wat zich uit in een alternatieve indie-pop plaat. 

Hieronder het originele Engelstalige persbericht.

Lewis OfMan announces upcoming album and North American Tour with joyful new single ‘Hey Lou’ ft Camille Jansen

With a full album and a North America tour on the horizon, Lewis OfMan is back with his upbeat new single ‘Hey Lou’ alongside Parisian singer Camille Jansen, out on November 17th.

The track will appear on Cristal Medium Blue, Lewis’ transformative LP and follow up to his debut album Sonic Poems released in February last year.

‘Hey Lou’ is a fitting way to announce the upcoming LP, with the young star crafting a playful duet with Camille Jansen out of an irresistible arpeggiated synth riff. Lyrically exploring the self-reflective themes of life on the road, the multi-instrumentalist conjures up a joyful and life-affirming blend of shuffling percussion, solo guitars, nostalgic keys and sunny harmonies.

“I wrote this song in Greece, pretty much at the same time I was working on ‘Highway’. The arpeggio synth and rhythm machine come from messing around with this Yamaha PS30 I had” Lewis says. “Then I found this voice melody. I was thinking about Leonard Cohen’s ‘Death of a Ladies’ Man’ album, as well as ‘So Long Marianne’ – hence the choir sample.” About the song’s themes, Lewis says: “The lyrics are really personal. It’s a song to coach yourself when you’re down, and tell yourself it’s all good”.

Reflecting on working with Lewis again, Camille says “we met when I was making my EP ‘Louise’ back in 2019 in Eagle Rock and fast forward to 4 years later we found ourselves once again in the same city but this time he asked me if I’d like to sing on his new song ‘Hey Lou’. I feel that we’ve always had a good balance collaborating together and this song was one of those natural moments where our ideas and inspirations all coincided and flowed with ease in that one day in the studio. We came up with some new melodies and how I could compliment his ideas.”

She adds, “the music video we shot had also quite a personal and DIY touch to it as we drove two hours outside of LA, meeting our friend Pierre to shoot us in the super bloom fields. No plan to the shots were made, just creating little moments that could tell a version of the story behind his lyrics. I’m very excited for the world to hear this one!” The accompanying music video that premiered earlier today was shot by Pierre Auroux in the California Poppy Fields, it features Lewis wandering through sparse country, guitar in hand and Camille in tow. The visual’s blissed-out, nomadic feel ties into his recent documentary about life on the road, which was shot during his North American tour last Spring and documented sold out shows in New York, Los Angeles, Coachella, Toronto, Salt Lake City and more.

Set to release February 2024, Cristal Medium Blue is Lewis’ most defined project to date. A far cry from his synth-heavy debut full-length Sonic Poems (2022), Lewis’ sophomore LP is made up of a series of pivotal personal experiences and a whirlwind worldwide sojourn, accumulating into a project which pushes alternative pop and indie forward. He finds a sweet spot where live acoustic and electric guitars co-mingle with breezy vocals and heaven-sent samples. This summer, he dropped the first single off the album ‘Highway’ ft. Empress Of and followed it up with the melancholic ‘Frisco Blues’ last month. The album also features Alaska Reid, Gabriela Richardson, and longtime friend and collaborator Sofie Royer.

Lewis on Cristal Medium Blue — “Once I had the name [Cristal Medium Blue], I realised the new sound was a contemplative and abstract, yet precise vision. I wanted to express a theme, which wasn’t necessarily the case with Sonic Poems. That was a compilation of tracks from three years ago. Cristal Medium Blue is very defined.”

In the wake of a breakup, Lewis visits his parents in Greece. Creatively, he leaned on teenage favorites such as Santana as well as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. With nothing more than “a little nylon acoustic guitar borrowed from a friend and an original digitizer,” he penned songs as he stared out at the Mediterranean Sea before heading to Los Angeles’s Honeymoon Suite Studio where he finished writing, recording & producing this record mostly by himself. Known to be an electrifying solo presence just him and his synths on stage, for Lewis’ upcoming tour 14-date tour fans will see him perform his new album with a full live band for the very first time.

From his first forays into musical composition on Garageband aged 11, Lewis OfMan has always been drawn to party music, the kind that resounds in the distance when the sun is only just starting to sink. The multi-instrumentalist’s music creates an atmosphere where melancholia meets elevation and joy. With nearly 200m global streams, support from NME, Billboard US, Paper Mag, Pitchfork, and collaborations with artists including Carly Rae Jepsen, Coco & Clair Clair this is an artist rapidly growing in stature.

With new album Cristal Medium Blue and live shows with a new fully fleshed out band coming soon, ‘Hey Lou’ is a joyful gem that brings out the brilliant best out of the mercurial talents of Lewis OfMan.

The sophomore album arrives in February 2024

Lewis OfMan North American Tour 2024

Tickets now on sale

5/3/24 Mexico City, MEX @ Foro Puebla

5/5/24 Monterrey, MEX @ Foro Tims

5/9/24 Washington, DC @ Union Stage

5/10/24 Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry

5/11/24 New York, NY @ Webster Hall

5/12/24 Boston, MA @ The Sinclair

5/13/24 Montreal, ON @ Théâtre Fairmount

5/15/24 Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground

5/17/24 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall

5/18/24 St. Paul, MN @ Amsterdam

5/20/24 Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s

5/21/24 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir

5/23/24 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

5/24/24 Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre

Exclusive Posters created by artist Francisco G Pinzon Samper

for the shows in NY, LA, Mexico City