Bahamas

Afie Jurvanen doesn’t spend much time in cities anymore. For nearly two decades he was a Toronto mainstay — a trusted collaborator for Feist, The Weather Station, and Kathleen Edwards, and the architect behind Bahamas. Across six albums he’s grown from the restless spark of Pink Strat to the warm domestic calm of Bootcut.

Drawn to open space, Jurvanen moved his family to Nova Scotia in 2019, living, he jokes, “close to Mennonite.” The kids are homeschooled, no one has an iPad, and texts feel like miracles. But after recording Bootcut in Nashville with country legends Vince Gill, Sam Bush, and Mickey Raphael, he came home wondering if he could make more music outside the city.

That question led to My Second Last Album, recorded in a backyard shed with fellow expat Joshua Van Tassel. They played every note themselves — from the buzzing acoustics of “Shadows” to the dreamy Mellotron of “Play the Game” — following their instincts wherever they led. The result is loose, luminous, and quietly bold.

Lyrically, Jurvanen is at his most candid and playful, musing on government handouts, early mornings, and raising daughters. “Don’t hold back / share your opinion,” he sings on “Sauna.” It’s an album about living simply, choosing joy, and belonging.

Unsure what to do with it at first, Jurvanen finally realized the obvious: he loved these songs, this snapshot of who he’d become — a husband, father, and musician content to make music by the sea.