Song of the Day: Blunt Chunks “Psyche’s Flight”

Photo Credit: Aurora Shields

The Toronto-based project of Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien, Blunt Chunks, has announced her long awaited, highly anticipated debut album, The Butterfly Myth, and today we get the first taste with lead single “Psyche’s Flight".

Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien states, "Psyche’s Flight" is a simple song about feeling better and being kinder to yourself. It was February, I had lost my Dad a few months prior, and I had the opportunity to partake in an artist residency on a Permaculture farm in Mexico. I escaped the Ontario Winter and felt the warm sun on me for the first time in ages. I wrote this song a week into the residency on the rooftop patio. I finally didn’t feel so depressed anymore and I guess it’s about that freeing, hopeful feeling you get when you travel somewhere new and beautiful. On a production level, I wanted the instrumentals to be euphoric and sunshiny. Like you’re immersed in a beautiful, new landscape for the first time. Duncan’s drumming really spiced things up and Karen’s sax harmonies give the layers of euphoria I was after.

The song touches on Woelfle-O’Brien’s frequent encounters with a butterfly after a self-described mental health spiral. With swirling ballads that touch on loss and grief, Woelfle-O’Brien was reminded of stories from her Irish heritage, with butterflies representing the souls of the dead who appear to reassure loved ones left behind. It’s also an ode to the Greek Goddess, Pysche, who is presented as a woman with butterfly wings and becomes the goddess of the soul only after suffering a series of tribulations that reunite her with Cupid, the god of love. Similarily for Woelfle-O’Brien, songwriting is a way for her to transform: “In moments of darkness, there’s a resistance to change even though I know that change is essential to my growth as a person.”

‘Psyche’s Flight’ features drummer Duncan Hood and keyboardist Nick Nausbaum, Woelfle-O’Brien’s bandmates in Jaunt. There are also contributions from percussionist Ed Squires (Badge Epoque Ensemble, U.S. Girls), saxophonist Karen Ng (Andy Shauf) and keys phenom Diego Gaeta, a member of the Leaving Records community, who features throughout The Butterfly Myth, as well as Andre 3000’s latest new age flute album.

The Butterfly Myth is set to arrive on April 19th via Telephone Explosion. Hear the enchanting new single below: