Kat Harlton
Toronto-based Nelson Sobral has already defined his road-hardened career by sharing stages with the likes of legends such as David Wilcox, The Trews, and Jeff Healey, and his knuckles-to-the-dirt, workhorse spirit has seen him tour and play relentlessly across Canada and the United States.
Sobral’s music is as much Americana and blues as it is soul and rock’n’roll, perfectly balanced with the energy and sound of each of his respective influences, uniting them all with one, singular mission: to move and energize audiences into an all-night frenzy and travel the world on the might of his song.
“Pendulum,” the latest single from Sobral, is a genre-spanning journey through love and heartbreak, transforming some of life and love’s toughest moments into a raucous celebration, perfect for the hours between midnight and the early morning. Co-written with singer-songwriter Mattie Leon who also plays organ on the track and accompanied by the talented Selcuk Suna on horns (a member of The Royal Conservatory’s New Canadian Global Music Orchestra), Sobral plays every other instrument himself.
We had the opportunity to chat with Nelson about his latest single “Pendulum“, his creative process and what’s next.
Kat: Can you talk about the inspiration behind your latest single “Pendulum”?
Nelson: The song fell into my lap one day and kind of wrote itself. The word “pendulum” appeared in the second verse as part of a rhyme scheme I was writing and it helped form what the song was about which is a back and forth relationship that you both know is wrong and yet you keep coming back to.
Kat: What do you hope fans take from the track?
Nelson: If anything being able to take a look at your relationships in all aspects be it business, personal, romantic, etc. and being able to be honest with yourself and admit if they’re actually beneficial to you or not and finding the courage inside yourself to walk away when they’re no longer serving you.
Kat: What do you find is the most challenging part of your creative process?
Nelson: A definite challenge is finishing songs! I come up with lots of great verses, choruses, riff ideas and then find that i get backed up trying to finish the idea. I don’t like to force songs so when a creative idea comes up and i’ve exhausted the initial spark I tend to let them marinate and then come back to the ideas and see which ones ignite that spark again. So the challenging part is going through all those voice memos and deciding what to continue working on! The good thing about great songs though is that its generally pretty clear which one should be worked on first.
Kat: What has been a career highlight for you so far? What have you learned along the way?
Nelson: Playing on stage at The Bluebird in Nashville is definitely a highlight. Being welcome in that space and making new fans on that stage where so many incredible singer/songwriters have played on will always be burned into my heart and brain.
Kat: What’s next?
Nelson: A few more singles before the full length album, currently working on the music video for the next single! Hopefully, things will start opening up soon so playing some shows to go along with the releases would be great either solo of full band and the wife and i are also getting ready to welcome our baby boy into the world so there’s a lot of wonderful coming out soon!