Windsor, ONTARIO (Friday, June 3, 2022) – Local singer-songwriter duo, The Bishop Boys have released their debut full-length album titled Old Friends, Brief Ends today – Friday, June 3rd, 2022. The eleven-song work is the duo’s most ambitious yet, and pays tribute to their hometown of Windsor. The pair began writing the songs that would eventually become this album when they were in high school back in 2012. Spanning a whopping 9 years of their lives, this album is also a “coming of age” story inspired by their experiences growing up in the border city.

The album’s overall sound, much like the pair’s varied musical tastes, blends the old with the new. An eclectic mix of warm organ tones, dreamy electric guitar tones, rich harmonies, and an instrumentation similar to that of 70s classic rock bands Chicago and the Band, Old Friends, Brief Ends is analog resurgence with modern sensibility. Driving and upbeat indie rock anthems that evoke the warm feelings of laid-back summer nights are contrasted with the more melancholic acoustic singer-songwriter pieces that muse on the unrequited love and the sobering inevitability of growing up. In all, the entire work is laden with sun-drenched nostalgia that emulates the ups and downs of life.

The lyrics are poetic and riddled with complex metaphors, leaving lots of room for interpretation. “We tend to stray away from really direct lyrics in favour of ones that really make you think, or have multiple meanings. I think that stems from a certain shyness and an interest in keeping people guessing at the real meanings of our songs,” said Andrew Adoranti, one half of the musical duo. Austin Di Pietro went on to say: “This is also why we chose to go with a series of abstract sketches for the album cover — every individual drawing is a clue, hinting at the real meaning of a certain song. As abstract and random as they may seem, they all come together to paint a picture of our coming of age.”

The album’s cover art features a collection of sketches/drawings of significant objects and symbols from Andrew and Austin’s collective memory of growing up in Windsor. Some will be familiar to all Windsorites — i.e. the Ambassador Bridge, the Ford Power building, Super Bowl Lanes, and the Windsor 401 sign— and others are more personal, only to be deciphered in the context of their lyrics. With the help of a generous grant from the City of Windsor’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Fund, The Bishop Boys commissioned established local artist Owen Swain to create the sketches for the cover artwork, and the cover design and layout was done by multi-disciplinary artist and graphic designer Madeline Mazak.

The pair considered it a priority to hire all local Windsor artists, musicians, and sound engineers in order to highlight the wealth of talent in this city, and to fight the Toronto-centric narrative in the creative arts industry across the country, but especially in Ontario. It was recorded, mixed and mastered in Windsor by Derek Impens at South Bridge Recording, and features a band comprised of thirteen Windsor musicians – including a harmonica solo by veteran Windsor musician, Kelly Hoppe (of Big Sugar fame). The duo hopes that this album will both attract new visitors to the area, and inspire Windsorites to get out and explore all the great things happening in their own backyard.

Old Friends, Brief Ends is available on all streaming platforms (as of June 3rd) and physical CDs can be purchased at bishopboysband.com. A release party will take place on June 24th at Meteor in Downtown Windsor with their nine-piece backing band. Tickets will go on sale starting June 5th. Follow @bishopboysband on Instagram and Facebook for more info. A special limited run of vinyl records will be available for pre-order only through a crowdfunding campaign on Qrates.com. This project is released in partnership with Soul City Music Co-op.

About The Bishop Boys
Trademark unison vocals, poetic lyricism, and effortlessly nuanced musicianship: these are the defining assets of The Bishop Boys, a young musical duo who are studiously redefining the singer-songwriter genre. As musicians who cut their teeth on jazz from a young age, Austin Di Pietro and Andrew Adoranti are well-known throughout Windsor as sought-after accompanists and core players of the Windsor jazz ensemble, Coffee House Combo. The Bishop Boys emerged in 2017 as a full-fledged 11-piece band fronted by the duo, immediately selling out venues and showcasing at festivals across the Windsor-Essex region. While the COVID-19 pandemic may have put a halt to the group’s live performances, it has certainly not impacted their creative output — the duo released two singles in August 2020 and February 2021 respectively. A recent single, “Dark Days,” garnered a significant amount of attention from local and international media outlets and music blogs because of its pandemic-inspired lyrics and music video, and even earned them a spot in the top 100 for CBC Music’s Toyota Searchlight 2021 Contest – a huge accomplishment considering the more than 2,400 contestants from all across Canada. They announced their upcoming album with the release of “Brief Ends” in November 2021.
www.bishopboysband.com

About Soul City Music Co-op
Launched on January 1st, 2020, the Soul City Music Co-op is not your traditional music label. Co- founded by Windsor singer-songwriters Mike Hargreaves and Crissi Cochrane, the label takes no percentage of its artists’ earnings or rights, and instead fosters sustainable self-managed music careers through mentorship, solidarity, and skill-sharing. The label features a small but growing roster of nine diverse Windsor artists – Brendan Scot Friel, The Bishop Boys, Crissi Cochrane, Madeline Doornaert, Max Marshall, Dane Roberts, Lisha Racquelle, Michael Hargreaves, and The Family Soul.

June 3, 2022 - June 10, 2022

ON Canada