It’s not a riddle it’s a stepping stone

I first heard Half Moon Run’s 21 Gun Salute and the intensely dramatic beginning to that song with lead vocals by Devon Portielje on the CBC at a live show, just a couple of months ago. It was meditative even ambient – and I was entranced –instantly inspired – including other songs like Full Circle.

Although I had not heard of them before, I felt it was a new mission of mine to share the gift of music with my family (including my preschool age children on some certain tracks (Call me in the afternoon even by one by one [x2 ]is sung around the hosue like a Christmas Carol substituting some words in for the obvious) and all my friends and social network so they too could enjoy this gift. That being said there was something sacred in hearing them for the first time. It was so different yet modern but there was a comfort in it that seemed to be missing in most modern music, and not felt by me personally, since artists like Bob Dylan, and Ballads from Simon & Garfunkel, I was introduced to in my youth.

That same day after discovering and enjoying the first album on iTunes (Dark Eyes Released June 2013) My musical journey with HMR led me to discover the second album which coincidentally was released that same day!

Sun Leads Me, Released Oct 23, 2015

It was a groovier sound and a more uplifting album than the first. It assisted in my creativity and put me in a greater mindset, having just emerged from the writing depths, after 10 years and creating again myself personally.

In researching the journey of the band, from recording in the desert (Texas) to California (For some seaside inspiration, leading up to the Second Album, and living in a dome shaped Oceanside house fit just right for a inspirational surf all day and late night magic sessions ) To experimenting in Europe in what appears to be a bit of a Rave Scene – road testing songs like Trust - it all lines up triumphantly.

I was lucky enough to experience this live set of troubadours on Dec 7th, 2015 at Sugar Nightclub in Victoria BC to a sold out show where some fans paid 9 x the door price just to get in. After staying late and meeting the eclectic mix of supporters, including a High School French Teacher and his wife who also thought their sound was as transcendent and made the journey to support them from up Island (Where most of the band hails from in Comox), to the sprawl of young woman who clearly were there for the "act" to the Lead Vocalist Devon Portielje who you could say in my excitement of après show and with my slight nerves "When a sip of gin saved an hour of speech - Nerve " I didn’t quite get the interview I thought I would - instead Briefly – you could say I found speaking with Devon clearly exhaustive from his end.

This band tours and plays almost nightly I would have asked him who "stole his Sunny Day" – but I could tell he was wiped. I asked him if the band would emerge on the Island again soon (Returning to play Rifflandia in 2016 like in 2014 but he didn’t commit to that.)

I spoke to his interests and would he get a chance to Surf the Jordan River on his visit to the Island but he said they only had 8 hours in the city and then off to Vancouver for the next nights sold out show at the Imperial.

This Band works hard – you forget sometimes when you haven’t seen an emerging act for awhile ( My last show was UB40 in the summer at the Commodore in Vancouver ) that to really put yourself forward you have to put in the hours (years ) on Tour (They actually toured Dark Eyes for three years !)

Just the fact that the Lead from the opening act for that nights show (Nick
Vallee from Folly & The Hunter) was assisting behind the counter at the merchandise booth after a long night and travel… well that’s a team of working mans bands.

More on the Music, there is huge variety in sounds on the current album, Sun Leads me – with the gritty Narrow Margins - There is a hint of Flamingo music that quickly folds into a somewhat Hip Hop beat – the sound not found anywhere else on the album, speaks like a story its very cool and soulful. It wasn’t played in the show, as I had anticipated – it’s a story of sorts that sounds very introspective.

Highlighting the further talents of Connor Molander (Harmonica being my favorite) one can find a cover done of the modern, Chvrches –The Mother we Share on the BBC Radio 1 (01/2014) then found again in the finale to the current live show touring with the Cover to Bob Dylan’s , Shall be released – seeing it live is spectacular - it was clever and mirrored the original art but with a tang of HMR.

There are confessional tones and a little sadness on both albums – and stories of what appears to be glimpse into the world of addiction – Music is a challenging business for anyone who has had this in their lives – this band however appears to live clean and is into a very healthy lifestyle from surfing to organic gardening mentioned to me by a family friend at the show about Issac’s Symonds (Mandolin extraordinaire and haunting vocalist) wishes for at organic landscaping book for Christmas.

I have heard Dylan Philips (Drummer – who has a great timing and a soulful sound as a professionally trained pianist – and always rocks the keyboard) said in other interviews that in terms of personal struggles that they have had the music guide them as a group – I noticed words formed around the struggle with being saved and loss of faith - perhaps even a loss of hope there – I hope they will continue to explore some further element of faith and that this translates to even more extraordinary music from this talented group, I am proud to call Canadian and will continue to share as their talents that will be sure to surprise us with further gifts in the future.

I clicked the you tube link on HMR’s website and watched some videos they had favored and found: TORA : and now I feel like the gifts just keep giving.

In the next feature story coming in January 2016:

　

Artist Profile: Half Moon Run

Singer Devon Portielje on vocals, guitar and percussion;

Conner Molander on vocals, guitar and keyboard;

Dylan Phillips on vocals, drums and keyboard;

Isaac Symonds on vocals, percussions, mandolin, keyboard and guitar.

Hardest Thing Of All  

P,Tinham 05.15.2018

ROYAL

WOOD

Royal Wood is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and arranger based in Toronto, Ontario.  

As an artist, Royal channelled polar opposite emotions into his new album Ever After The Farewell (4.6.2018 Cadence Music Group/Universal). The album was recorded in London, UK, with Jamie Scott (Rag'n Bone Man, Michael Kiwanuka, Niall Horan and Ed Sheeran),

Royal's album encompasses themes of both loss and love and is an absolute treasure.  We caught up with Royal on a recent tour. We banter about amazing venues, life on the road, the new album, heartbreak and new found love.

SLM: Royal, Congratulations on your seventh album Ever After The Farewell, Royal Wood has a great anthology of tracks with no exception here, a very personal and very special album thank you for taking the time with us today.  Your upcoming tour in May leading into the summer, you're playing in some amazing spaces, including Massey Hall. In speaking to Colin James,  last year, he had some very strong reverence from Massey Hall referencing the amazing vertical alignment of the crowd, and the sheer feeling of these space. You were part of the Ghost Light Sessions. What can you tell us about what the space means to you?

ROYAL: Thank you so much. Well, it's kind of a long answer. I'd say Massey Hall was the very first proper venue I ever saw a show, I was a kid, I was 14 and I just remember sitting there feeling such a magical energy, in such a space. Shortly after that I decided to look into Massey Hall, and sort of realizing that every artist I'd loved and revered at the time, had come before me or was still touring then, was definitely on that stage, Neil Young, Charles Parker and so many others. It's just the place to be and everything a venue should be for an artist, and it continues to be.  I'm glad to see that they are renovating of it, and they are in the legacy of that.

SLM:  I saw in your Instagram, you posted the letter from Paul Simon, pulling back from the future of touring. He's actually playing in Vancouver the night we're seeing you here at the Capital in Victoria. Will you get a chance to see him on his final tour and has he been an inspiration for you, musically?

ROYAL: Oh, yeah. I think Paul Simon affected every single songwriter that has ever wanted to do it as a craft. I don't think there's any greater work lesson, and certainly one of the great writers. Not only what he did with Garfunkel, but just on his solo career, and I certainly reference his albums many times in the studio, as a sound that we're looking for, something we're going for, so. Yeah, it meant a lot to me, just reading that letter. Into his final days, he was so poetic. So I definitely enjoyed seeing that, and I am trying to see him on this tour.

SLM: Before we get into the album, can you share a little bit about the emotions and the idea behind the creative title, Ever After the Farewell, with our readers?

ROYAL: Well, there's probably reference to the passing of my father, he passed away from Alzheimer's and that was shortly before I started working on the record. Oddly enough, a week after I started working on the record, I met my now-wife and fell in love, so I was dealing with grief, and I was dealing with burgeoning love, and it was there just in time, certainly a roller coaster. The subject is the calling it Ever After the Farewell, cause the farewell is in reference to my father, but ever after is certainly in reference to Allie. It's a very poignant but powerful time in my life, and definitely not one that's overlooked, so I put it all in the music.

ROYAL:  Nightingale was probably, I think one of the fastest things I wrote, for the whole record. It happened while another song was being mixed, and kind of while we were taking a lunch break. It was just like this little struggling thing that happened, pretty four-on-the-floor, uptempo. But I think Jamie and I just felt it really fast.   I wasn't looking for something, wasn't searching for something, wasn't trying to write something. Sometimes I find my catchiest little numbers happen when I kind of get out of the way. And I think that's a perfect example.

Doing what he loves . Music and performing. Shooting the @youtube sessions for "Something About You" with @theopears

SLM:  “Something About You”, what a lovely song. I read it was, ‘’A call-out to the universe’’, as you met your wife a week later. I love this. Congratulations on your wedding last year, amazing. Tell us about writing this for this.

ROYAL:   I think it very much was a call-out to the universe.  I was sort of in the final stages of my fathers passing, and I was otherwise settled and at peace in life, in terms of where I thought I was.  Being one of five kids, in my family, and we all witnessed my parents having this incredible relationship, and they were married 47 years before my father passed. All of us I think had certainly found something that's very real, and very lasting, and they're all married with kids. All that good stuff, it’s something I just hadn't experienced and I knew I wanted in life.

So writing that song was just very much that idea of seeing this person who just changes your life in an instant. Both in pedestrian beauty, but also just in that, there's something that's not tenable. That was the idea behind that song and as luck would have it, I met Allie a week later. So I guess I did okay.

SLM:  California Nights and King and Queen really stand out, different sounds on the album. Can you share a bit about these two with us?

ROYAL:  King and Queen was written on an off day, not even in that studio, it was actually in a writing studio a little bit down the road. The whole record was written and recorded in the UK. And I think just having the change of venue, and the different piano and a different room on a different day, and it was typical London, overcast, rainy weather.      I think that kind of lead me to be in that slightly more mid-tempo, darker, morose kind of mood. It happens when you're burning yourself out, and you're away from home and loved ones and everyone. I started in that sort of darker, ballad place, and lyrically, we just had this idea of how everyone can be in a rush , and you kind of forget that initial, spark, and it kind of becomes lost in the day-to-day struggle.

There's that idea that you can get it back very quickly, very easily, just by attention to life, and actually being present and mindful of what it is you want to accomplish, and intent in that moment. You can do a lot of amazing things, you know?

If you sit down with your lover at dinner and all you do is turn the lights down slightly, and light a candle, and put on vinyl, and open a bottle of wine, then you just changed what is normally a mundane task of just eating your dinner. The idea is just that, making that moment again, and going back to being that king and queen.

SLM: What about California Nights?

ROYAL:  California Nights, tip of the hat to that, my adventures as a young buck, I guess. Growing up and touring, and being all over the world and definitely being in California a lot. And it was also kind of tongue-in-cheek because what started the idea was I was talking to my wife about all of her adventures with her gal pals in Nashville. Just, so many trips to Nashville, and they went all over the world, to festivals and to see bands and stuff. And we were just talking about those moments in life that you don't get back, and they're just. The interesting part is that there's always some little individual moment that transports you back.

The idea was, that you can be in a car, and suddenly you hear a song that, man, I haven't heard that song since whatever night it was, or whatever day it was, or whatever moment it was. And you can go back to there and thinking about all the amazing memories you had with all of your friends. And you can't recreate, and you can never go back to. But you can certainly remember them. And that to me is California Nights, it's just that. When you're doing something you shouldn't be doing, and just letting loose and having a good time. And no one gets hurt, but certainly I'm glad there was no social media when I was a kid!

SLM:  Made of Gold has a great story linking the legendary Ron Sexsmith. Can you share a little bit about this track, and recording the album in London, co-produced with Jamie Scott?

ROYAL: Yeah, absolutely. So I was, as fate would have it, luck would have it, circumstance, coincidence, I'm not sure, but. I was in a coffee shop in Toronto, and I heard this song called Gold, and I shazam’d it, because I absolutely loved it. And it was an artist named Jamie Scott, who I'd never heard of, he's an English writer. And I immediately downloaded his record on iTunes, and the very last song on it is a duet with Ron Sexsmith.

Ron's a dear friend of mine, and I just called Ron and he says well, you know, I'll introduce you guys and you should go meet him next time you're in the UK, maybe you guys could write a song, it'd be great. As luck would have it, my publisher wanted to have me in London to do some shows, and I was on tour. So Jamie and I met for a weekend, just to write a song, and we ended up spending the whole weekend writing   I cleared my schedule, and went back, and over the span of two weeks we just wrote and recorded and I jumped around from instrument to instrument , and did my thing, and he did his thing. And it was honestly one of the most creative and enjoyable times I can ever have in the studio. And I was sad when it wrapped up, because, was so excited every morning. I mean, I got to work on amazing gear, using EMI Beatles' console, and the upright piano in that studio's the one Elton John used to write on. And it was such a crazy time, it was a good time. And I think cathartically I needed it, and losing my father, I think, he's my biggest fan and I don't think he'd want me anywhere else but making music, or at least on stage. So it was good to be there, good to be there at that time, and a good way to heal. Also meeting my wife partway through all that, we just have such amazing memories in the beginning of last year. Skyping, and odd hours just to try to talk in the middle of the night, and all those things that add up to memories that are worth having.

SLM: The Hardest Thing of All, is a very powerful and beautiful ballad, really emotional roller coaster. I read you felt Lennon and McCartney on this one, having written and recorded the album, the Beatles, the EMI console. Tell us about that experience in London.

Royal Wood:      Well, I mean, I think I got inside, like you referenced, the Beatles EMI console. I think I walked in like a kid in a candy store. I had my hands on the fingers of the mixer Paul McCartney was using when they worked on Abbey Road. John Lennon probably, you know, leaned against it with some off hand English quip. The ghost of the Beatles, both alive and dead, had used all of this gear.  I think The Hardest Thing of All, it's a special song for me in particular because it's me doing the thing that started my entire career, which is truly just to be down at a piano and writing a ballad. And when I first started, I was more of a balladeer than anything else. That's my sweet spot. Like, I can be on a stage, with one light on me, with a big old grand piano, and just rock the same song, I think that's when I'm at my finest. And I love being there.

ROYAL: That's where I started. I was four years old when I started on piano. Most of my youthful memories are just sitting at a piano all by myself, and trying to escape a house full of kiddies, and all of the noise, because my parents had five kids and a dog, and just the craziness of it. And I would just be off, hide in my room and play piano like no one else was with me. I think that's why it was cathartic.

SLM: Well another great track in Midnight Hour. I love that sort of Motown vibe to it . Tell us a bit about this one.

 ROYAL: Yeah, that's funny, I think that's one of my wife's favorite songs on the record. I think we were about three-quarters of the way through writing the record, and I made a joke about when I first started writing, I always wrote songs with 6/8 time, or 3/4 time. And it's kind of that swing to it, almost like a waltz feel. And Jamie's like why don't we,  try something like that today? And that's just a few nights, and it came out so quickly. And I think everyone in the room just naturally jumped on. I'm surprised it turned out the way it did, and I'm surprised it seems to be a lot of people's favorite song. And it really was supposed to be a bit of a joke. Now, I love it, and I can't wait to play it live. It's funny sometimes, when you get out of the way, you can make really great music

SLM: "Cruel", it's such an intimate track. And you say that you're a blind optimist. I feel like you are a bit of a blind optimist.

ROYAL: I think so . I definitely attempt to be one of optimism, no matter what life throws at me. And occasionally I put the blinders on, but…

SLM: But you can feel that, even in your sadder tracks.

Royal Wood: Definititely, what does affect my perspective can be seeded in the lens you see them in, and you can take anything you happen to see in life and find the half-full glass in front of you. Cause life's happening regardless, whether you spin the cup out of the way or not. You might as well.

SLM: “ Love Is Nowhere To Be Found” ,. You found it now, so, that's amazing. And a powerful bookend to the album “Old Young Love, love is a season.” I love this idea, where did this come from?

ROYAL: Truthfully, it comes from experience. It comes from my years on this planet. I've certainly had my share of relationships. I think the idea of that song is just thinking back on that naïve burgeoning beginning relationship, that it's so completely young and sweet. And a lot of times that doesn't hold up in the light you know, life. That's the idea of that.