The Latest Single from his Sophomore Album Homeworld Blue Out November 13 via Million Stars Records
Produced by Bright Eyes’ Nate Walcott and Mixed by Mike Mogis
Announces NYC & LA Album Release Shows Accompanied by a 10-Piece Band
Credit: Michael Koshkin
Today, James Felice released “Midflight,” the second song to be released from his sophomore album Homeworld Blue that will be released on November 13 via Conor Oberst’s Million Stars Records. Produced by Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes, “Midflight” captures the expansive sound of Felice’s sophomore album, which builds on the intimate world of his debut with lush orchestration, pounding piano, brass and strings, while continuing his lifelong fascination with the small, strange and deeply human stories unfolding against the vastness of the universe.
Felice has also announced a pair of album release shows on January 23 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City and on January 28 at Sid The Cat Auditorium in South Pasadena. Both performances will feature a 10-piece band conducted and arranged by Walcott. Tickets go on sale this Friday, October 23 at 10:00 am local time. Find a full list of tour dates below or visit his website.
Stream/embed “Midflight” via YouTube
About the song, Felice explains,
“This is a big swing! Pretty far outside my wheelhouse as a writer and musician. But this song was rattling in there somewhere and I needed to get it out, despite my shortcomings…despite my reach always and forever exceeding my grasp. But listen to Nate Walcott’s plangent and vivid orchestration. That is what makes this track speak and slither. There is detail and thoughtfulness and exploration on this track…from the opening cascading strings, to the delicate pizzicato of the verse, to the final culminating wild exclamation at the tail end. If any songs can be considered alive, I’d submit this one into the taxonomical record.”
Nate Walcott adds,
“This was one of my favorite songs to work on on this record. James’s vision was clear and before we got to work he was saying something about waking up while falling from the sky and miles of xylophones. So I had to pull out all the stops on this one - full orchestra along with harp, timpani, the works. When it got to the mile of xylophones part I wanted it to feel like the speakers were going to explode sort of like in the audacious apex of the first movement of Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique. That’s not the easiest thing to aim for but I’m grateful for James trusting me to go for it and for gifting the world this song.”
“Midflight” follows the release of the album’s debut single “Let Yourself Live,” which was praised by Americana UK, No Depression and more.
Felice began writing Homeworld Blue in 2022, when much of life for a career touring musician was still shuttered. He climbed the stairs to his attic, where he’d set up a minimal home studio, and began writing feverishly.
“I wrote all day and all night,” he said. “I wrote dozens of songs for weeks on end. I pictured a big record, even in the early stages. I imagined orchestral parts, and I knew I wanted the record to have a real musical gravity.
“I felt a drive to expand my horizons when so much of life was limited in the Covid years. I had the time and inclination to push myself. I had huge ideas, but I wasn’t completely sure how to get them across to people. I was reaching beyond my grasp and hoping someone would be there to catch the rope.”
That vision ultimately led him to Walcott, who helped translate Felice’s expansive ideas into the album’s ornate arrangements. As a member of the band Bright Eyes for 20+ years, where he acts as in-house arranger and orchestrator, Walcott has written, arranged and orchestrated not only for the band's records but also their appearances with the likes of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also written arrangements and orchestrations for artists such as Flea, First Aid Kit, and Leon Bridges. Working on James Felice's Homeworld Blue, he also draws upon his experience as a composer for film (Fault in Our Stars, Regretting You). The result is a marriage of James's vision, voice, and piano with a detailed and cinematic world of drums, bass, harp, horn section, and full scale orchestra. First working in Omaha with James and a small rhythm section, Walcott then moved the production to LA where he worked on and off for two years, meticulously sculpting each song into a sonic world of restraint, bombast and everything in-between.
Phil Schaffart and Conor Oberst served as executive producers, with engineering by Adam Roberts and Pierre De Reeder, and mixing by GRAMMY award-winner Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes.
Mogis is no stranger to magnifying a songwriter’s lush, cinematic landscape, with recent mixing credits including Phoebe Bridgers’ Stranger in the Alps and Punisher, as well as boygenius’ The Record and The Rest. On Homeworld Blue, Felice’s emotionally immediate vocals remain at the forefront without sacrificing the orchestral beauty of the arrangements.
“Mogis’ mixing is some of the best in the world. He gave the record such incredible dimensionality and clarity, which can be so difficult to do with everything we have going on,” Felice explains.
Next month, Felice will support Fantastic Cat for two shows in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and will close out 2026 with a New Year’s Eve performance in Boston supporting Deer Tick.
Homeworld Blue tracklist:
1) A Lot to Lose
2) Let Yourself Live
3) Midflight
4) Action USA
5) Messenger of Peace
6) Golden Age
7) All There Is to Love
8) Homeworld Blue
9) Past the Agway
Tour Dates:
11/21 – Baltimore, MD – The 8x10 *
11/22 – Hummelstown, PA – The Farmhouse at Englewood Hershey *
12/5 – Key West, FL – Coast Is Clear Music & Arts Festival
12/31 – Boston, MA – City Winery #
1/23 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
1/28 – South Pasadena, CA – Sid The Cat Auditorium
* - Supporting Fantastic Cat
# - Supporting Deer Tick
James Felice:
