For Cloverdale鈥檚 , the journey to make his latest album took seven circuitous years.

His path meandered through Cloverdale in the different homes he lived in over the years and twisted through the thousands of iterations of each song. He recorded and re-recorded songs and pieces of songs over and over and over in a labour-intensive endeavour to uncover the perfect sound for his creations.

"It was pretty intense鈥攖o go through that,鈥� Hoy said of the process. 鈥淏ut it was a total nightmare making the album."

That album, 鈥淓nigmatic," was finally released Aug. 30.

Over that seven-year span, Hoy released four singles鈥擭ight Drive, Rude Girl, Physical Therapy, and Next to Nine鈥攖hose too then being reworked to fit in with the other five on 鈥淓nigmatic鈥� to make them 鈥渁ll sound like one piece.鈥�

I Wanna Know

One of his new tracks, 鈥淚 Wanna Know鈥� is already getting airplay with 性视界传媒's Pulse FM 107.7. Hoy was interviewed live and the track 鈥渨as put into regular rotation on their radio station,鈥� Ann Beuadet, Hoy鈥檚 mom and manager told the Cloverdale Reporter via email.

Hoy said it was 鈥減retty wild鈥� to know his song was being played on air, 鈥渏ust to know that I could turn the radio on and I could be on at any time.鈥�

Beaudet noted Hoy, 鈥渉osted an album listening party at The Clayton Public House and signed CDs and sold shirts for his fans.鈥�

Hoy also brought all the people who worked on the album over the years to come to the listening party.

"Basically, everyone on the album is from Cloverdale,鈥� he noted. 鈥淭he backup guitarist, the backup singer, the instrumentalists that are on the album, they're all just friends from my high school, Lord Tweedsmuir.鈥�

He said the songs are all written based on stories from his life in Cloverdale and people that know him will know the stories.

鈥淭hey know exactly what I'm talking about,鈥� he explained. 鈥淲hen I say, 鈥榳e were here and we did this and we did that and there was this person here,鈥� they all know what I'm talking about. The names have been changed but it's all real stories.鈥�

Intro to Enigmatic

The idea for 鈥淓nigmatic鈥� was born when Hoy was in a hip hop group in 2017. The group was disbanding and he didn't know if he was going to continue creating music or not. 

He eventually settled on making his own solo album, but he didn't know how to record the instruments for it. He didn't sing and he'd never recorded a pop or rock song before. So he started teaching himself how to sing and started producing the songs on a computer in his bedroom.

"I did (versions) of these songs over and over until I ended up with nine,鈥� Hoy noted. "It took me seven straight years, just for the nine songs, just to get them to sound this way.鈥�

He repeatedly tinkered with them just to get each track to a point where he thought they were good enough.

I Can't Take It Anymore

"I had whole songs I had to chop in half and remove parts from," he explained. "I kept asking people for their advice and they would say, 'it's not really ready yet' and I'd ask what was wrong with it, and it would hurt, but I decided I was just going to listen to everyone.鈥�

As he was going through all the blood, sweat, and tears of his self-imposed process, people would continually tell him not to proceed. They told him to not spend the time and suffer the heartache on an album that might never be completed. But Hoy knew in his heart he would finish it.

As years begat years, Hoy became concerned his songs also might sound out of date by the time the album was done.

"I made the songs in a way that if you waited and listened to it in another 10 years, the songs would still sound good and they wouldn't be out of date."

I Can Be Your Everything

The bedrooms he recorded in were all his own.

"I kept having to move around, I was like renting, I often had small rooms,鈥� he explained. 鈥淥ne bedroom I had was about 7x8. It was like a closet. I had this saxophonist come in. I didn't know what I was doing with the recording. I didn't have the right type of microphone. It wasn't a good space to record a saxophone in.鈥�

But Hoy said he 鈥渏ust figured it out.鈥� He had to go in and edit each audio element and often remove noise.

鈥淚t came out sounding like any good recording that would have been done in a studio, but it just took so much effort.鈥�

He said that effort was compounded by the small bedroom spaces.

鈥淚 used a lot of DIY techniques to make it sound right because I was working in bedrooms. It was like Lego pieces, putting together these sounds. I got extreme with it for sure,鈥� he said with a laugh. 

The hardest thing he faced over the seven years was something he calls 鈥渄emoitis.鈥�

鈥淲hen you hear the song so many times, you can't get your head around it anymore,鈥� he explained. "I've heard this album 10,000 times.鈥�

Night Drive

His highlight over the last seven years was making the Night Drive music video in 2021. It was the midway point for him on the album. 

"Seeing that video on the screen with everyone who's in the video, and just bringing the whole idea to life, was the most special moment during the creation of the album,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淪eeing everyone else see something that I made for the first time after years was really special.鈥�

As for the new album, Hoy hopes people enjoy the music and also enjoy the Cloverdale stories in the songs.

"I wanted to plant the seeds here and make my stories about my hometown."

Next up for Hoy, he's writing an album that will be less personal, but also all about Cloverdale. And he's already got a handful of songs ready to go.

"It's a bunch of urban legends about Cloverdale and all the different street names and the things that people do in Cloverdale,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚'm intending on putting Cloverdale on the map, musically."

Hoy said the album will be out soon and "definitely not" in seven years.

For more info on Hoy, or to purchase CDs or vinyl, visit . His songs can also be found on Spotify, Apple music, and YouTube.