Claude Munson Climbs “Broken Stairs” in New Song (premiere)

Claude Munson is often described as an impressionist folk artist. While this coinage may seem a bit confounding at first, any befuddlement fades away moments into giving his work an ear. The soundscapes Munson paints are reminiscent of the more tangible, visible art-form with which his music shares a name. Intent on conveying an effulgent, mysterious vibrancy about his art, Munson’s music leaves an impression with its washed-out synth and hazy vocal reverb that leaves it standing on the precipice of both folk and electronic movements.

The crystalline atmosphere Munson often develops in his work can’t be seen or heard more clearly than in the music video for his next album’s leading single, “Broken Stairs”. Coming from off of The Silence Came After via Ottawa’s Record Centre label, Munson tells us that “‘Broken Stairs’ is a song about wanting to run away but not really having anywhere else to go. I’m singing about questioning my past and reflecting on mistakes I made. As that happens, I begin to feel the need to break out and escape reality. In that state I ask myself to be aware of the people around me and myself. It is a personal lesson about the enticement of love and detaching yourself from love when it does not prevail.”

On the video, Munson says, “The concept we chose for the video was ‘get lost in your own city’. I was inspired by memories of walks and hikes with my friends as teenagers all around Ottawa and Hull. We would go out and get lost in the city discovering graffiti walls and old abandoned things like the old train tracks that cross the Ottawa river and bridge the Ontario and Québec provinces.”

“The video starts with myself waking up from a dream, crossing a bridge yet still kind of lost in a day dream. I wander to graffiti walls and bike around until I meet a friend who does graffiti. I sit with him and we later join other friends for a good time around a campfire hidden in nature with the cityscape in the distance.”