Besides co-running Dear Life Records, composing for the Philly ensemble Hour, and drumming for great acts like Friendship, 2nd Grade, and Sachiko Kanenobu, the prolific Michael Cormier-O'Leary maintains a career as a singer-songwriter. This year he's following up 2023's Anything Can Be Left Behind with a new EP, Proof Enough.
Press materials explain that Proof Enough is a six-part family drama blurring personal biography and fiction. Opening track "Marilyn," the only advance single, was inspired by the Roches. It's a folk song centered on three-part harmony: two tracks of Cormier-O'Leary's own voice plus one track of Heeyoon Won (22º Halo, Boosegumps). The man himself explains:
It's a story about a five-year-old named Marilyn who escapes into her crayon drawings to block out the noise of her home life and her parents' desire but inability to do the same. In the song's outro, there are two restated melodies that oscillate back and forth chromatically, suggesting a family unit out of sync or at least having a particularly bad day.
Listen below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Marilyn"
02 "Del"
03 "Sky Is Blue"
04 "Gouache"
05 "Staring"
06 "Pressed Flowers"
Proof Enough is out 2/25 on Dear Life. Pre-order it here.
