December Dork Shelf column

Hey all – my December column for Dork Shelf is now up, and I’ve  got some great Toronto bands for your upcoming winter season!

Please check it out! It features The Constantines, Timber Timbre, Ghost Trees, Two Zebras, Forest City Lovers, The Hidden Cameras and more.

New writing on Spinner.ca – short profile on Said the Whale

Hey readers! If you’ve been wondering what’s been going on with me lately, well I’ll tell you. I’m currently working on the Ryerson Review of Journalism full-time in school where I am putting together two feature articles, blog posts and filling my role as the Spring masthead’s Visuals Editor. Besides this, in the past month I’ve helped Homemakers.com move over to their soon-to-be-launched new site, write an article about female music journalists for the Winter issue of McClungs magazine, write an article about Le Cyc for the latest issue of Broken Pencil and another one about something else in the upcoming issue and finally write tons of reviews and do some interviews for Exclaim!.

That sounds like a lot, right? Yeah… but hey, I’ve taken on something new! I now have writing up on Spinner.ca, which is a music website across the world run by AOL.

My first article is a short profile piece on that cute band I keep talking about from Vancouver, Said the Whale. Please do check it out! Here’s a taste for you:

Vancouver pop-rockers Said the Whale might be named after the large mammals that cruise up and down the West Coast but their music has been indelibly shaped by the entire country.

Their recently-released sophomore album, ‘Islands Disappear,’ is a musical reflection on Canada, following a Vancouver-inspired debut marked by intensely moving songs about sailing in ‘Howe Sounds’ and losing a loved one in the same waters in ‘Curse of the Currents.’

“The first was Vancouver because it was where we had been during writing,” singer/guitarist Tyler Bancroft tells Spinner. “This one, we’ve been on the road for two years, six cross-Canada tours, so we’re influenced by lots of Canada now.”

Read the rest of the article here!

I really do miss updating this blog as often as I did over the summer. It will be back and running in the future … just not for a while, so I at least hope you’re enjoying yourself here on RoundLetters with my clippings!

New music column on DorkShelf.com!

Hey guys – this weekend marked the debut of my new monthly music column on DorkShelf.com. My friend Will Perkins and his buddies started this site for games and movies and the like around Toronto, and he asked me to be their music guru, if I could! So, here’s my first effort.

I feature three bands that you should already know, three up-and-comers, and three shows you should not miss.

Check out what’s in store for November!

And please, let me know what you think via comments or email!

Interview: Imogen Heap

The following was originally published on Exclaim.ca.

October 2009 Conversations: Imogen Heap
By Jessica Lewis

The release of her third solo album, Ellipse, saw solo singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/artist Imogen Heap into massive success. She kept her doting followers informed of every step through Twitter and still the finished product is always surprising and fascinating. In the past, Heap gained popularity through soundtrack appearances, (The O.C., Garden State) which has let her push her own boundaries. Ellipse does just that ― it definitely has a more mature feeling than her past two records, but she has honed and held onto the sound that is so dearly loved. Heap had a few minutes to talk about the album while she was in Toronto doing promotion in August.

How often would you change different little pieces of songs? It was awesome how you tweeted all the time about the changes ― but what made you want to be so open?
I think a real need for a kind of connectivity with people. I think the greatest parts of life are when you’re connected, whether it’s with your family or your friends or your lover. With the planet too! I guess it’s really the connection that I love because in the past, well right in the beginning, it was always the musician and the audience and it was a local thing, they would play in the streets and people would get involved, and as recorded music happened, a kind of barrier happened where then you had this gap between your audience and the writer, and then over the years record companies massively got in the way, so then you’ve got this huge blockade between you and the people who like your music. So, thankfully now, that barrier has completely disappeared, and I think it’s something that I certainly crave, just wanting to understand people and wanting them to understand me. That’s just a natural human need, that’s why I do it.

Do you think the way you go at this is the future? Do you think all bands should get into working like that?
I don’t think it’s a case of should, for the sake of marketing and everything, maybe, but for me, it’s not a case of somebody going, “if you do this, you will sell records,” it’s just I felt like I wanted to do it and I had to do it and I needed to do it. I also wanted to involve people in the process of making a record because I don’t think anyone has ever documented the process so finely, from right at the beginning, writing little gems of the ideas. I’ve actually been filming the whole process, my friend Justina’s got to now piece together 350 hours of footage into one. She’s got her work cut out for her. It was actually a fan that wrote in and said “I would love to see how you work a song, can you film it while you’re in Maui?” And so when I got back, my friend said “oh, let me continue it so we can document it!” And then it took eight months to build the studio. And then the tweeting was just to kind of fill in the gaps for me, because I always felt strange with YouTube only could have ten minutes to describe everything that I had done. There were people who wanted more.

So how often would you say you changed little pieces in songs?
All the time, constantly changing it, because until it’s finished, you’re changing it. That’s what you do. Start up with something and then change it and then add on to it or other bits or make another part do that part, so you’re constantly changing it.

Is there anything new you’re putting in your live show?
At the moment, I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to do it, but I bought this new piece of gear, which is really cute, it’s called a monome, it’s a control service, it doesn’t actually have any sounds, but you can tell it to tell things around your kind of workstation, gear, what to do. Basically, it just looks cool. It takes a while to program everything to know what you want to be doing, but you can have a section on it where you go okay I want this to be my looping section, so you can loop your vocals live and this would tell the computer to start recording at a point, and then over here you have your keyboard area, you can have drum samples if you want, over here you can have faders or whatever you like. I’ll be using that.

Will you still have the clear piano?
Yes.

So, you slapped your bottom in a “Bad Body Double,” what other kinds of sounds that you used were your favourite on this record?
One of my favourites was actually kind of one of the only times I recorded something outside of the studio. I wrote this song called “Half Life,” it’s the token piano song, I allow myself to have one at least because I think it’s a bit of a cop out to do stuff more piano because you can do so many other things. So, I did the piano song and the song is really in broad strokes trying to be closer to somebody who is constantly surrounded by people or just business, generally business, you’re surrounded by somebody, you can’t be with them, so you’re living this kind of half life, and I wanted to get a sense of distance and kind of unavailability. I wanted to get the sound of people chatting, kind of milling around, like when you go to a party and everyone’s laughing and cheers-ing, so I went to a few art gallery-type places, because I thought that was the sort of thing that might work. Everywhere I went, there was always music in the background, so I couldn’t record it. So the one time that actually was perfect was at the twitter Twestival, twitter festival, of people who just got together and they happen all over the world. I went to the one in London and I went there with my binormal microphones, which look like headphones. I was walking around with my recorder, and for people who didn’t know, thought I was just walking around with headphones, but I was actually recording them. So hopefully, nobody’s going to want any royalties or anything.

You wrote the lyrics all over the world.
Yes, about half of the ones that I wrote on my trip ended up on the record. Half of the songs, six songs I wrote on the writing trip, six I wrote when I got back to the house. And then one of them was kind of between the two places. One was improvised, “The Fire.” It’s an improvised piece to try and balance the kind of nerdy detail and biggishness that’s on the rest of the record. I wanted to have something completely free from form and just like a train of thought. So I recorded the piano in Maui, which is where I began the record, so I kind of created this ellipse by just travelling around the world. And then “The Fire” I recorded in my garden at my family home where I burnt this piece of wood that used to go between the grate and the kitchen and the garden, and I couldn’t just throw it away because it had been there for 30 years. So I got all the family around to just be quiet and listen to the sound of it crackling. I managed to get the writing and travelling side of things and also my family and the house.

Now for the rest of the songs, what was it about humanity that struck you so much?
I guess with this record I really wanted to explore a bit less about one-on-one, about me, me, more me and me, me with somebody else, me not with somebody else, and me wanting to be with somebody else. When I was on my writing trip, I started to read a lot more and have a chance to read and talk with people. You start to formulate things in your mind that matter, but you haven’t because you’re so consumed by yourself and only talking about you, that there’s not enough time to reflect about us and what we’re doing here and what a mess we’re making of it. Just my relationship with the rest of the world, with people, and how people react to people, and so I guess I just went a bit further with it.

What are you going to tweet about now that the record’s finished?
I’ve mostly been tweeting about the promo runs, what I’ve been up to. I went for an amazing test drive yesterday of the Tesla, so I tweeted about that.

Are you going to get it?
I can’t quite afford it, but maybe one day. It’s quite expensive. It’s a really fantastic car. I’ve read about it for a year and a half or two years and there’s no reason why we don’t have electric cars already, that’s just the monopoly. So this is the future. They’re the only car company that’s made an electric car that’s desirable and sexy.

You could be their promo girl.
I’d love to yeah! If they could give me a complimentary vehicle… to wave a flag or something!

Mainly the record is you doing everything, right?
I did have a few guests. I had a guy called Nitin Sawhney, who is a musician and artist in his own right and writes many albums and actually I was on his record last year. He played the acoustic guitar on “Canvas.” My ex-boyfriend played drums on a couple songs. I was playing drums on the other songs but I was using his kit, so I thought I should get him on. He’s really great. I got this fantastic trumpeter in again who is from Norway, called Arve Henrikson, I had him on the last record as well, and he’s just so amazing. So he’s on “2-1″ and “Half Life.” And, I’ve got a really beautiful Indian singer, who’s actually a flautist, but he just has the most beautiful voice. Him and the cellist, Ian, both made me cry when I heard them play. I just thought I love the idea of getting people who made me emotional on the record. They were incredible when they came into the studio.

Would there ever be somebody that would want to offer help, but you would just want to do it your own way?
There were a couple people that were like, “you know if it gets to be too much, let me know and I can help mix it.” I think the way I work… it doesn’t work like that anymore. You go in, you’ve written a song or maybe you haven’t written a song. You do everything in tandem so you sing the vocals and while you’re doing that you build music around it. Everything you build, it’s not like you have a band and you go in and do drums and bass guitar, vocals, and then you mix it to make it sound good together. It’s because you’re kind of crafting it to go along, you’re building and building, so you don’t put something on it unless it fits with everything else, so you’re doing it as you go. So there are hundreds of tracks of stuff that you’re working as you go, so it’s not like “now we mix it.” I knew that I’d finish it, but it’s just how much work. The biggest problem with this record was time management and not counting for the unexpected bits that always happened like “oh, can you come and sing a song on this record” or “can you produce a song for Mika” and you don’t plan for those, so when you say “I’m going to be finished in six months” you don’t plan ahead for the three months of extra stuff that comes your way. That was great, but a strain.

You’re famous for reproducing your vocals. If you had clones, what else would you make them do besides sing? You’d have a lot more time.
Yeah, what would I get them to do? I might get them to build my stage live on the show. I’ve got this plan for my next shows, I don’t know if I’m going to do it, but I’ve got this plan. It’s to not have anything on stage at all and to come on and slowly rebuild the stage myself while I’m doing it. So I’m kind of building, having things hidden on the stage, underneath it where there’s slip-like shapes and things and throw them up into the air and then light falls on them. There’s nothing … I like the idea of no waste. There’s no need to have hundreds of watts of lights pouring down on me when I’m only here. I don’t need all of those. I’d love to work on a stage show where light is built and sculpted around me or I’m projecting it myself or it’s on me, like I’m being projected onto with a big dress or something. Trying to be more igniting with the stage and get creative inside that.

Read my feature on The Only Cafe

Hey guys – today I decided to once and for all just publish an overdue feature here on RoundLetters. It’s about The Only Cafe – a joint pub and cafe in my neighborhood in Toronto.

Please give it a read and let me know what you think!

Young Galaxy speak out about split from Arts & Crafts

The following was originally published on Exclaim.ca.

Exclusive: Young Galaxy Speak Out About Split from Arts & Crafts
8/20/2009 By Jessica Lewis

Montreal-based dream poppers Young Galaxy have been eerily quiet since the debut of their self-titled debut album in 2007. Now, with the release of their sophomore effort Invisible Republic coming up fast, they’re speaking out about the changes within the band, as well as their departure from popular Canadian indie imprint, Arts & Crafts.

“The long and the short of it was we couldn’t see eye to eye about putting the second record out,” says vocalist/guitariest Stephen Ramsay of the split in a recent interview with Exclaim!

Upon intially signing with Arts & Crafts, Ramsay, girlfriend Catherine McCandless and a few now-former touring members had never played a show before as Young Galaxy. They were shocked with the label’s decision to sign them, but like any band, their excitement took priority. However, the debut album ended up losing, rather earning, the label money, and the offer towards the group’s sophmore effort wasn’t as helpful as the band had hoped. “As two businesses trying to work together, we couldn’t accept the offer,” says Ramsay.

However, he admits the split was amicable, and there are parts of business, such as publicity, that they have kept intact. “They’re totally responsible for being able to launch us as a band in the first place,” Ramsay says of Arts & Crafts.

As an independent act, Ramsay and company initally had trouble finding a new label, until Fontana North opted to distribute Invisible Republic. This came as a blessing, as well as a test of strength for an eager band.

“Most bands are inherently conservative and afraid to take risks,” says Ramsay. “When it comes to the business side of things, it’s very easy for a band to be a scapegoat for other people for not being successful and there’s nothing bands love to do more than complain about labels and the people they work with. But they are terrified of going out on a limb and doing it themselves. We actually don’t mind, we’re into the idea of living and dying like this — basically being responsible for our own terms for success. That was one of the hard parts about the first record, feeling like our successes weren’t successes in Arts & Crafts’ eyes, and vice versa. This time, success can only be measured by us.

“There are thousands and thousands of people who would think we were nuts for leaving that label, but we’re not the kind of people that wanted to be in that position.”

At the moment, Young Galaxy hopes success is waiting for Invisible Republic, which includes new member Max Henry, as well as Stephen Kamp, who has stayed on with the group full time. Liam O’Neill drummed on the album but has since left the band, leaving James Lynn as a touring drummer. And now with a fresh new line-up and a new mentality of everyone bringing the ideas in together, a third album is already in the making.

“We’ve been working a lot with computer-generated sounds, synthesizers, a lot of sequence music like Depeche Mode or Kraftwerk, where everything is tight and robotic,” says Henry. “We’ve been captivated with this idea with this kind of less impassioned, more kind of motored-machine, electronic-groovey vibe and kind of stripped down. A lot of stuff that we’re working with now [with] electronic drums, it’s very tightly done. We’ve got some really exciting things coming.”

Young Galaxy’s Invisible Republic is due out via Fontana North on August 25.

Tour dates:

9/9 Ottawa, ON – Zaphod Beeblebrox
9/10 Toronto, ON – The Drake Hotel
9/11 Montreal, QC – Il Motore

Contemplating the current life of music magazines

An interesting piece was published on Slate recently, as pointed out by the Canadian Mags blog.

Slate music nerd Jonah Weiner had a few points to say about the music journalism biz (you know, the one that kind of sort of okay not really keeps me going money-wise, yet I still love it). Weiner brings up what he thinks are the top three points as to why the industry is sitting under Death’s ass.

1. There are fewer superstars, and the same musicians show up on every magazine cover. Not even musicians – does anyone remember last year when Obama was featured on Rolling Stone quite a few times? Yea, yea RS might have changed to be a pop culture magazine from its die-hard hard rock past, but still, if you’re not a tabloid, what’s the point? But I do completely agree with Weiner on this one about fewer superstars. Especially in the independent music scene, we all have a different favourite band every other minute – we don’t leave time for someone to get big enough if five others aren’t just as big. When we’re old and wrinkled and we give our album collections to our grandchildren, what are we going to say to them? “Back then ArcadeFire  BrokenSocialScene TheShins Beck GirlTalk Japandroids LCDSoundsystem MotherMother were the best band EVER.”

(Sidenote: on the Slate piece, under this headline was an ad for aging with a picture of Madonna. I thought that was worth mentioning.)

2. Music mags have less to offer music lovers, and music lovers need them less than ever anyway. This is why magazines like Chart have unfortunately ceased their printed publication already in Canada. We only have so many sources. When I started my internship at Chart in the beginning of 08, I realized how much more dependant they were on the website, ChartAttack. Every day I produced tons of new news content with the editors, and I realized this is where they were gaining their readers. Their publication was geared more towards popular Canadian music, while the website has always remained a melting pot. And these days as I do my own thing here and write for Exclaim and some other sources including Chart, I always second guess myself. “Why would the obsessives of these artists read this? Don’t they already know more than me?” And this is what makes me better at my job – this is what pushes me. What can I offer to the music lovers?

But the thing is – we’re all music lovers. That’s why the ones remaining still somewhat stand. We do this because we love it, and we know we won’t get paid, but it doesn’t matter. We’re all in the same situation. Our writing really could just be conversation.

3. Music magazines were an early version of social networking. But now there’s this thing called “social networking” …. Too true. I didn’t fully decipher this term until a few weeks ago when I realized what I’m doing right now is exactly that. Twitter. Blogging. Linking to anything, really. I say I like a story like this, there you go. That’s all there is to it. Somebody else knows about it. Remember in Almost Famous when William met just about everyone because he was working on one story? That stuff still happens, but in much lesser doses. But Weiner mentions something I don’t approve of – how it’s been the tradition of music magazines to speak in a critic language that fans will sort of get but not really, so that we can seem like we are at the top. We used to be. Now we’re on par, or at least almost there. (It depends who you’re talking to, I guess.) Anyways, this is why I like writing my reviews in a way that everyone will understand. More of my friends don’t listen to the music I listen to, and that makes me want to write in a more general aspect, so that if maybe you don’t listen to this kind of music often – maybe I can help you find an artist to listen to this way. That little thing would make my day.

I will always love music magazines, and I hope they stay around for a while (not only because I still would like to have some sort of music writing job, but because I still love reading them.) You can read more on my music mag love on an older RoundLetters entry here.

So, what do you think? I’m tired of spending my days thinking of the gloom and doom of this business or just journalism as a whole. I want to hear what you think. Do you think I have a future? (I mean, the business….)

Indie music soundtracks: A look at the pleasing and the strange

Recently, there has been news fluttering around two very hyped up soundtracks. There’s the quirky comic-turned-Michael Cera-comedy Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and then there’s the movie series I still refuse to have anything to do with (other than this blog post, pretty much), Twilight, with their upcoming installment New Moon.

But here’s my deal, and this has nothing to do with my prejudice against Twilight (okay, maybe just a little, but I’m here for the music): Scott Pilgrim is getting lucky and Twilight is causing a hail storm in the alternative music communities, but mainly only of confusion.

Photo by Edgar Wright

Scott Pilgrim’s team has announced recently (funnily enough by a later-mentioned band’s producer) the inclusion of Broken Social Scene, Metric and even Beck to their soundtrack and possibly even the movie. The comic featured other noteworthy bands such as Sloan, Joel Plaskett and Neko Case, all bands which any fan would hope to see in the movie as well (although filming wraps sometime next week, so – I call for edits!). Pretty good roster for something that started out small and Canadian, right? Although, with actors like Cera, Jason Schwartzman and Kieran Culkin on the roster, American main stream will slowly pour in soon.

And then we have the reverse affect, something so warped these days that only dogs can hear the teenaged high screams: Twilight. Last week, news stories of rumors about the New Moon soundtrack started to pop up, and this week there was one important one confirmed: Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has crossed over to what many would call the dark side  to create just one measely song for the new film (rather than oddly lending “15 Step” to the credits. Also confirmed for an original song was Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who in other news will also be performing a Charlie Chaplin film score with collaborator Chris Rosenau. They certainly strayed away from the idea that I had developed of such a movie using bands like the Jonas Brothers.

We aren’t in the days of Garden State or High Fidelity anymore. Movies need to be on top of what is “underground” in order to get the hottest playlist. Where Scott Pilgrim works mainly from its text and Canadian bands totally willing to help out, Twilight obviously can’t do that as there, I assume, aren’t any musical nods in the books. They want to get the big names, and the big names want a paycheck. Or do you think Yorke really does love the story of a young confused girl and her vampire? He must think it’s sweet.

So, what do you support? The Toronto-made Scott Pilgrim or the popular Twilight series? Why? What are some of your favourite soundtracks?

Concert Review: Dirty Projectors at Lee’s Palace in Toronto

Photo by Sarah Cass

Seeing the Dirty Projectors was perfect. I am in awe of their live indoor performance. I went to the show at Lee’s with my friend Brian and we just couldn’t stop sharing why we love this band so much. It just kept coming. (Especially during the first band, Skeletons, who are not to be confused with these Skeletons, but they are basically Animal Collective’s lackies).

Anyway, at 10, the Dirty Projectors came on, playing everything off of their new album, Bitte Orca, as well as their first album The Graceful Fallen Mango. They didn’t blow through any song, they took each one through it’s course and often elongated it. They acknowledged the fact of why they were playing this day when a guy in the crowd yelled “thanks for surviving a bus crash!” and Dave Longstreth, front man extraordinaire, responded “Oh yeah! No problem!” They are troopers. Want to know why? Because, oh, here the blogger goes, they are magic. Brian and I were discussing what we see when we listen to them: he sees water, I see snow. I imagined them as these mystic beings (especially after seeing the video for “The Stillness is the Move”) that were so high up on a plane that I wouldn’t be able to understand them. And then there they went, across the Lee’s stage, all humble, pale and tired. It brought me back to Earth.

It took a whole concert of staring perplexed at the band to realize what it is that makes them so special. Besides the carefully plucked guitars and the edgy beats, it is the voices that rise from this band and how they chose to utilize it. Longstreth has made this band well; throughout the set I noticed he kept slowly looking from one side of Angel Deradoorian to the other side of Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle. He was making sure that they were okay, that they weren’t straining their voices, but he was also looking on in a proud beam. He let Nat Baldwin and Brian Mcomber fend for themselves, and they proved him worthy of their strength.

These girls aren’t just any girls in a band, like most bands these days. Where the girl and the guy just stand there by keyboards and bounce around singing flat but we all think it’s great (I’m a victim, I know). These girls probably grew up dancing around in their bedrooms singing into their hairbrushes Mariah Carey tunes, and for some reason, it all worked out for the better. They were the lucky ones. These girls have found soul to put in their instruments and it really shows. And they don’t just stand there and sing either. The voices come from the lips, the face, they push the song out and manipulate it. It’s beautiful. And the fact that they sing in high pitches just makes everything sweeter.

Watch “Remade Horizon”

After their encore, the audience wanted more. “They’d be assholes if they didn’t do it by now,” I said to Brian once the audience had been clapping for a good minute. He seemed wary. Then Coffman came out onto the stage with a drink in her hand. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “But we don’t have any more songs to play for you!” And of course, that does not make them assholes.

They’re really abnormal, something different. Brian and I ended our night noting that their future will only be brighter, and thank god we saw them before they get to a place like Kool Haus or even Sound Academy. Because a show this intimate will always be cherished.

Watch “No Intention”

Album review and interview: Bent By Elephants – self titled

This article was originally published on Exclaim.ca.

Bent By Elephants
Bent by Elephants
By Jessica Lewis

For their first EP, of just six songs, a pat on the back is in order for Bent by Elephants, a folk six-piece from Montreal. Each song is as beautifully laid out as the one next to it, so the whole proves equally strong. The songs detail real stories, and it’s the down-to-earth, willing-to-explain-almost-anything qualities that lie in both the music and the lyrics that warrant attention. Currently featuring Chesley Walsh (vocals), Luke Fowlie (guitar), Ryan Frizell (trumpet), Alex Whyte (guitar, trombone, vocals), Paul VanDyk (upright bass) and newest member Charlotte Cornfield (drums), this band are, for the most part, comprised of classically trained musicians. They brought together learned and honed talents that created sweeping, warm, explorative tunes of lost encounters, close ties and a love for Canada. There is nothing on this EP that doesn’t fit with something else, and there is a good amount of variation in solo efforts on it to boot. Walsh’s vocals are uplifting, while each instrument finds elements of shy or brash to work with. It’s almost cautionary that this is their first try.

I feel like a lot of the songs are based on certain people. Are they real?
Walsh: Yeah, most of them are. “Victor” is about this guy named Victor who I met when I was going on a road trip down the West Coast two summers ago. I’m from Los Angeles, originally. I was travelling along visiting friends and family that were kind of dispersed along the West Coast, kind of hitch-hiking and taking busses and ride shares and stuff down the way and I met this guy Victor. Somehow both of us got stranded in Sacramento together because our rides ditched us. He had this very specific kind of spiritual live-by-the-seat-of-your-pants attitude that I dug a lot. I have no idea how to get in touch with him.

What about the other songs?
Fowlie: [For "Saskatchewan Pool"] I was at a cottage with family. I’ve been going there forever. Once there was a tornado when I was there by myself and I thought it was a very romantic songwriting story. When all the lights went out, I was sitting there by candlelight writing.

Walsh: I felt that when I listened to it, and he told me about it. I wrote the lyrics about a similar experience I had had in the mountains in California and basically, I had an amazing time with this one person and then it passed and I haven’t seen them in forever. Actually, come to think of it, most of the songs I feel like are about people that I knew for brief periods of time and then haven’t been in contact with. I think that would be the idea for that song; we weren’t really thinking about the outcome of it. It’s kind of about time passing and observing a moment or the space around you in particular.

The EP also sounds like it would do really well on a movie soundtrack to me.
Walsh: Yeah, man! I’ve always said that about the way Luke writes songs, I always said that Luke should go into film, and I think we’re both interested in that in our own way.

What kind of film would you like to be on?
Fowlie: I’ve seen some really good documentaries. There’s this one about [artist] Andy Goldsworthy that a guitarist played all the songs for. I really like that kind of thing. It’s appropriate. (Independent)