After roughly one year of recording and editing to get just the right sound, Winnipeg’s J. Riley Hill is releasing his first official solo LP on Woven Records this month.

Hill, formerly of the fo!ps and J.R. Hill & the Oktars, has recorded and released his own music in the past, but says he’s never spent so much time on one project before.

“I used to feel like I had to release everything I recorded,” Hill says. “So I had all these songs that I would release and there was just no focus. It was cool at the time, but I started to get tired of having all my albums be something I was embarassed by or had no desire to listen to.”

In 2009, Hill released a digital album every week for seven straight weeks. He says the experience left him creatively drained and made him realize what he really wanted was to spend time polishing an album that he could tour, promote and be proud of.

“With other albums I’ve made, I didn’t feel like promoting them because I was tired of them a week after they were done,” he says. “You go on tour, you play a solo set or something, and someone says, ‘Oh, I like that set,’ and I’d be like, ‘OK, what to buy one of four albums that sound nothing like that?’”

Hill plans to tour next year as much as possible with the band that backed him at the album’s release show last month, The Bipolar Bears.

He says the album is poppy, but is uncomfortable placing it in any one genre.

“It’s like rock and pop, but it’s different styles to achieve the same goal: catchy songs that are interesting to listen to.”

If you’ve seen J.R. Hill & the Oktars, you may have heard some of the album’s songs before, but not as they are now.

“Almost all of the songs are songs I’ve previously recorded or played live,” Hill says. “They’re songs that stood out. But with the Oktars, it wasn’t like I told the guys how to play. They are a really good live band, but that sound definitely wasn’t what I wanted with this album.”

Hill wrote all of the songs and played all of the instruments himself. The album will be available on vinyl, tape and CD on Tuesday, June 12 via Woven Records. To pre-order it, or to listen to the first single, Alone, visit www.tinyurl.com/jrhalone.