“Emotionally provocative and lush.” —Folk Alley
“A Safe Harbor for Wayward Echoes, while offering some deep reflection, brims with quiet energy and triumph.”—Making A Scene!
“Each song on this new album ‘A Safe Harbor for Wayward Echoes’ is a prescription for a troubled soul.”—Seattle Wave Radio
“Skins the divide between science and faith and holds the mystery in both hands.”
–—Northwest Music Scene
Tobias The Owl releases his new album, A Safe Harbor for Wayward Echoes, today on Megaforce Records. The album features special guests Ben Harper, Laura Veirs and Inara George, and was produced, engineered and mixed by Grammy Award winning Sheldon Gomberg (Warren Zevon, Rickie Lee Jones, Ryan Adams). Purchase/listen to the album HERE.
To celebrate the release of the album, Tobias the Owl is playing an album release show in Seattle on August 30, followed by a run of live dates in Tacoma, San Francisco, Toronto, and New York. See below for full tour dates, and find more information HERE.
Elijah Dhavvan, a university professor by day, writes and records as Tobias the Owl and also serves as guiding force to the collective performing under that name. He wrote the new album as he was recovering from cancer. “When someone tells you you’re going to die, as happened to me, it doesn’t take long to come to terms with that,” Dhavvan says. “In some ways it’s easier to accept death than to pursue an actualized life. Now I struggle with the question, ‘Am I accomplishing everything I am supposed to?’”
“We wrote, I think, 170 songs for this album. Yes, 170,” Dhavvan laughs. “Of those, about 60 were fully fleshed out. I sent those 60 to Sheldon and from there, it was narrowed down to 15 or 20, and then we recorded 11 songs. I decided the 11th song should be held back, so we have the final 10 on this album.”
The follow-up to 2016’s Every Eye Is a Universe, the new album was recorded throughout 2017 at multiple studios including Los Angeles’ Carriage House. In addition to the special guests, the album features Dhavvan on lead vocals, acoustic guitar, and keyboards, violin/violist Andrew Joslyn (Macklemore, David Bazan), percussionist Scott Seiver (Aimee Mann, Tenacious D), Jonah Tolchin on vocals and guitar, and fast-rising Seattle performer Gabriel Wolfchild on vocals.
TTO songs have been featured in television and film and at Starbucks stores worldwide, and in 2014, Dhavvan won a Toronto Independent Music Award for best singer/songwriter in his hometown.
In support of the upcoming album, TTO hosted a “karmic kickstarter” based on acts of kindness and positivity, rather than monetary donations. Pledges included simple acts such as providing a warm meal to someone who is hungry, donating money to the charity of one’s choice, and supporting the local arts scene. Please visit https://bit.ly/2Mi7ThQ for more information.