With Island, the latest single from his ambitious double album Morning & Midnight, Texas songwriter Ezra Vancil steps into the warm glow of renewal. Where the project’s earlier release Babylove carried the weight of heartbreak, Islandbreathes peace—an exhale after years of emotional rebuilding. Recorded in a rustic East Texas cabin and wrapped in intimate acoustics, the track feels like sunlight filtering through trees: gentle, earned, and quietly transformative.

Vancil has spent a decade shaping Morning & Midnight, a two-part record documenting the collapse and restoration of his marriage, the unraveling and re-weaving of family, and the slow path from loss to forgiveness. Known for his raw Americana storytelling and cinematic production style, Ezra has earned critical recognition as a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition and Kerrville New Folk, and as a winner in Unsigned Only and NewSong. Yet Island might be one of the clearest distillations of what makes his writing so compelling—its sincerity, its tenderness, and its sense of lived truth.

The song’s origin story is as heartfelt as its sound. Written a few years after Ezra and his wife reconciled, Island carries the memory of a simple beach trip with their daughter—a moment of calm after years of emotional upheaval. That sense of fragile, fleeting balance becomes the heart of the song. Its melodies roll like quiet waves, while its lyrics reach for the kind of peace you don’t take for granted after surviving heartbreak.

Recorded in a cabin deep in the East Texas woods, the track embraces imperfection in the best way. Taking inspiration from The Beatles’ no-headphones recording style, Ezra set up monitors and played the song live into the room. You can hear the air, the warmth, the tiny echoes of wood and wildlife. It’s a sound that breathes. It feels real, unpolished in a deliberate, intimate way—music not built in isolation but born in a lived space.

The players bring their own glow to the track. Ty Richards adds a shimmering, surf-tinged electric guitar, while Jon Estes lays down fluid bass and Chris Brush gives life to a beat built from an old church-organ sample. Ezra’s daughter, Cozi Vancil, provides harmonies that soften the entire track into something timeless. Mixed by JP Ruggieri, Island sits in that tender place between Americana grit and indie-pop shimmer—somewhere between Chris Whitley’s earthiness and The Beach Boys’ light.

Within the broader arc of Morning & Midnight, Island marks a turning point. The Midnight half explores heartbreak, collapse, and the years spent searching the dark; the Morning half moves toward healing. Island, resting firmly on the Morning side, is the album’s deep breath. It’s the quiet realization that survival has given way to something gentler: a chance to live again.

Ezra has described the song as a reminder that peace doesn’t always last—but when it arrives, you notice it. That sentiment sits at the core of the track and, in many ways, at the core of Morning & Midnight: that love can break and return, that life keeps moving, and that sometimes we’re given small, perfect moments just long enough to believe in beauty again.

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