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Dec 12, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Talitha Lahme

Folk Rock singer/songwriter Ian Fisher has fashioned himself in the mold of a nomadic singer/songwriter, living between Toronto, Vienna, and his family farm. He has also remained similarly creatively restless, having written 2,000 songs and released over a dozen studio albums. Most recently, he returned last year with his latest album Burnt Tongue, and he has spent the subsequent year working on his forthcoming follow-up, Go Gentle.

Go Gentle once again leans on Fisher’s blend of warm coffeeshop folk, sprawling rock songcraft, and winsome pop melody. However, in contrast to the record’s golden-hued sonics, Fisher’s lyrics find him unpacking his experiences following the death of his mother after a 26-year fight with cancer. The full album is out on February 7th, and Fisher has already teased the record with a series of new singles, “The Face of Losing,” “Independence Day,” and “Take You With Me.” Today, he’s back with another new single, “Growing Pains,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Growing Pains” is a gentle and nostalgic tour through life’s lingering aches and pains. Initially, Fisher’s vocals move in stirring harmonies, colored only by meditative fingerpicked guitar, twinkling keys, and weepy pedal steel tones. Though the track eventually fills out with hints of percussion and swaying instrumental harmonies, it also retains a startling intimacy, matching its reflective lyrics with equally plaintive instrumentation. Fisher’s makes the track feel like a private confession, as if he is opening a family scrapbook and laying bare all of the treasured moments and painful memories that have shaped his very being. He recalls financial struggles, unexpected moves, and a heartbreaking diagnosis, returning each time to a touching realization: “Growing pains / I thought I’d be safe by now from suffering caused by change / Growing pains

Fisher says, “Trauma etches the grooves in the records we are. I was born in South Florida in the late 80’s. My dad had a construction accident. We were broke in more ways than one. We moved back up to Missouri where my family was from. I hated it. Within a couple years of arriving, my mom got breast cancer. And it shaped me. Oh, how it shaped me. In the forests of Ste. Genevieve, my hometown, you’ll find what my great grandpa Carroll used to call ‘thong trees,’ saplings that Native Americans had tied down with leather belts so they’d grow pointing towards fresh water. My dad’s accident and my mom’s cancer were the belts that bent me towards the dark.”

Check out the song early below. Go Gentle is out everywhere on February 7th.