Sunnsetter Announces New Album, “The Best That I Can Be.”

Multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Andrew McLeod has announced his solo project, Sunnsetter, will be releasing a new album entitled The Best That I Can Be. on March 31st, 2023, via Paper Bag Records.

According to McLeod, the record has been a work in progress for the past three years and reflects his journey through grief, sobriety, mental health, and gender identity. “During this time, I have grieved the loss of a close friend/bandmate and continuously dealt with my journey of sobriety and struggles with mental well being, concepts around gender identity and queerness; while simultaneously, of course, being thrown into even more chaos via the pandemic. I hope that these songs can make sense to the people who have never heard my music and the people who have supported me along the way. This is simply the best that I can be, through song, and the need to share that feeling with the world is what has kept me going this entire time,” explains McLeod in his press statement.

The album was recorded in a transitional period between Hamilton (where he lived with Zoon‘s Daniel Monkman) and his new home in Norfolk County, where he has been building a recording studio called “Garden House Recording.” As he wrote, “During 2020, we found the house of our dreams in a rural area of Norfolk County, where we’ve been living since. I have been slowly building a recording studio in my shed, and eventually moving it onto the loft of the barn. The studio is called ‘Garden House Recording.’ The album was written over the course of those 3 years between Hamilton and my new home and mixed here in my new studio.”

Along with the announcement of the album, Sunnsetter has also released a new single, “Always Talk, Never Speak,” which is follows on from his previous track, “Float in Circles.” McLeod wrote that the new track highlights the importance of speaking one’s truth openly and honestly.

Discussing the new track, McLeod wrote: “I think it’s extremely important to speak your truest self openly, and to actually mean it. So many people never really say what they truly mean, or what they feel for fear of ridicule. I’ve lived with the struggle of presenting my truest self to the world for a long time, and no longer want to live that way.”

Watch Sunnsetter’s “Always Talk, Never Speak” below

The Best That I Can Be. marks a new era for Sunnsetter and is a follow-up to his earlier solo album, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.

The best that I can be. Tracklist

1. Memories (Come and Go Light)
2. Float in Circles
3. In the Ocean
4. Always Talk, Never Speak
5. Surely Everything’s Alright
6. The whole World Turns Around Itself
7. Today Feels So New
8. At the End of the Day
9. I Hear a Voice
10. Can’t Forget

Fans of the project can look forward to more music and updates soon. You can pre-order your copy of the album by visiting Sunnsetter’s Bandcamp here.