The maxim that the best art always stems from deep pain, from great despair, is as old as art itself. Graham Ereaux is setting out to firmly reject this apparently immutable law. The Canadian folk troubadour makes the case for spontaneous inspiration, for composing songs in the moment under a guiding principle of sheer artistic pleasure. On his last album ‘Devarrow’ (2019), he was able to formulate this creative approach in a way that subsequently opened the door to new ways of writing and making music - somewhere between José González and Ben Howard, but still entirely his own. Without surrendering his artistic integrity, Devarrow develops optimistic folk music that sounds like a soundtrack for endless summer holidays and awakens your inner child. With his third album ‘Heart Shaped Rock’, due out in October, which he wrote, recorded and produced almost single-handedly, he takes this radically carefree songwriting signature to the next level and gives us something of a very rare commodity in these times of ours: hope.