Toronto piano pop singer-songwriter Mike Evin is celebrating Valentine's Day by mourning love lost on his new jazz-laced breakup song, "I Almost Called You Babe."
Written immediately after the end of a major relationship and a couple weeks before Evin was due to go into the studio, the artist nearly pulled the plug on the scheduled sessions in the throes of grief. "I Almost Called You Babe" was born of processing those feelings, and he and producer Chris Stringer (Rose Cousins, Timber Timbre) realized the song's potency couldn't be ignored.
“I wasn’t sure I would even be able to go through with the project, but I decided it would be a healthy distraction,” Evin explained in a press release. “Obviously there was a lot to process from the breakup, and I gave myself time to write as a form of therapy.”
The wounds are evidently still fresh on "I Almost Called You Babe," the singer-songwriter tenderly wading through the uncomfortable aftermath of a relationship's end and the struggle to completely cut ties — both with old habits and the ex. It almost sounds like an off-the-cut excavation, but Evin manages to transpose the emotion into an understatedly fervent melodic structure.
Watch the "I Almost Called You Babe" video by Merging Forest Films below.