Over the past couple of years, I’ve spilled a copious amount of virtual ink covering the Blinker The Star, led by its Pembroke, Ontario-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind, Jordon Zadorozny. Initially started as a solo recording project, Blinker The Star has gone through several different iterations throughout its existence, including being a full-fledged band, as well as featuring a rotating cast of collaborators and players.
Zadorozny’s tenth Blinker The Star album, last year’s Arista was a covers album that saw the Canadian artist tackling hits by Solange, ZZ Top, No Doubt, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Boz Scaggs, The Rolling Stones, Land of Talk, Aerosmith and others.
Continuing upon his long-held reputation for being remarkably prolific, Zadorozny’s 11th Blinker The Star album is dropping later this year. The album’s third and latest single, “Touch” is a cover of a song originally written and recorded by Digital Noise Academy, a project that featured Zadorozny, Failure‘s Ken Andrews, Creeper Lagoon‘s Sharky Laguana and an acclaimed cast of collaborators. The song appears on the project’s only album to date, 2013’s Synemy.
The Blinker The Star cover, which features Montreal-based vocalist Emmanuelle Boies is a fairly straightforward cover of a criminally under-appreciated and lushly arranged pop ballad featuring some well-placed, razor-sharp hooks, twinkling keys, shimmering guitars and some Guitar Hero-like guitar licks paired with Zadorozny and Boies’ gorgeous harmonies. But underneath the careful, deliberate attention to craft is a song full of palpable, earnest longing.
“I’d always loved the song and thought it deserved more attention,” the Pembroke-born and-based JOVM mainstay explains. “Emmanuelle and I had a few days alone at the studio this past spring, so we decided to see what our voices would sound like together and thought that ‘Touch’ would be the perfect song. It was written to be sung as a duet and once we lined our phrasing up, I knew it was going to work.
“It’s a very sensual song and not only was it fun to sing, I loved getting a bit loose with the electric guitars during the end part. A lot of my time in the studio is spent in a very sober, analytical frame of mind, so it was fun to chug a beer and put on my Joe Perry hat for an hour.”
