On October 12th, HALEY will release Pleasureland via Memphis Industries. Pleasureland is the newest work from Canadian-born artist Haley McCallum, known professionally as Haley Bonar for the past 15 years.
Today Haley has shared an album stream featuring videos made by her as well as a handful directed by familiar collaborators, including sibling Torey Erin (“Called You Queen”) and Nicole Brending (“Kismet Kill”). Moving away from higher-budget mini films, the videos provide a visually artistic and deeply personal element to a visceral, indefinable score.
Read below Haley’s statement about her new album:
Welcome to Pleasureland:
It has been an amazing and interesting process, at times inspirational and other times difficult. By that I mean a lot of folks weren’t exactly thrilled with my releasing an album of music without words. The thing is, for most of my career (16 years!), I have been labelled mostly a singer. I love to sing, and people seem to like my voice. I get that. I’m also a composer, producer, writer, guitarist, keyboard player, pianist, teacher, and mother. People are complicated, and I am no exception!
I put the same amount of heart, energy, and self-funding into the making of this album as I have with my previous releases. It is the soundtrack to my life just as much as the other songs I’ve written are- only I found myself compelled to dive deeper into my musical psyche in order to achieve something I found relevant and meaningful during a difficult and dark time not only in my own life, but in the world at large. I found the instruments to be human – just as emotional and personal as a story told with words. I felt lost, and loss – these compositions were the way I found myself – a different voice, as it were- again. It was exciting and challenging not only to write and produce an instrumental album, but to create visuals for the first time in my life as well. Myself, along with some of my talented friends and artists, created a visual component to Pleasureland.
The full album set can be streamed below:
HALEY has announced a November UK / EU tour in support of Pleasureland. All upcoming shows are listed below.
HALEY TOUR DATES
October 12 – Minneapolis, MN @ Electric Fetus (in-store performance)
November 3 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo Cafe Bar
November 4 – Chester, UK @ St Mary’s Creative Space
November 5 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny
November 6 – Birmingham, UK @ Glee Club Birmingham
November 8 – London, UK @ St Pancras Old Church
November 9 – Cambridge, UK @ Storey’s Field Centre
November 10 – Manchester, UK @ St Michael’s
November 11 – Brighton, UK @ Rialto Theatre
November 12 – Amsterdam, NL @ Tolhuistuin
December 8 – Minneapolis MN @ Cedar Cultural Center