Cutting away from the moody production of the first single “Bad Dream” this new single takes an intensely earnest approach, combining Tim Bettinson’s signature nimble vocals with loving acoustic caresses. “Summer ‘09” was written in entirety one beautiful afternoon, about the tragic passing of a close friend to Tim. 

Listen to “Summer ’09” here.

The story is best reflected in the words of Bettinson himself: “At the end of 2017, I got the call that one of my closest friends had died completely out of the blue. We had grown up inseparable; always playing sport and music together all the way to playing on stage with me for the first Vancouver Sleep Clinic shows. My world was flipped upside down and it took days to think properly and months before I could even stomach the idea of writing again. It was an afternoon in Bali close to a year later when my friend Luke started playing those guitar chords and gentle rain began falling outside. Everything that had been bottled up inside of me since that day suddenly flooded onto the page and Summer ‘09 was written; a song to forever immortalize our special connection and those memories from our youth. Since then Summer ‘09 has been with me everywhere, in my headphones, in the car, in the park, in my room, and anywhere there is a guitar. Now the time has come for it to be in the world; and although it is difficult for me to let go of, it gives me peace to know that something that stood as my place of healing & refuge for so long can now be yours also.”

The heartbreak of losing someone is palpable in both the song and the music video, which was premiered by Wonderland Magazine, and conveys the story behind the song with an immersive collection of hazy, nostalgic shots that draw the viewer completely into its world.

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Vancouver Sleep Clinic, the stage name of Brisbane producer Tim Bettinson, has existed at the forefront of ambient and indie pop music worldwide since their debut EP ‘Winter’ in 2014, a position which was only intensified by the success of his 2017 full-length debut album ‘Revival’, and 2018 EPs ‘Therapy Phase 01’ and ‘Therapy Phase 02’.

In the autumn of 2018, Bettinson and his best friends from high school headed to Bali, making their home in a mountaintop house many miles up a dirt road. For two months, the Brisbane-born artist and his companions spent their days riding mopeds through the countryside, running around the beaches, playing in waterfalls, and—most essentially—working on music together for the first time in years.

The result was his new album, ‘Onwards to Zion’, which unfolds with the chameleonic musicality first revealed on Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s 2017 full-length debut ‘Revival’. But in a purposeful departure from his forays into electronically driven song construction, Bettinson wrote much of the album on a $100 nylon guitar bought at one of Bali’s only music stores.

“I’d started getting used to making three-and-half-minute songs with a beat and a hook—but the thing is that I don’t really come from making beats,” he said. “I used to busk, I used to be that guy who went to parties with an acoustic guitar: that’s where I came from. The whole direction of this album changed for me once I realized I wanted to put the focus back on guitar again.” 

‘Onwards To Zion’ is set to be released on October 15th. 

“Summer ‘09” is available to stream on all platforms now.