{"id":2497762,"date":"2026-07-11T10:43:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2497762"},"modified":"2026-07-11T10:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:43:54","slug":"how-the-covid-pandemic-inspired-the-young-novelists-latest-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/how-the-covid-pandemic-inspired-the-young-novelists-latest-album\/","title":{"rendered":"How the COVID pandemic inspired the Young Novelists\u2019 latest album"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>        <!-- image --><\/p>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Young Novelists. Photo by Jen Squires.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>        <!-- content --><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rootsmusic.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jan_banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rootsmusic.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jan_banner.jpg 728w, https:\/\/www.rootsmusic.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jan_banner-300x37.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rootsmusic.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jan_banner-400x49.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.rootsmusic.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jan_banner-600x74.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s amazing to see the lasting impact the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has had all these years later. The new Young Novelists album, <em>These Dark Canyons<\/em>, was a direct result of Graydon James and Laura Spink having to adapt from the usual way of doing things.<\/p>\n<p>Just prior to the shutdown, they were involved in a \u201crock lottery.\u201d The premise was to put participating musicians\u2019 names in a bowl. The names drawn were then used to create a number of bands for a one-time only concert. While most of the bands chose to perform songs they\u2019d already written, Laura\u2019s band decided to write all-new material. Coming home with half of a song she\u2019d written, Laura asked Graydon to help her finish it. As the pandemic lingered for month after month, the pair continued writing new songs. The result is <em>These Dark Canyons.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The new album is a departure for The Young Novelists in that up to now, the creative energy was mainly from the pen of Graydon. On the new album, it\u2019s Laura\u2019s narrative that\u2019s centre-stage.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Break The Whole Thing Down teaser\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ETg9sTJJ5qc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Living through the pandemic might have been easier for Graydon, Laura and their son because they\u2019d always gone on tour as a family. The years of living in close quarters taught them how to find solitude when it was needed, along with having family time for meals or walks outside. The convenience of having a piano next to the kitchen table meant they could clear the dishes one moment and work on a song the next.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of the sessions were emotional\u201d, says Graydon. \u201cBut that\u2019s a good thing. The reason for the album title if that sometimes you have to go through dark spaces to come out the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One element of those dark spaces was self-doubt on Laura\u2019s part as a new songwriter. She asked herself the questions all songwriters do when they\u2019re starting out; do these words make sense, does my voice sound okay, is it worth it to continue to write?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGraydon lets things roll off his back and is a steady ship\u201d, said Laura. \u201cSo it was lovely to have a partner who could be that in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Into Glory\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NS_UYG7yIzc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The days during the pandemic were a time for deep reflection where Laura questioned how music fit into her life. Given how music has been such a huge part of who she was, the prospect of not having it was at times a scary proposition. Thankfully, there\u2019s the new album and a renewed joy in music.<\/p>\n<p>Experiencing the trials and tribulations of creating new music is Laura and Graydon\u2019s son Simon, who\u2019s now a teenager. Luckily it\u2019s nothing new for him as he\u2019s been a witness to their creative process all of his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so normal for him because he\u2019s toured with us as a kid\u201d, said Laura. \u201cSo it\u2019s not at all exciting for him. But he did say he was proud of us, so that was lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more on The Young Novelists and These Dark Canyons, go to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/theyoungnovelists.com\">http:\/\/theyoungnovelists.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rootsmusic.ca \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Young Novelists. Photo by Jen Squires. It\u2019s amazing to see the lasting impact the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has had all these years later. The new Young Novelists album, These Dark Canyons, was a direct result of Graydon James and Laura Spink having to adapt from the usual way of doing things. Just prior [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2497763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2497762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/How-the-COVID-pandemic-inspired-the-Young-Novelists-latest-album.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2497764,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497762\/revisions\/2497764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2497763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}