Brooklyn to Memphis is not everyone’s typical move. A severe culture shock for some is more like it. For Nick Loss-Eaton, it was a bit of a homecoming, and a welcome resurgence of music missing from his life. When the Leland Sundries singer and songwriter relocated down south in 2019, he didn’t know what to expect but knew it was time to go. Absorbing all the music permeating out of every inch in the city, a new life in Memphis also meant some closure to his days in New York City.
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“After 16 years in Brooklyn, which was amazing, it’s great to be in a spot where garage rock, power pop, songwriting, blues, gospel, soul, rockabilly, and country all swirl together,” Loss-Eaton tells American Songwriter. “I’d always felt this sense of being home when visiting Memphis. The music styles that are important here feel like they connect with what I’m trying to do with Leland Sundries. I also hit a point where I was done with New York after a long stint there and needed a change.”
Now based in Memphis, with another lineup in Brooklyn, Leland Sundries have released their first single since 2016’s full length debut Music For Outcasts, which was recorded on analogue tape in Loss-Eaton’s former Greenpoint studio in Brooklyn.
Soulfully burning through Americana at its roots, there’s something else going on with Leland Sundries that’s undeniable—something grittier. There’s a blues drenched hybrid of concrete, New York City grunge drawn through laid-back Memphis melodies. All of this is palpable on “Song for the Girl With the Replacements Tattoo.”
Loss-Eaton doesn’t leave his life untouched in songwriting. On Music for Outcasts, he unraveled himself—even his own mortality—after having to undergo emergency open heart surgery following a routine checkup, his battle with heavy drinking, and other demons.
Today, he’s in a new place—literally, in Memphis—and personally with a recent breakup the premise of new single, “Song for the Girl With the Replacements Tattoo,” produced by Charles Newman (The Magnetic Fields) and one piece of the band’s second album, which is being recorded.
“I wrote this song about a breakup, and it’s largely true but slightly exaggerated,” he says. “My ex did have a tattoo, and it was red and bold but it said ‘LET IT BE’ instead of the Replacements. She used to joke that she was tired of telling people it was the Replacements album and not the Beatles song.”
In the aftermath of the breakup, his ex wasn’t doing well, he says, before they eventually lost touch. Finding some resolve, Loss-Eaton reminisces on the union and its aftermath in chorus I pray through gritted teeth, but not about you / I pray the promises, for you to come true.
“I really do still pray for her from time to time,” he says. “The chorus has the subtext that sometimes it’s easier to wish the best for others than it is for oneself.”
TOUR DATES
February 11 – Nashville, TN – The 5 Spot
February 16 – New York, NY – Rockwood Music Hall
February 17 – Queens, NY – LIC Bar
February 18 – Easthampton, MA – The 413
February 19 – Cambridge, MA – Toad
February 20 – Putnam, CT – Stomping Ground
February 21 – Portland, ME – Port City Blue
February 22 – Burlington, VT – Radio Bean
March 27 – Memphis, TN – The Cove
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