Field Medic, the moniker of Los Angeles-based folk artist Kevin Patrick, has released the bottle’s my lover, she’s just my friend (possibly our favourite song title of the year so far), from his forthcoming album fade into the dawn that will be released on April 19 via Run For Cover Records.

The new album features ten sparse, acoustic tracks that reckon with our perceptions of success and self as they face down the inevitable complications that arise from realising any hard-won dream. During the recording of fade into the dawn, Patrick found himself going through a number of tumultuous changes: he relocated to Los Angeles from San Francisco, where he’d lived and recorded on and off for several years; he left the world of day jobs behind in order to tour year-round; and he decided to quit drinking, only to return to it halfway through a particularly grueling run of shows. It was the sort of emotional roller-coaster that he would normally work through in song, but even the simple act of writing seemed profoundly more complicated than ever before. Patrick had always written candidly about doubt and darkness and anxiety, but this new record has required him to dig deeper than ever before here, blending black humour and bold introspection as he weighs fantasy against reality and searches for meaning in the mundane.

Of the single, he says, “This song first came into my head as an idea when I was still living in San Francisco, working and living in the sunroom. I was sort of seeing somebody and was reflecting on how more times than not they would ask me to come hang out or do something and I would decline under the pretense of being busy, but wind up drinking alone in my room… maybe making art, but mostly just drinking for the sake of getting drunk. Flash forward 6 months or so and I had moved out of San Francisco, quit my job, and was bouncing between touring and couch surfing. One day in Canoga Park where I was crashing with my friend Derek, I was struck with the profound sadness, lack of inspiration, and direction I felt… I lived nowhere, didn’t have much to show for my ‘leap of faith,’ but the one constant in my life for many years was my habit of hanging out alone and drinking until I passed out. I remember sitting in a pink chair and I picked up a guitar and the whole song came out in a matter of minutes. I didn’t record a demo in the moment and days later I remembered I’d written it and had to search quite deep into my mind to remember the melody.”

We’re glad he did – it is a powerfully moving, and poignant song that is made even more so by the slight quiver in Patrick’s vocals – it is a song that has already been on regular repeat here at MM Towers.

Have a listen.