Produced by Bright Eyes’ Nate Walcott
Debut Single “Let Yourself Live” Out Now
Last year, James Felice surprise-released his debut solo album The Little Ones on Valentine’s Day. The 11-song collection was self-produced and recorded in an unfinished attic, marking a bold new chapter for the artist who spent nearly two decades releasing 10 albums with his band The Felice Brothers. Built around Felice’s piano and witty turns of phrase, The Little Ones carried the spirit of songwriters like John Prine, Warren Zevon and Tom Waits, finding humor, heartbreak and humanity in the lives of ordinary people.
Today, Felice announces Homeworld Blue, his sweeping sophomore solo album arriving November 13 via Conor Oberst’s Million Stars Records, and releases his new single “Let Yourself Live.” Produced by Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes and recorded in Omaha, Nebraska, and Los Angeles, Homeworld Blue expands upon the intimate world of Felice’s debut with lush orchestration, pounding piano, horns and strings, while continuing his lifelong fascination with the small, strange and deeply human stories unfolding against the enormity of the universe.
Stream/embed “Let Yourself Live”
About the song, Felice explains, “There are no easy answers, you have failed yourself and others, and you are a fool. So this song is a celebration of that feeling.”
“I look for warmth and hopefulness in a world that is overwhelmingly dark and brutal,” Felice adds. “It may have a fatalistic impersonal twirl to it, but we get to map our meaning onto this life. I find that to be so beautiful, and so interesting—all of us small people and our petty concerns. There’s a lot of beauty to find.”
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.
While The Little Ones is an intimate collection of songs, mostly recorded at home, Homeworld Blue is a continuation of Felice’s commitment to shining a light on those who may often feel overlooked, embracing and dignifying our small everyday moments with the grandeur they deserve.
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 *
10/22 – Hummelstown, PA – The Farmhouse at Englewood Hershey *
12/5 – Key West, FL – Coast Is Clear Music & Arts Festival
* - Supporting Fantastic Cat
Photo Credit: Michael Koshkin
