Lost Film has regained its footing — and rediscovered its voice — in a pandemic-ravaged world. “Solitude can offer a silver lining of showing what we’re able to live with, and more importantly, live without,” explains the note that accompanies its new single, titled “Big Talk.” And apparently, the Easthampton-based project of Jim Hewitt can’t live without releasing new music, even after bouts of burnout.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hewitt has embraced the role of record label owner via Relief Map Records, his Western Massachusetts operation that’s home to artists like Ezra Cohen, Kitner, Kathy Snax, and Oh, Yes. But after two years of lending his expertise to others, Hewitt has turned his attention back to his own endeavors, today (May 18) releasing his new single “Big Talk” exclusively on Bandcamp. (The track hits streaming services this Friday, May 20).
“I suppose it was always inevitable for me to sign myself to my own label but I definitely second-guessed it for a bit,” he tells Vanyaland. “Relief Map was launched at the start of the pandemic at a time when I got burnt out on writing music so I shifted all of that energy to help lift my friend’s songs up. I also want it to be clear from the beginning that the label was its own vehicle and not just a name to tack onto my band’s press releases. At the same time though I’m proud of the little community we’re growing here and want to show that I believe in it enough to include my art, too.”
The fact that Hewitt recorded the single in July of 2020 — a particularly dismal summer for everyone — lends an ironic edge to its elated jangle. “Do you do it to feel okay? / Or do you do it to not feel the pain?” he muses as the song slows to a simmer.
“After almost two years of focusing solely on the label I have the capacity again to start sharing some of my own music, and I owe a lot of that to the friends I started playing with the past few months,” Hewitt adds. “‘Big Talk’ is a song I wrote during the burnout phase of early quarantining that we have a lot of fun playing live now, and that was definitely the final nudge to release it.”
Watch Hewitt rediscover that joy onstage at Easthampton’s Marigold Theater on June 8; in the meantime, tap in to “Big Talk” below.