Kris Ulrich today shared his new single “1994,” the third from his forthcoming new album Big in the USA, due out March 31st, 2023, via Birthday Cake Records. Of the subdued, reflective, and atmospheric track – out now alongside a video–the Winnipeg, Canada-based artist explains: “I wrote this song after coming home from a night at my parents house watching old video tapes of us as kids. I specifically recall a scene of my brother and sister twirling around our living room laughing, wearing clothes my mom had sewn for them. Watching these videos with my parents at about the same age they were in the videos really made me think about how they were feeling at that time in their lives. What did they feel like watching it now? Writing 1994 felt really cathartic and it kind of poured out of me. I wanted the song to feel like a warm embrace, like you were being enveloped by it.” “1994” follows the heartfelt and contemplative title track new single and the jangly, catchy “Friends on the Internet.” Big in the USA is now available for pre-order.
A Daniel Lanois-esque man of many talents (producer, musician, co-writer, and road warrior), Ulrich fully branches out on his own with Big in the USA, his voice and vision crystallized by a period of deep reflection. He has acted as a connective tissue in his musical community – with his hand in projects by Dweller (a project with Georgia Harmer, Field Guide, Julian Psihogios),Boy Golden, Field Guide, Cassidy Mann, Roman Clarke, Fontine, and more – and for years cut his chops primarily as a hard-touring sideman for some of the most celebrated names in Canadian country music like Dallas Smith and Jess Moskaluke, further building a reputation as a guitar-wielding wunderkind serving other people’s sounds and songs. But when the world came to a standstill in 2020, the forced stop and time off the road sparked a lot of introspection. “I found myself on stage wanting to be part of the whole creative process, rather than just the performance,” Ulrich explains. “So I leaned into exploring the musical feelings I had when I first started loving songwriting.”
While risky to let go of these gigs that often came with tour buses, arena shows, hotel rooms, and job security, Ulrich’s newfound clarity led him to rediscover what making music and writing songs meant to him. Big in the USA is his return to this musical truth, to the spirit of sonic exploration and experimentation he felt when he first started playing and writing songs as a kid. “These songs were born from a feeling that I wouldn’t ever make anything again. But they ended up leaving me with the clearest vision I’ve ever had for my music. It represents a shift in my relationship to production, guitar, and songwriting,” he says.
Built on driving drum machines and woozy synth layers, Big in the USA is bolstered by dogged hooks and a clear lyrical voice. The album is both hopeful and melancholic, simultaneously holding reflections of a dusty past played on old tape machines alongside the surging brightness of future possibility. It’s all sewn together with Ulrich’s tongue-in-cheek self-awareness, a playful blend of self-serious and lighthearted – and a general consciousness of both sides. The songs are seasoned, effortlessly catchy, and rich, first-person narratives that offer a full snapshot of his life to date: stories about playing the long game for a music career while accepting the limitations it can offer; small towns that you can love while also wanting to leave; new love; and nostalgic memories. And when Ulrich does lean back into his pro-guitar playing self, he accesses something deep and expressive, the instrument acting in honest conversation with his voice and lyrics.
Recorded at home, Big in the USA also sees Ulrich leaning into a DIY approach and taking charge of the songs’ engineering and production – a process he learned on the fly with his friend Liam Duncan (aka Boy Golden, who co-produced and mixed the album). He performs most everything on the album alongside an enlisted cast of friends from his community.
