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.
royal canoe : Matt Peters (Vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar), Bucky Driedger ( Electric guitar, vocals), Matt Schellenberg ( Keyboards, vocals), Brendan Berg (Bass, keyboard, vocals), Derek Allard ( Drum kit ), Michael Jordan ( Electronic drums)
p.tinham 8.31.2016
ROYAL CANOE's new record, Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit , is their newest since 2013's, Today We're Believers. We chatted with Matt Peters, about the the journey on this new project which included introspection and finding your way in life and music. These Canadian (Winnipeg) treasures are sure to mesmerize us for years to come with funky and alluring sounds and transfix us with great lyrics all the while getting us out of our chairs and dancing to the eclectic and universal sounds of inventive musical insturments and samples.
SLM: We were fortunate enough to catch you guys open for Plants and Animals back in June 2016, in Victoria at Sugar and it was such a great show. We interviewed Warren Spicer of P&A for our Summer Issue, and he was really excited about touring with you guys. How was that tour together for you guys ?
M: It was great ! We kind of found out about it a few months before we headed out and were all really excited and there are definitely some big fans of Plants and Animals in our band we were pumped to get to play with a Canadian band that we were excited abot . And we just got a long well, good comradery and good touring vibes we were definetly on the same page and working on towards the same goal.
SLM: Let’s chat about the New Album out September 18, through “Something Got Lost Between Here And The Orbit, Nevado. First off “ in Somersault, the opening line “Everyday, fold my limbs in to bend my body making a shape for the guests at my party”. I am reminded of a story from Crazy Tour Stories, that I read about the party for Danny Masterson’s sister it was so great about the Hollywood Scene, Road Life and fitting in. Is there any relation to this song and that story ?
M: Not between that exact story I wouldn't say, but it kind of works in. You know that time that you adapt yourself to suit the people that you are around and your friends. For me personally I find that I definitely am affected a lot by whomever I'm with and can't help but be drawn to for lack of a better term, energy, and so Somersault is about feeling malleable. Your being pulled in a multiple of different directions and trying to figure out who you are, where you fit in, and feeling a sort of loss of identity.
SLM: That's kind of amazing as there are six of you in the band ! How do you guys do so well as a Team of 6 ?
M: You know interestingly enough in this band I don't feel that same confusion. When we are in the van there are seven of us and we are literally travelling in a closet, for 8 months of the year, and in a sense as much as you want to find people that you can creatively connect with, and that you feel confident playing music with, almost more than anything, looking for people who you can fit in a closet with for twelve hours a day. We all get long really well. As soon as we all got into the van this morning, we had all kind of a stressful week of working on a video, and I was just so happy to put the city behind us and close the van door, get some coffee and head out and see the same road I have been touring down for last 15 years.
SLM: There's a freedom to that, for sure.
M: There is, but you know when you are at the end of it you're ready to go home and it doesn't take that long before you miss it again.
SLM: I read that you each have different parts , instruments and then have to incorporate that idea on to other players instrument, that must be so challenging, do you all read music from all the different instruments to do this ?
M: We do read some music but for what we are doing and for the way that we're working there's really nothing like that going on. Someone comes up with a part, we get a tone that we are excited about, we record it, and then when we are actually figuring how to perform the song we are figuring out hows this going to happen, who's going to do that and on this Album there's definitely a few more samples. So we have come up with a system for activating these samples, We have these crazy orbs, these crazy lights we got from Earls of all places. We have a friend of ours names Andy Rudolph and he outfitted these orbs with these contact mic's and LED lights so every time you hit them it activates a sound, so it kind of works like a sample pad.
SLM: That's really cool ! (See facebbok profile image below of Matt with the Orb )
M: We have 5 of these on stage and it's also like a sample pad/light show and that's one thing we use to cover the spaces that we can't do with the instruments that we're playing, but there's still a musicality to playing this thing and activating it, you can see something when you do it which I find so much more engaging than pressing a sample pad or pressing play on a laptop or just getting a computer do it for you.
SLM: That's true there's more ART in form when you are experimenting that way.
M: Yah, I think it'll allows us to improvise and play around with it, cause if at the right time you don't, that sound isn't going to activate and then everything's going to come off the rails , that risk is kind of exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.
SLM: I have heard you call the Vocal Transformer, your “MAGICAL PEDAL” – What tracks on the the new Album will we hear this utilized the most and with what instrument ?
M: We put it in drums, guitars, it's on a lot of vocals. On the song " Checkmate" in the chorus there is a vocal transformation on that. In the chorus in the song "I am Collapsing so Slowly". That was a cool story, where I remember we had this core progression and we didn't know what we were going to do with it, and I had written that lyric, and I thought it fit in already with what we had for that song. I scratched back just grabbing the Mic and Bucky (Bucky Drieger) was there too, and I was just singing something on this, and what we have on the album is the first and the last take. Something about having a tone that will inspire you, that if I had just thought of it in my own voice, singing it straight up I would have sang something else or been inspired in a different way and so there is something about having the tone right there and giving you immediately feedback, it gives you a new tonality that you won't have on your own. You can imagine it in your head but imagine hearing it right away, it will just push you to new places, it's like a long way of saying that we are always trying to write new songs and new parts we want to have the final version/tone at our disposal, as opposed to you know, playing piano or playing acoustic, oh we'll figure out how to play that later. We want to be moved and pushed into new places by the instrument that we're playing at the time we are playing them.
SLM: Who else is doing that right now in music or influencing what your doing right now ?
M: We just saw Radiohead at Lollapalooza , in Chicago , and there were so many cool things in that live show, for them its like "let's bring out a grand piano" , Tom Yorke says I want a piano, someone with a cheque books goes and gets that, no one asks any questions, and there no obstacles, between their imagination and the end results. Where if I said some one fetch me a piano, someone would probably slap me (both Laughing). In a way I feel like having those obstacles between you and your imagination and the end result pushes you to be a little bit more creative
(I am not saying we are more creative as RadioHead) but I feel like some of our most creative moments have come out of those restrictions with not having absolutely everything at your disposal. Truth be told we do have a glutinous number of instruments in our tiny little practice space.
SLM: You guys do have a lot of instruments !
M: You still have to figure out though, in the end how am I going to actually perform them. We are setting up to do a show in our home town at a larger soft seat theater and it will kind of be one of the first shows where we will bring out every single bell and whistle. "You want a string quartet, you're going to get a string quarter, or a horn section, and we are going to have a bunch of our friends come singing with us. So in our scale if you're not going to have those things we need to fill that gap with something else. Again if you are huge band like Radiohead then you can have those string quarters at your disposal just by making a request, not that I would turn that down, but it does force you to improvise sometimes.
SLM: Of course and it's just such a different dynamic, the big festival experience. We just reviewed FLUME at the PNE (2000 people), I love what he is doing too, and he had just played to 65,000 people at Lolla in Chicago the previous week. Just the scope of that show and the amount of people he performed to at Osheaga over 100,000 people, its just ridiculous, on a massive scale (M: Totally ) and you look at Flume and he has a minimal amount of equipment in front of him and he is just one person and entertaining for over an hour, it was quite powerful, for him as well I am sure.
M: Yeah, and then you at wonder and look around at this enormous field and the best moments are the ones where you have a relitavely hushed crowd of a 100,000 people, actually able to connect with everyone on a really intimate level, but I feel like that is so difficult do , and I feel like that is really hard to do unless they are totally buying in and so I think there is something really nice about the 2,000 theater performance for an act like that.
SLM: Flumes show was definitely a more intimate performance in Vancouver at the PNE. When I think of really connecting to the audience as well I think of Aidan Knight who we highlighted in our Spring Edition. We caught his SOLD OUT show at Lucky Bar in Victoria of 200 people, so incredible as well, (M: He's great) it was just such a beautiful show. I like to take people with we me to different shows that have never heard the music or the band before, (M:That's great, good idea ) so that is a fresh experience, and now they are a huge fan ! For Flume, I took a Rock fan who ended up loving the electronic side and the performance and unity of that live show, and ended jumpin up and down getting crazy. Have you guys any new and different technology or instruments into this Album as well ?
M: The orbs are the newest thing for us, and over the course of our last record tour, we added a keyboard or 2 because 5 just wasn't enough (laughs). Also we have another thing, this a water bottle with a contact mic on top of it , if you ever hit a metal water bottle with a coin or something it has a distinct and resonant sound to it, we have used that on a number of songs as well. We are just looking for some new sounds and alter them to give them a new flavor to try to discover a new sound within them.
We’ve all written our share of guitar and piano songs, and we could keep doing that, so I guess the M.O of this band is to push against that a bit, but we still want to have things that are catchy, rhythmical that people can relate to on very personal level or visual level, like you were saying, people dancing all around, we want that too, maybe we are asking too much you know.
SLM: Any Artwork on this new Album you can share with us who you collaborated with ?
M: Yeah, we collaborated with a friend of ours named Hannah Doucet, for the album artwork. On this album we really wanted to have something that was consistent throughout, that shows a colour palate, and visual tone that we could use on our videos and photos, just to bring that style and consistency to the visuals. I think in our music because we are always exploring tones and sounds, sometime in our writing style we can lose a little bit of that direct vision, and so on the visual side we definitely want to compensate for that. We put as much as we can into trying to work the visuals. We just spent two days in the desert working on this new music video (Walking on the Water) there is a desert in Manitoba if you can believe that, called Spirit Sands Desert, with this kid actor that is like 14 he was so awesome, the star of the show, running through this desert, and we used the same choreographer Kyle Irwin, that we used in our last video Somersault. It was this post-apocalyptic landscape, and this journeys from his lean to looking for water, dancing the whole time, clapping singing along to the song, we make a few cameos. It was 2 of the longest most arduous days trying to match our crazy ambition for this video and trying to get it done, and with help with time and energy of the incredible people that to make this happen. Then we hopped in the Van and went on tour. It’s endless, but for us we try to keep a standard, trying to get behind visuals, videos, all of you Artwork, all of your content, keep the whole thing one art project, we want all our content to be representative of us.
The show at Lucky Bar October 1 in Victoria, and was reminsient of the Aidan Knight (who was in attendance) crowd, lovers of music, and folks were huge fans of the new tracks as well. Royal Canoe were again as amazing live, as predicted, I took a couple who were on a date night and it was the perfect nightcap for them, now solid fans too. The opener, Close Talker, also featured in an ARTicle in this issue were brilliant as well, and are great friends with lots of respect like I do for The, Royal Canoe.
