Canadian Montreal-based musician and composer Adrian Copeland, known also as Alder & Ash, has released a new album called If This Were My Body which is out now via Lost Tribe Sound. He explains: “If the music I wrote was my body, how would I use it to tell stories? Would I fight with others, would I hurt myself, would I yell or would I cry? On this album, I wanted to reclaim my body as an instrument of gentleness and love. Too often, the male body is objectified as a tool of violence and hate, and we don’t often have the chance to learn what it means to love as men. My own relationship with my body is marked with bitterness, self hatred, and shame. This album “If This Were My Body” is an unlearning of all the violence I’ve inflicted and all the violence that’s been inflicted on me. It’s a celebration of another way of being, one of vulnerability and tenderness.
There is a triumph here that doesn’t exist on my previous albums. There are moments of sadness and intensity, but it’s overwhelmingly an album about love, specifically self love. During this period I was undergoing a period of transformation and relearning my relationship to myself, my work, and most importantly, my body. I wanted to release this album under my own name, as it felt more vulnerable to do so. There is no artifice to hide my emotions”
Listen below.