DAVID WIMBISH & THE COLLECTION EPK

SHORT BIO David Wimbish wasn’t sure he had it in him to make another record. In the span of a year, the folk-pop/rock singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist went through a breakup, moved from Saxapahaw to Asheville, entered a new relationship and became a father, all while Hurricane Helene devastated his community. Friends went missing. There was no clean water for months. At the same time, his longtime band was falling apart. But through the exhaustion and uncertainty, David found his way back to music — and back to himself.

Now based in Richmond, Virginia, David returns with Heavy Love, the warm, bracingly honest new album from David Wimbish & The Collection. Written and recorded largely in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the album marks David’s first project created almost entirely on his own, with him writing, producing, and recording the record from a studio he built in his parents’ North Carolina home.

Growing up surrounded by music in North Carolina, David launched The Collection in college and has since built a devoted following through anthemic, heart-on-sleeve albums driven by stomp-and-holler energy, earnest songwriting, and deeply human storytelling. On Heavy Love, he explores aging, heartbreak, dissolved friendships, natural disasters, nonconformity, love as action, and existential uncertainty with immersive vulnerability and renewed clarity.

PRESS QUOTES:
”…evokes a sense of serenity with lofty vocals that eloquently deliver a timely reminder of kindness.” - American Songwriter

”The performance radiates of the powerful nature of hope.” - NPR Music

“Breezy acoustic guitar and a sweetly melancholy sentiment” - PARADE Magazine

“he is one of the most underrated songwriters and artists of our time” - Pop Passion

“David Wimbish has one of those voices that you don't forget once you've heard it.” - CHILLFLTR

SOCIALS LINKS:

instagram.com/davidwimbishandthecollection

tiktok.com/davidwimbishandtc

facebook.com/davidwimbishandtc

youtube.com/@davidwimbishandthecollection

STREAMING LINKS:

https://linktr.ee/davidwimbishandtc

BEST PERFORMING CONTENT FOR RUNNING ADS // Downloadable Photos, Video,bio, and Ad content: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/o0z64zlpe04ehquhp3hyi/AHVGEiTyHMi2r7XY0Q7l_No?rlkey=1bpn84cl3vexgn4nl7xbz42j2&st=l1l075ei&dl=0

LONG BIO:David Wimbish wasn’t sure he had it in him to make another record. It felt like too much had happened. Taken together, life had grown exhausting in ways the folk-pop/rock singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist had rarely experienced. In the span of about a year, the singer-songwriter and producer went through a breakup; he moved from Saxapahaw to Asheville; he entered a new relationship and soon became a father; and his new city was ravaged by Hurricane Helene. He had no clean water for six months. Friends went missing. To complicate matters, David’s longtime band was falling apart. 

“I just kind of hit a point where I was like, I'm not going to do this anymore,” says David, who is now settled in Richmond, Virginia, with his partner and new baby. But even in the depths of fatigue, he hoisted himself back up. He realized that he still had something to say as David Wimbish & the Collection. This time around, on the warm, bracingly honest, and effortlessly heartfelt new album Heavy Love, David is getting back to basics, and in the process, back to himself.  

Written and recorded largely in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Heavy Love is a singular production in every sense of the word. Unlike previous The Collection albums, David went forth sans collaboration, opting against playing with a backing band and choosing instead to write and produce everything on Heavy Love, which he recorded after building out a studio space on the second floor of his parents’ house in North Carolina. “It's the first time that I've done something with almost no collaborators and have not had to have anybody else's voices,” David says. “I've been doing music as a community for a long time, and now I feel like I can hear what my inner voice is saying.”

Growing up in North Carolina, David’s family home was typically filled with music. His mother taught and played multiple instruments, and his father designed their house with high ceilings and a big music room to accommodate hymnal singing, which David would do with his siblings. David’s earliest creative memories took place in church (his mother was a worship pastor and missionary). He has since left the church, but he still credits the environment with providing a foundation for music education, live performance, and audience connection.

In college, David began to write and record with friends, launching the community-driven creative experience that would eventually become David Wimbish & The Collection. Today, he’s amassed a hearty catalog of anthemic, heart-in-hand albums that pull the listener in with robust, stomp-and-holler melodies and David’s earnest, yearning vocal. 

Regardless of whether he’s surrounded by fellow musicians or hunkered down to write on his own, David eloquently articulates the complicated feelings of a generation. Heavy Love digs into the early aging process, lost love and friendship, coping with natural disasters, chasing nonconformity, and existential career ruminations – personal yet universal themes David addresses with immersive vulnerability.    

The journey to Heavy Love began with the sweetly twangy “Closure,” which layers an easygoing rhythm over slide guitar and a blended harmony on the chorus. “I wrote ‘Closure’ in the wake of a major breakup,” David shares. “At first, much of Heavy Love was going to be a breakup album, but after some healing, I decided that those songs were just for me. This one, though, felt like the sum of the others: a song about realizing that you just have to move on and find peace in whatever way you can.”

Opener “Closest Friend” echoes David’s penchant toward balancing disappointment with hope and lessons learned. It fills the room with acoustic guitar, shining strings, a laid-back rhythm, and a room-filling chorus as David remembers a cathartic post-breakup drive. “Between recording sessions for Heavy Love, I scrolled through a friend’s Stories following her road trip across the States following a major breakup. One of them asked, ‘Why can I see all this beauty and still feel sad that nobody wants to see it with me?’ It reminded me of my own post-break-up cross-country trips and the spaces of grief that can infiltrate even the highest moments of joyful experience. I realized that our grief is what allows us to connect to others that have experienced deep sorrow.”     

Later, personal evolution is top of mind on the strings-soaked, percussive single “Almost Who I Am,” which features drums by Chaisaray Schneck and kicks off with crisp acoustic strums before building into an urgent, upbeat mantra for growth. “All of us have lay awake at night in embarrassment of a stupid thing we said a few hours before,” David says. “This song came from that space: a sudden and deep awareness of a time I did not live up to the best version of myself.”

David also considers the meaning of love as a verb on the gently rocking “Worry,” an album single about how to channel affection into acts of service. “The older I get, the more I focus on the actions that mean love when the words are absent: doing an errand for someone, making the bed, telling someone to drive safe and text when they make it home,” David expands. “‘Worry’ came out of a desire to put to words a real, loving relationship.”

On the hand-clapping and whistling “Sermon,” David takes stock of what outside forces would have us believe constitutes a good life versus what we want for ourselves. He says: “You spend years living the way others tell you — parents, religion, schools. But there’s always someone who does it differently, who pushes the boundaries of what you thought life could be. ‘Sermon’ is for those folks, the ones who don’t conform, who figure things out their own way.”

Heavy Love also sees David also unpacking dissolved friendships: The stomp-clap country romp “Thank You For Leaving” bids farewell to connections, both romantic and platonic, that no longer serve. “Several important friendships and relationships ended while writing this record, and my heart shattered in the process,” David says. “But there’s something beautiful about a broken heart. The pain makes you very aware of the present moment. This song came out of that space. Each time our heart is broken, we become stronger and more aware of who we are in the world.”

Finally, David spends the mid-tempo “Miracle” ruminating over a friend accepting less than they deserve from their relationship. “We’ve all had this experience — that the friend we love dearly starts dating someone who dulls the light in their eyes,” he says. “You want to tell them, ‘Just leave! You’re so much better alone!’ But you risk losing the friendship if you do.”

Though David moves across a range of growing pains, his experiences are bound to resonate with anyone who’s heard God laugh at their plans. “Making Heavy Love was incredibly healing,” David says. “It was a return to the beginning of music for me. I arrived at this place of finding joy again in my life and with the music. This album is for me in a way that my albums haven't been in a long time.”