Katie Tupper releases “Safe Ground,” the final preview before her debut album ‘Greyhound’ arrives January 21 via Arts & Crafts, delivering an unshakeable promise to a best friend as life grows new branches and gnarls. The Saskatoon-born singer says this is her platonic love song, written to her best friend about how lucky she feels to know her and promising to always be a safe spot for her to land. Her smoky alto voice, often compared to Olivia Dean and Charlotte Day Wilson, wraps together soul, indie, and alternative R&B with just a touch of folky twang across the 11-track record produced by her touring partners and frequent collaborators Justice Der, who has worked with Rachel Bobbitt and Dylan Sinclair, and Felix Fox from BADBADNOTGOOD. Tupper’s devotion holds true whether her roots run beneath endless plains or city skylines, and ‘Greyhound’ unites the prairie roots of her past with the blended and expanded worldview of her present.
Speaking on the record, Tupper explains that greyhounds racing on tracks are given parameters and rabbit decoys to chase that are unreachable, with the decoy speeding up if the fastest dog gets close, making her think about her relationships and how she acts in the world as both the greyhound and the decoy, chasing something unreachable and being the thing that cannot be caught. The album serves as a confessional of lessons learned and things we leave behind, with love at the heart ranging from romantic to platonic to rooted in a place. Before releasing a debut record, Tupper has amassed over 22 million streams worldwide and received a JUNO Award nomination for Traditional R&B/Soul Recording of the Year, selling out shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago ahead of making an official US debut.