Fences Recruits The Lumineers' Wesley Schultz For 'Bright Soil'

06-09-2023

(Big Hassle) Christopher Mansfield, also known as Fences, announces a new album due September 15th: Bright Soil. He also shares its title track "Bright Soil" with an accompanying video. Joining Mansfield on the tune is Wesley Schultz, an artist he'd met more than a decade ago.

"His performance is startlingly beautiful," says the singer-songwriter. "I got goosebumps when I heard it. I love how he really came out swinging. He sang it like he wrote it. I think that's why that song works so well." Mansfield also turned to a friend and past collaborator, Ryan Lewis, to mix the track. The pair previously worked on a song called "Other Side" c.2008 with Macklemore.

With an immediately memorable and uplifting chorus, the song sets the tone for the album. "'Bright Soil' is like an analogy for wishing someone well when they've died. Going toward the light but also having this fearlessness," shares Mansfield. The song turned out to be prescient. The titular track was written four months before the passing of his friend Regis Dean Jansen. "I didn't know who I was talking about," Mansfield says. "I didn't know anyone who had died recently but that song came out of me and it was strange how it fit the situation."

With the birth of his daughter, the song took on new meaning for its author. "Shortly after that my daughter was born and I realized it could also mean coming toward the light when you're born. I see the album as following that cycle. That song is also my favorite thing that I've ever written."