Octoberman returns with Chutes, the band’s seventh full-length album, out August 27 on Ishmalia Records. Produced by Jarrett Bartlett and Marc Morrissette, and engineered by Bartlett at Ottawa’s Little Bullhorn Studios, Chutes finds the long-running indie-folk collective in a reflective, stripped-back mood. Recorded live to two-inch tape, without click tracks or screens, the result is a loose, warm, and emotionally resonant album that embraces both imperfection and presence.
From the opening line—“It’s hard to know just how to grow old”—Marc Morrissette sets the tone for a record preoccupied with aging, shifting relationships, and the inevitable churn of personal history. “Half of these songs were from old demo ideas found on a hard drive,” he explains. “They’re third-party storytelling songs about complete strangers. The other half are newer and more introspective—capturing the idea of aging, endings, and new beginnings.” The songs flow between perspectives but are unified by a thread of curiosity and compassion.
After two decades of evolving sounds and lineups, Chutes brings together longtime bandmates Marc Morrissette (guitar, vocals, synth), Marshall Bureau (drums, vibraphone), Tavo Diez de Bonilla (bass, vocals), J.J. Ipsen (guitar), and Annelise Noronha (accordion, banjo, guitar, background vocals). The live-off-the-floor approach at Little Bullhorn was later complemented by overdubs in home studios across Ontario. “I knew for Chutes that I wanted to take a DIY, live, and organic approach as much as possible,” says Morrissette. “The end result is a more spare and relaxed-sounding album, with new instrumentation ideas like accordion, banjo, and vibraphone that hadn’t shown up on Octoberman records previously.”
That understated warmth supports songs that explore grief, memory, and resilience. Following the death of his mother, Morrissette found himself more attuned to impermanence and the fragile nature of stability. “Losing an ever-present person in my life made me more afraid of it happening again, especially as a father and husband. In the end, it’s like losing a part of yourself that never comes back.”
Over seven albums and two EPs, Octoberman has carved out a space that’s earned comparisons to a “sunnier Elliott Smith or Sparklehorse” (Uncut) and “Stephen Malkmus at his loosest” (Pitchfork). Their music has landed on shows like Grey’s Anatomy and shared stages with the likes of Julie Doiron, Mount Eerie, and Owen Pallett. With members now spread across Ontario after stints in Toronto and Vancouver, Chutes arrives not as a reinvention but a quiet reaffirmation—an album that accepts change as a given and makes peace with it, one song at a time.