BDK Interview - Paul Banwatt

photo : Marc Hodge

I posted about Paul Banwatt (of The Rural Alberta Advantage and Woodhands) back in June. Figuring that he might not be that hard to get a hold of (he wasn't), I sought him out for an interview. Here it is.

1. What drummers (local or otherwise) influenced your particular style growing up?

Steve Shelly, John Bonham and Mitch Mitchell. And I still respectfully rip them off every day.

2. What was the musical climate like when you started playing in bands?

I started playing in the Mississauga and Brampton high school band scene. I love how DIY it is for kids who want to put on shows but are not welcome in most bars. You find every space that will have you - rec centers, churches, friends' basements. I'm sure it is still the same way today. The only sad part is that it creates a separation between the kids and the adults.

3. How does your approach differ between your two projects (RAA and Woodhands)?

They are very different bands, but they are each fronted by an extremely talented songwriter. There is something universal about great songwriting, regardless of genre. I think I try my best to pull each band towards the same middle-ground, which is less boring than it sounds.

The RAA BFF4EVA

photo : Patrick Leduc

4. Is there any particular gear or equipment you have an attachment to?

I have grown very fond of my pearly Rhythm Traveller. I am using it in a way that it was not intended, but it is holding up like a champ. And with new heads and hardware, it is a sturdy little kit.

5. What kind of process do you use when working out rhythms?

I start by listening to vocal melodies and blocking out everything else. Ideally, I like it when my drums compliment and accent the vocals. Then, I listen to everything else that is happening to out the rest of the rhythm. Neither band I play in has a bass player, and I feel like that gives me a little bit more freedom rhythmically.

6. Your approach on some of the RAA songs is fairly involved for that particular genre, are you ever asked to tone it down?

All the time. But honestly, even more often I am asked to be more crazy. No one will believe me, but it is often me telling Nils that I don't want to ruin his beautiful songs by playing something too insane. It is one reason why I love playing in that band though. We will let each other try anything, no matter how strange, before rejecting it. And we all can have input on every aspect of a song.

7. What are some albums you feel are underrated in terms of drumming or percussion?

I'm not sure if it is underrated, but the drumming on Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca is incredible.

Next on the docket perhaps?

8. Do you have any particular rituals on tour to keep your energy up and stay motivated?

No rituals. I just need 8 hours of sleep. I also try to limit the amount of time I spend in venues. If I spend the whole day in the venue before playing, I feel less excited.

9. Is there any particular recordings you've done that you are most proud of?

I have always liked Drain The Blood, just because I didn't quite know how to play the beat I could hear in my head for that song, so I worked on it and learned it. I am better at it now than I was then, so it is fun for me to listen to that and feel like I am still improving.

"hey wait, what if we tried the rhythm method?"

Paul will be coming to the Maritimes when Woodhands plays the Evolve festival at the end of the month. Make sure you take a break from the hula hooping and fire dancing and go see them, it'll be worth it.

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

There is something about this album that is inherently Canadian. It's slower paced than most indie rock records, and it's a little noisier, but it is extremely well orchestrated from start to finish. It's the perfect record to listen to if you're driving through the rockies in Alberta, or the farms of Manitoba, or the rolling hills of Quebec, or even the shoreline of the East Coast. It's feels like it came out of nowhere, from everywhere. This has been a good year so for Canadian music, and it's because of quality albums like this that our bands are getting international recognition. The Besnard Lakes are in the running for the coveted $20 000 Polaris Prize, and by golly, I think they might just win it, and so do other people. (read Halifax is Burning's Polaris predictions here).

Now, I talk about myself probably a little too much on here, but I don't care. Why should you listen to me if you don't have any grasp of my own experiences as a drummer right? Right.

Ok. There are two things that I used to do all of the time that I don't do so much anymore. They are:

1. Practice drums.

and

2. Play drums along to records.

However last week I found myself in an empty room with a drum kit, a PA, and an hour to kill before the rest of the guys showed up. I hooked up my iPod to the PA, put this album on, and learned how to play the whole thing. It didn't hurt that I had been listening to it non stop for the last three weeks.

It gave me a whole new respect for this album. Kevin Laing's smoothness as a drummer is really what gives this record it's relaxed but strong feel. I could lock into his playing really easily but I could never hit the transitions as well as him, the timing is flawless. He has incredible time, and he really knows how to draw out parts by adding small variables as songs progress.

He can keep songs marching forward, like And This Is What We Call Progress where he plays the same pattern through the whole song with small washes of cymbals and tom builds thrown in once in a while to accent the vocal. He can also stretch and maneuver around time fairly fluently. In Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent his snare rolls leading into the chorus give a brief taste of off time, only to come in perfectly on the first hit of the chorus.

His patience as a player also really stands out. He waits almost five whole minutes before coming in on Light Up The Night, bursting through the dense noise at the end of the song to carry the weight of it the rest of the way. The way his kick drum locks into the bass keeps everything grounded while vocal parts soar over top, definitely something that would be incredible to see live, which I'm hoping to do when The Besnard Lakes come to town with Wintersleep in the fall.

You should probably come too. it's going to be loud.

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

The lo-fi recording techniques Broken Social Scene had been using for their albums used to really piss me off. Sure, it worked when BSS was more of an idea than a band, sort of a recording project between friends, but once everything took off it made no sense to keep making albums in the same fashion.

For those of you who don't know who Broken Social Scene are (I know you're out there, it's ok) I'll give a short, slightly confusing rundown to get you up to speed.

- There is a band called Broken Social Scene.

- Originally started as a recording project between Kevin Drew and Brenden Canning, it sort of developed into a giant band full of some of the best talent Canada has to offer in this modern musical climate (Feist, Emily Haines of Metric, most of Stars, some of Do Make Say Think, and Bill Priddle, the guy who apparently made Treble Charger awesome because they sure went to shit after he left).

- In 2002 due to the critical and slight commercial success of their second album You Forgot it in People, they were actually able to make some money, and they found themselves in a better position than 95% of Canadian indie bands.

- The success of BSS alumni bands like Metric and Stars kept people interested for the next few years, and the international success of member Leslie Feist's second solo album in 2004 brought them even more attention. The influx of cash into their shared label Arts & Crafts didn't hurt either.

- Anticipation for the follow up record was high among critics and consumers alike. Unfortunately for lack of a better term, it kind of sucked. I mean, it's still better than probably anything I've done, but for the potential that was there it was lackluster. Then Broken Social Scene broke up. Sort of.

- Now they're back. Sort of.

I'm telling you all of this because every mistake that was made on the follow-up record has been corrected and improved upon with their new album, Forgiveness Rock Record. This is the album they should have put out in 2005, but better late than never.

They kept the best parts of their recording techniques and really improved on my biggest gripe with their previous albums, the drums. Justin Peroff has always been an incredible drummer, but his ability would sometimes get buried in the lo-fi marshes of the Broken Social Scene "sound". Finally he gets the huge drum sound he deserves, and it makes for a much more full bodied album (This probably has to do a lot with hiring drummer John McEntire of Tortoise to produce).

Justin is in great form on this whole album. When he alternates between a snare rim/tom pattern and a huge half time rock beat on the opening track, World Sick it sets the pace for the rest of the record, which has some fairly epic songs. He keeps things straight on Meet Me In The Basement, and he uses well timed shots to really send the song off. He can rock it when he has to, like on Forced To Love, or he can keep it buried, like the mixture of drums and electronics in Texico Bitches. I Think my favorite part of the whole album is when the drums come in amid the up tempo eletro beat in Chase Scene, but really this whole record makes me excited. It's nice to see BSS found the right balance of proper and experimental recording, and it's even nicer to hear the intricate playing of Justin Peroff without having to put my stereo on 9.

BDK Update

Noiseography crew

I did another guest review for Noiseography, this time I reviewed the Caribou and Rich Aucoin sets from The Paragon on friday night. You can read them here.

BDK News

I usually don't post news items on here, but I am so impressed by this I had to post it. Legendary Jazz drummer Jerry Granelli (Vince Guaraldi Trio, Light Sound Dimension, etc) has not only recorded his first ever solo drum record, he recorded it in Halifax with our own engineer mastermind Charles Austin and it's being released in a limited run by Halifax label Divorce Records (with artwork by Yo Rodeo, completing the trifecta of local involvement).

Granelli began his career as a pupil of Joe Morello, whom I previously wrote about here. He went on to have a long successful career as a free jazz, improvisational and psychedelic musician. He has played with some of the greats, such as Bruce Frisell and Ornette Coleman, and he was also the drummer on the soundtrack to a Charlie Brown Christmas.

This is a huge accomplishment for our local boys and a step forward for Granelli, who always seems to be pushing his limits. The album is available for pre order on the Divorce Records website, and here is the official press release.

"Jerry Granelli has lived a mythic life. He drummed in some of the biggest jazz outfits of the 50s-60s, including Vince Guaraldi Trio and the Denny Zetlin Trio. Like many of his peers, Granelli could have played it safe and made a comfortable career doing traditional jazz into his old age, but instead he dove into the new worlds of free and psychedelic music that were opening up around him during the hippie era in San Francisco. In the early 60’s he led one of the first free jazz bands in America. They did a three month opening spot for Lenny Bruce and toured extensively through Europe with the Grateful Dead, playing completely wild and spontaneous sets night after night, often to the scorn of unsuspecting audiences. A few years later he joined Light Sound Dimension (LSD), an outfit that paired marathons of free, amplified jazz with projection painting, effectively launching the first ever psychedelic light and sound event at the San Francisco Art Museum in 1967. LSD was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since those early years Jerry has played with an impressive list of innovators including Bruce Frisell, Ornette Coleman, Jamie Saft, and Anthony Braxton to name just a few. And at 70 he still travels the world playing and teaching new music.

Despite all his accomplishments, until we asked, Granelli had yet to make a solo drum record. For us it seemed fitting that after a life behind the kit, Jerry finally go it alone. No one, including Jerry, knew what to expect, but the results are remarkable. All the tracks on 1313 except one were played with no overdubs, and most were done in a single take. For those of us involved with documenting the session, it was a magical night. 1313 is dark, masterful, and bravely unique --- an outstanding new exploration of percussion and sound by a man who has been challenging himself musically for 60+ years. Here at DIVORCE we have never been more excited about a release. Engineered by Charles Austin. Produced by Charles Austin, Jerry Granelli, and Darcy Spidle. Mastered by Weasal Walter. Art by Yo Rodeo. Edition of 600 copies. Mail order version includes a CD. SHIPS IN EARLY JULY."

Indie Spotlight: The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

The schizophrenic drumming of Paul Banwatt (also of Woodhands) is like a puzzle piece that is slightly misshapen so you shove it down with your thumb to make it fit. It should feel out of place in the mid tempo party-folk songs of The Rural Alberta Advantage, but it doesn't. Instead it shifts the feel of the songs into something erratic and epic, a foundation that is always moving.

This is no more evident than in Don't Haunt This Place where the drums take center stage, swirling around the vocal and getting in quick cymbal shots and jabs. His time is perfect as he plays quick rolls and off kilter patterns seldom heard on folk records. In Drain The Blood, Banwatt's hands are all over the place but his kick drum foot is locked in tight with the bass. When the chorus comes in he unleashes a succession of tom and snare rolls. His drumming takes on a more aggressive feel in Luciana, the cymbal swells and rolls have a high tempo psychedelic feel to them, and he keeps his kick drum pumping through the track.

The drumming on this record wouldn't be so notable if the songs weren't so damn awesome. once in a while Paul will take a lesser stance and let the songs really come through. In The Air he stays on track with a cool kick snare pattern while the keyboard and vocals take charge. All in all, Paul's patterns are a step out of the ordinary for this kind of record, the songs benefit from having someone play outside of the original frame of the piece. It doesn't necessarily work for everyone, but for the RAA it's a recipe for success.

Black Mountain - In The Future

I think if I had millions of dollars and the ability to make movies, I would have Black Mountain on my payroll to score everything I do. It's really hard to blend darker elements of rock, prog and psych, keep it at a mid tempo and still manage to play powerful epic songs. When it fails you get just another shitty rock band. When it works, you get an album like In The Future, perfect in its idea and execution. Critics subsequently lose their minds over it.

If you've never heard this album then I can't really describe it for you, it sounds like everything that has happened in music already, yet there has never been anything like it before. Personally, I like it because it sounds like an album The Melvins (whom I love) would make if they could just focus. Every part feels thought out to the last detail, everything from tone to themes to lyrics to melody to mic placement and production. The drums sound like they were recorded in the hull of a warship on its way to lay waste to the shoreline of its enemies. It also helps that Joshua Wells has the patience of a saint. He knows when to sail along quietly and when to launch the cannons.

Wells can keep time with the best of them, but where he really shines is with his toms. Evil Ways is driven by a twisted version of the Bo-Diddly tom beat, and towards the end we get few glimpses of Wells' skill on his instrument, enough to let us know that he knows what he's doing, but not so much as to come off as pretentious. Tyrants is the second longest and most epic track on the record, and most of the time Wells is stomping along with muddy, thunderous tom beats and rolls. It's never extravagant, always the right amount of flash and focus, and his drumming keeps things interesting for the entire 8 minute song.

Wells is patient with his approach. In Queens Will Pay he spends half of the song in silence, the tension building as you can sense him lurking in the shadows. Finally he attacks, and with a wash of cymbals he conquers the last minute of the track. The whole album is littered with examples of mature, focused musicianship and it deserves all the praise it acquired.

This is an album I will listen to until I'm old and deaf, I just know it.