Janet Simpson, photo by Sara Thompson
By Will McGuirk
Its the small things, the small things like this. . . which. . . can no longer happen for the now.
“The highway’s empty nobody’s looking out
We could be down the road before they know
But we gotta leave right now”
Its a new album, its called ‘Safe Distance’ . . . in 2021 thats six feet of separation.
By Will McGuirk
Song goes out, if it loves you song comes back - Dizzy has a number of their songs go out and come back, flight filtered via ears and hearts of others. There is a timeline to the result, a succession of reveals, but first is Luna Li, the TO musician who shares this track, a behind the scenes look at “The Magician” with the band.
The tracks with other yet to be unveiled artists, will form an EP, ‘Separate Places’ and will be fully available June 11 on Royal Mountain/Communion Records.
The Oshawa, ON, based Dizzy have been nominated for Alternative Album of the Year at the 2021 Junos. for their record, “The Sun and Her Scorch.’
By Will McGuirk
Pain around rhythm, melancholy and melody, solace at the heart of soul; Shannon Clark and the Sugar possess it, a “1000 Times’, and a thousand times more.
Darke County, Ohio, couple, Shannon and Brittany Clark played in bands, until tragically they lost their second daughter and music was folded away and grief unfurled.
However music moves the darkness towards the light, the music eased out and eased back in, wrapping the couple in its healing embrace and over time the couple eased back out, and with the company of their other daughter Navie, Shannon Clark and the Sugar, became the conduit for a family to regain each other.
Mark Howard has an instinct around a song, he knows when to step aside and let the song do the talking. He studied with Daniel Lanois, who has an instinct for the spiritual. Howard has produced the debut album, ‘Marks on the Wall’ for the Clark family band and he lets the spirit walk, and the spirit talk.
Slowcity.ca talked via email to Shannon Clark and the Sugar about the track, ‘1000 times.’
Slowcity.ca: This comes to me in such a complete manner, but I doubt it just came that way, tell me about the evolution of your sound, where did you pull the strongest inspirations?
Shannon Clark and the Sugar: “This song particularly is one of my favorites on the record because it was different from everything else. It was not originally suppose to be on the record . I had held it back from my original demos I sent to Mark but on our fourth day of tracking I woke up that morning and something told me I had to show this song to Mark . It was only half finished at the time . Mark heard the first verse and chorus and he said “ We have to record that today , that’s a hit “ . So I spent the next 30 minutes with everyone trying to finish the lyrics. The sound evolved for this song much different then I had originally wrote. It was first written as a slower soul song, with a lot of minors and jazz style chording. We nixed that idea . Went with a more ambient Americana sound . Inspirations were Gary Clark Jr., Prince , Fleetwood Mac and even a little Smoky Robinson and Anderson Paak.”
SC: What really grabbed me on ‘1000 Times’ was the click drumming, it’s a good, if unorthodox, hook for an accomplished roots number, where did that idea come from and how much of a discussion was there around it?
SCS: “The drum machine track was all Mark ! He loves adding beats behind real drums . He’s done it on a lot of his projects . We fought him on this at first . I’ve always and only ever had organic drums for two reasons , one, drum machines have no soul and two my beautiful wife is the drummer of our band lol. Mark insisted and I trusted him and after it was done , I was like wow ! I love it !! It’s hybrid.”
SC: You are working with a Grammy winner, Mark Howard - His book, ‘Listen Up!,’ is great, have you read it - he seems to have a very loose style - how was it working with him and how did it come about that you did?
SCS: “I have read Mark’s book. I loved it ! He has a new one coming out soon as well which I’m excited about getting . I have followed Mark Howard’s career as well as Daniel Lanois for a longtime . I’m a huge fan of their work together. Mark does have a loose style , that’s what I love about him . We play live in a room , as a band and record from the heart . Once he thinks we have the arrangement we do two to three takes at most and we pick the best one or the one that speaks to us . It made the process so much fun and it wasn’t like we had to be perfect ,it was capturing the moment . I think we, at times, nowadays, we strive for a perfect vocal take or perfect timing but to me it sucks the life out of the music. We came to hook up with Mark on a whim by emailing three Grammy award winning producers and all three wanted to work with us which was beyond flattering but for me, Mark was at the top of my list because of his amazing resume of great records “
SC: “I am sorry to hear about the loss of your daughter; music is the great healer, now more than ever we need the healing power of music, and we see its power as a gatherer and a balm - can you tell me about your journey, your daughter, if not too invasive a question, and how your family came through it via music?”
SCS: “A journey in life defines us, it can build or take away . Losing our daughter did both of those things for us . It brought us closer as a family , it tested my faith but somehow made it stronger . My Wife and I met playing music , we feel in love playing music and it had always been a cornerstone for us . When we lost our daughter that changed for sometime . It made us stop playing and writing . Eventually we missed it and our other children wanted us to sing and play music with them and as we did that more and more it created that desire again and now we get to share that with our kids and our oldest daughter Navie plays with our band . It’s special to us.
Covid had presented many challenges and we have had a hard time booking a tour for this record because of it . Many venues are either gone or aren’t open yet. We do all of our own booking so it can be discouraging but we are trying our best . It had given us time to rehearse more and write more and that’s been a plus . We have a busy June coming up . We will be filming at Red Barn Radio in Lexington KY followed by a few dates in West Virginia and Tennessee. We also won a Bands in Residence contest for the 2nd year in a row at Cedar Point (Amusement Park) . We were chosen out of over 600 Bands and we get a week of shows at the park. It’s exciting for us.”
By Will McGuirk
“I was in Christchurch when the bombings occurred in the mosque, which of course was greatly mourned by all of New Zealand and the world. The aftermath of the 2010 earthquake was still very palpable and evident there. So ‘Light Around The Body’ is primarily about infusing oneself with the strange and beautiful and sometimes painful and strives to make sense of the senseless.” - Dana Sipos
“‘Time’s always right to fix what’s wrong’. That line felt like the open door to address the social climate we’ve all been surrounded by for nearly a year now & prompted the idea of transformation of one’s immediate & eventually global environment by looking inward first, to look in the mirror & realize that is where the change is going to begin.” - Josh Taylor, half-alive
“you're just a monster and I'm not scared” - Tom Odell
Jessica Pearson and the East Wind
By Will McGuirk
"reminds us that strong voices have preceded us, that we can draw upon. Although outcomes aren’t always visible or immediately positive, it is still worth showing up for who and what you believe in.” - Clea Anaïs
By Will McGuirk
“For me it's usually the emotional and sonic qualities of a song that catch me first and the rest of it later. After getting deep into the lyrics I enjoy that it's calling out the fake and the shallow; I like doing that in my songs. So this one goes out to the influencers.” - Mike Edel
By Will McGuirk
Everyone knows the Laj, everyone knows Jeanette, everyone knows because they travel and tour and perform and party and chat afters and befores and genuinely dig it, dig it all, even the crappy bits, its all grist for a song, so keep ‘em guessing Dany but we know don’t we, its called resilience.
***
“"Through a shared connection I had the huge honour of receiving an advance copy of renowned resilience researcher Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe’s new book, which is a deeply powerful book about finding our path to everyday resiliency. To my great shock, right in the pages of the book, she talks about writing parts of the book to my music. When she reached out with this pretty unique idea of having a theme song for her book launch, I jumped at the chance. I was so deeply affected by the book and her story, I wanted to do it justice with my song. The themes of the book (developing resilience, finding our way through hard things, being ‘OK’) provided a rich emotional canvas to work from." - Peter Katz
***
“I was half joking around thinking about how much time and energy I was spending obsessing over music stuff and feeling like a bit of a dork. I think everyone can relate to that in some way. But that's when it dawned on me that sometimes you might just have to learn to enjoy the rollercoaster because I knew that I was always going to continue making and sharing music, regardless of the results.” - Jiants
Juno Uno
By Will McGuirk
“The song I am sharing with you today is about a shift in perspective. It is about how the world is changing, and it is up to each individual to interpret what that change means.” - Juno Uno
“he endless expanse of something unexplained,” -- Jesse Roper
By Will McGuirk
There is a keep on keeping on attitude here in the D-Rawk, whether you are here or whether you are beyond the borders. Its not exclusive, its elsewhere but its here and here’s the proof of the work continuing. In truth Music will out.
By Will McGuirk
Some who came from there to here, some who went there, they are all local to us, the Durham diaspora is far flung but joined in song, and its usually a song dipped in engine oil and wrapped in blue grass.
Although Greg Keelor seems to spend more time driving up the 115 than across the 2 (and who could blame him giving the fab Peterpatch scene) we still consider the dude part of the D-Rawk crew here. He’s been in the east end for decades and every now and then songs seep out from those rocking and rolling hills.
So we share the love.
Art Bergman, photo by David Kotsibie
By Will McGuirk
“Since the advent of social media, and with cameras everywhere, everybody now knows about police killings, the plague and climate catastrophe, and who these purveyors of this nightmare are. Who needs sci-fi anymore when we're living in the best Philip K. Dick novel ever?” - Art Bergman
“Our goal was to be a force for good with these songs. We wanted to remind people not to let the world steal their joy, to remind them that even during a global pandemic, it’s our responsibility to protect our spirits and find ways to keep on dancing, keep on singing, keep on teaching, keep on loving.” - Daniel Lanois
“I’ve been meditating on the nature of resilience, endurance, and grace more deeply since becoming a mother. I was trying to bridge the divide and embrace shame and my inner divinity equally with this piece…” - Allison Russell
“Go out into nature instead of watching the video” - Chad VanGaalen
By Will McGuirk
Vibrations, waves, across the universe, billions of years, then you appear, vibrating, making more vibrations, disrupting the flow, pushing out, pushing back at the noise of the Big Bang with your own voice. So keep going, keep voicing, keep being here, and going there.
(from PR)
In 2020, Donovan Woods released Without People via his own Meant Well label. It’s an album that ranks as Woods’ most successful release with more than 10 million streams and climbing. Due March 26, a new deluxe edition of Without People adds four bonus tracks (two new originals and two alternate mixes) and is available for pre-order now.
A new piano rendition of “Grew Apart” cuts right to the bone, and an acoustic interpretation of “Whatever Keeps You Going” pairs Woods with the pure voices of the J.P. Robarts Public School Music Project in London, Canada.
The school’s choir (consisting of grades 3-8) formerly sang with Woods in 2019 at one of his concerts in London. Woods always knew he wanted to feature the choir on a project, but during the pandemic, Woods learned that while the schools had reopened, the children were only allowed to hum during choir practice due to the nature of health and safety protocols. He then, with the help of their parents and choir director, Jane Kennedy, enlisted the children’s choir to individually submit homemade cell phone videos of themselves singing the song. All 19 students were able to share the “stage” again with Woods through this video.
Middle Kids, photo by Ellen Virgona
“I want to make music that loves its listener. Music that makes people feel seen, seen in the tiny little places that hide away in their hearts. I want people to hear our music, and feel a sense of love. And when I say love, it can be challenging, intense and tough. But it’s in the guts.” – Hannah Joy, Middle Kids
“Ciel is someone who we have watched grow and develop into a global talent at the same time embodying a local Toronto spirit. Her remix for us speaks to a Toronto that had no musical genres in clubs. It bends and weaves into an expression that is well known to the darkest clubs and most cavernous warehouses. We employ you to join in the vision of this remix in solidarity with the community and all that came to take part.” - LAL’s Nicholas Murray
“‘The Art Of Loneliness’ is a dance-pop song which sounds triumphant, but upon closer listen feels tragic.The lyrics here are the closest I get to a private monologue with me trying to convince myself that loneliness isn’t such a painful situation. I’m trying to trick myself into thinking being alone isn’t so bad and the artful way I do it." - David Johnston, Gift of Tongues
By Will McGuirk
Its the music, it moves us all, the common bond which binds our feet in dance, I advocate for orchestras to be at the forefront of the revolution.
"When in the future we recall Saint Patrick’s Day 2021, let us have returned with even more energy to music as we lift the glass slowly, and replenish it even slower. Music and creativity were our resource in the pandemic, and in the music of the heart is rehearsed that for which words are insufficient, feídearachtaí ag heitheamh dúinn – forms of renewal, possibilities rehearsed, journeys to wonder and new places."
- President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins
“When I play on my fiddle in Dooney, Folk dance like a wave of the sea” - W.B. Yeats
“When you better yourself, you better the world. Even if you only interact with one person in your life, the effect of trying to see things for what they are is vast. Change can feel like a fantasy, but I’m not fatalistic about it. I make music because I get results that way. It’s why I promote creativity, whatever that means for anyone.” - Yves Jarvis
“Crab Walking” is less a lament for times disappeared than it is a unifying call for the present. “Old haunts and landmarks that once were and are no longer. Conjuring good memories of good times” - Jason Collett
“Despite how badly you can be treated by someone, sometimes we refuse to see ourselves being with anyone else.” - Ariel Posen
“I almost didn’t put it on the record because it is so close to the bone it almost feels too self indulgent, but it was my intention to write a song that felt more vulnerable than anything I had ever written before.” - Jehnny Beth