Canyon City Gets Introspective On “Purple Horizon”

“The mental image I have of the experience ‘Purple Horizon’ comes from is this sensation that much of life is suspended in air as you take a moment to kind of walk around the room, look at all the things floating around you, take stock of what’s there, what isn’t and how you should be interacting with all of it,” Paul Johnson told American Songwriter.

Johnson releases music under the moniker Canyon City and on July 23 he released “Purple Horizon,” the first single off his forthcoming EP Circling The Sun which is due December 4 via Nettwerk. Contemplative and utterly minimalist, Johnson’s music puts his heart directly in the spotlight. Asking questions like “Where do you run when you don’t know what you’re racing?” and cathartically exclaiming things like “Oh this life is long,” this song almost feels as if contemporary worship bands like Hillsong Worship dipped into the secular game. 

“At the time of writing, I was impacted by recently turning 30 and seeing some things fade behind me while also straining to better understand the still many unknowns up ahead,” Johnson said. “Though I wrote this song (along with the rest of the EP) before the global pandemic, when I play it now, it has sort of taken shape around that experience as well — this moment of interrogating the path I’m on and where to now re-focus or course-correct. The last line, ‘fast and slow we’re circling the sun…’ is where the EP gets its title from, and I think sets ups the theme of this set of songs — exploring a life that you feel paradoxically wrapped up in and apart from as you personally evolve and time does its work.”

Listen to “Purple Horizon” by Canyon City below: