Horny Goat

We headed up to my parents place in Uxbridge, Ontario to set-up shop in a barn/cabin that my dad and i built together. It was my dad's project and i was glad to be part of its construction as much as i could. It was constructed out of barn board slabs, rough hewn wood and old posts, found discarded or given by friends from old homes. There is a smell that lingers inside which is deeply appealing to me. Something to do with the feel of the earth, the natural, the old ways enjoyed by modern minds. Even during its construction i had always envisioned the band recording in there. There is an open space big enough to set-up gear in an inward facing circle. And so, after clearing our schedules we headed up to my dads place for one weekend to record fifteen tracks that we had written and readied while waiting for lawyers and labels to do their thing with our still un-released new record 'Nothing to Admit.'

Gathering the required gear and substances, we headed the 45 minute drive north of Toronto in three separate cars, arriving in the early afternoon beneath the heat conjured by the full force of the overhanging sun. We began setting up right away and had all the wiring done in a few hours complete with level checks and stopping to occasionally trouble shoot and crack the cap off another beer. 

We did all the takes live off the floor over the course of the next three days (only recording during the daylight hours), and then continuing to pummel our bodies around a blazing fire at night and where our feet took us around the property. My parents and siblings were very kind largely letting us do our own thing inside our little building dubbed the 'Horny Goat' by my Dad. 

Most of the songs were fully realized when we pushed the record button, but some were works in progress. 

List of tracks:

Nothing stopping us now (Sharks)

Roman Candles

Collapse

Everything is a daydream

My Mountain; Pilgrimage

French Cross

Gorgeous Eyes

Terr'r

Dead Heart

Scaredy Cat

Peripheral love

Rain Blues

Geoff Riff (working title)

and then we recorded two covers just for fun:

Christine's tune by the Flying Burrito Brothers

Dead Flowers by the Rolling Stones

They all turned out remarkably well, the sound of the room was great and we used minimal mics so we could record eight tracks (the most we had available at one time) at once. Its interesting to hear how all the songs stacked up against each other during playback, they are all coming from a certain timeframe and mood and somewhere in it all there is a common tone about our current mind space. I wonder what others will read into them. 

We have had opportnity now to try out some of the new songs on crowds (the inevitable next step) some always go over better than others etc. but the response has been. Its the freshness that keeps it all fresh, makes sense doesn't it?

 

Heading to Halifax

On short notice, we were accepted to play as Joel Plasket's opening band this coming friday (friday sept.11th) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We are all very excited to be heading out to the east coast. Life seems a bit more like a friendly venture in the eastern provinces of Canada. Without this band i doubt i would have ever experienced them.
Being in a band has given us a destination in most of Canada, i never truly appreciated the country that i live and the world in general until touring. Traveling cramped into a van with my band mates and experiencing every inch of the road set before us leaving behind our families, loves and lovers, jobs and all the day-to-day, pigeon-holed, home situations. Finding landmarks well known and creating them from stories made while slumming it and partying till the sun has risen the next day. People that we have met... Girls and general party mates, or suppliers of parties, other bands. We have accumulated our stories! 
Our band started out in Oshawa, opening for traveling bands coming through town, one of them being Thrush Hermit, Joel Plasket's original band. we were all big fans. I still have a signed copy of Clayton Park with all the members at that time. It's still a great fucking record. It feels like revisiting our past and a reinvention of it to head out and open for the man now. We have earned our stripes a bit more. Grown, aged, waited and been inspired to keep on going. We have toured and look forward to long stretches of it in the not too distant future. 

There is nothing quite like sitting in the front seat of a van, driving all through the night and seeing the sun rise through your windshield. watching that yellow line in the middle of your sight, break up into dashes and then become solid again and again. endless coffee stops and music playing. Smoking a joint on the coast line. The rest stops and culture shifts everywhere you go. It becomes a moment to moment world. Sight to sight. Stranger to strange into familiarity into another day. 

Nothing stopping us now.

Ruffled hair and a mid-afternoon still attired in my housecoat, a cigarette in my lips. Things roll by my window on two-wheels or four. The air-show is happening in Toronto right now, the thundering of jets circling the skies above the Ex. Have just finished re-playing an incredible show over in my mind from saturday at the Boat. A lot of old friends showing to catch-up and see what is new in our world. It was one of the best shows we have played in a long-time in our collective mind. Full of the spirit which we built our house on. I hope you were there, dancing with the rest of the crowd. A home town show can be a strange thing sometimes. there were a lot of old and new faces in the sea, 'some are dead and some are living.' It is amazing the associations a band can make having been playing for almost a decade now. The old/new loves, old/new friends, old/new peers. Sometimes you get glimmers of the length of the road you have chosen to design and travel upon and hope that the music is the soundtrack fitting to it. The best that i am is on-stage for all to see, the more the years roll out it becomes more true. we are ourselves, the well-practiced expression of our truest form.