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Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer Mitch Davis steps out on his own with debut LP The Haunt, a singer-songwriter tour de force for which he wrote all the songs and played all the instruments, made in his home studio during the 2020 lockdown, with much of it recorded on equipment that he also built himself. The result is a uniquely personal statement brimming with color and optimism even as it ponders universal themes of introspection and loneliness-a record that could only have been made by Mitch Davis.Davis is a mainstay of the vibrant Montréal music scene, with a musical background encompassing everything from rock bands (Faith Healer) to avant-garde (Elle Barbara's Black Space) to jazz and hip-hop (Cadence Weapon). The Haunt is a synthesis of his many musical interests, stretching back to his childhood when he played drums in the church band and saxophone in his school band (he plays both on The Haunt.) Though he's never had any formal musical training, Davis can't remember a time in which music wasn't a part of his life. When it came time to make his own record, Davis says InchI was always hoping I could find a way to blend everything together and get away with doing a bunch of different genres all at once, because I don't like dwelling on a certain sound.InchThat is what he has accomplished with The Haunt, which is an accessible collection of songs blending jazz, funk, sunshine pop, rock, and a host of surprising sonic easter eggs into a record so seamlessly integrated it often feels like a full band effort. Yet everything you hear is a result of Davis hunkering down alone in his home studio in the garment manufacturing district of Montréal while the city was under a strict curfew-midnight to 5am were his working hours-funneling all his creative energy into the music. He mostly wrote the songs as he went along, then tinkered with them until he was s
