Ellorie McKnight – Equinox

In front of a live audience on a warm night last March with studio doors swung open and late-day sunshine streaming in through the forest of spruce trees, Ellorie McKnight and her band performed a dozen original songs and kept six for an EP, now titled Equinox.

The EP will be released on May 3 exclusively via Bandcamp; the song “Trivial” is available now.

 “Equinox is many things, but more than anything it is an invitation to reflect on the complexities and nuances of the current human experience, the relationships between each other, and the relationships we have with the lands and waters that sustain us,” McKnight says.

She is choosing to release the EP only on Bandcamp, forgoing other streaming services and physical product. McKnight says she would rather have usable merch than sell CDs—for example, she’s collaborating with a vegetable seed farm in Quebec and will be selling digital downloads of the album via seed packets.

 “There are a couple of values I really hold; one is being cognizant of waste, and while I love a CD, I also think that we’re in an era where we can listen to music without physical copies,” she says. “The other thing I’m holding closely is appropriately valuing art, hence why this music isn’t going on the major streaming platforms for now. I’m not ignorant to the consequences of this choice, but something has to change.”

“Trivial” is the first song on the EP, setting the tone for the rest of the record as an affirmation that small and seemingly insignificant emotions, memories and hopes all matter, even if the world tells us they don’t. “‘Trivial’ is a validation for the real-ness of emotions tied to heartbreak, dreaming, regret, and the feelings that arise from any kind of meaningful moments, whether easy or hard, good or bad, with other people. It’s about cherishing them, even when society diminishes their importance or dismisses them.”

 “In the dust and through the fog” has a dream-like quality, which fits this description. With a chord progression that repeats itself throughout the song, nuances in vocals and instrumentation create a soothing ebb and flow. The song is about a feeling or a hope that we will all find our people throughout the course of life – people we’re pulled to, and they, to us.

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