Shawn Hewitt Strikes With Spare Hearts

08/06/08 5:06pm

Toronto's Shawn Hewitt started attracting attention for his performances six years ago, won the Fan's Choice Award at 2004's North By Northeast Music Festival, and released his The Soft Society debut EP a year later, so it's about time that he put out his first full album. That moment will come on Sept. 30 when EMI Music Canada releases Spare Hearts.

The soul, pop and rock-influenced singer/songwriter's 11-song album was recorded by Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos!) and Stephen Murray with Malik Worthy (K-OS, Esthero). It was mixed at New York City's Electric Lady Studios by John O'Mahoney (Coldplay, Emily Haines).

"Making this album was an intense renewal process for me and my songwriting method," says Hewitt. "It's like the facade of a historic building was kept while the inside was gutted, making it fresh and new on the inside while the outside was kept as a gateway to the future."

"Try," "Mr. Don't Break It" and "We May Not Be That Different After All" can be previewed on Hewitt's <a href= http://www.myspace.com/shawnhewitt>MySpace page</a>.

Hewitt and his band The National Strike plan to tour extensively in support of Spare Hearts, but no dates have yet been announced.

Here are the songs on Spare Hearts:

"Keep Them At Bay"
"Try"
"One On One"
"Spare Hearts"
"Bending Glass"
"Hey You"
"Mr. Don't Break It"
"Becoming A Machine"
"Hollow The Leader"
"Engines"
"We May Not Be That Different After All"