“Listening to the hypnotic rhythm of Matt Peters’ vocals, you can parse the same wackiness that made bands like Alt-J, Simian Mobile Disco or even fellow Canadians Think About Life so singular. Ultimately, it’s feel-good dance music for the weird kids.” – NPR
Working with famed producer Ben Allen, the sextet refined their sound, shifting their focus to rhythmic and percussive dexterity without sacrificing the soulfulness that made Believers’ “Bathtubs” a hit. – Flood Magazine
Listen: “Love You Like That” via Baeble Music or SoundCloud
Stream: “Living A Lie” via Flood Magazine or SoundCloud
Watch: “Somersault” video via NPR Music or YouTube
Watch: Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit Album Trailer
On September 16, Royal Canoe will release Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit on Nevado Music, home to Deap Vally, The Dead Ships, Gringo Star and more. The album is available to pre-order now via the band’s official website and the Nevado Music Online Store. This week the band shared “Love You Like That” with Baeble Music. Royal Canoe’s Matt Peters told Baeble, “It’s about the beginning of a relationship when you are testing each other, asking questions like ‘Who is this person? What is their range? When will they crack? Do I have them figured out?’ And then realizing that you’ve underestimated their capacity to surprise you. You don’t know anything Jon Snow.” He adds, “Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter) co-produced the album with us and he really challenged us to focus the ideas we brought to the table. We finalized all of the production remotely (we were in Winnipeg, he was in Atlanta), so we would send sessions back and forth. The chorus of this song really started to come together after he laid down the descending bass-synth part in the chorus. Thanks Ben.”
Earlier this summer, Flood Magazine premiered “Living A Lie” from the upcoming release and says, “Winnipeg’s Royal Canoe hasn’t released an album since 2013’s Today We’re Believers, which saw them being nominated for Alternative Album of the Year at the Junos and opening for alt-J on tour. But the ensuing years haven’t been spent in vain. Working with famed producer Ben Allen, the sextet refined their sound, shifting their focus to rhythmic and percussive dexterity without sacrificing the soulfulness that made Believers’ “Bathtubs” a hit. “Living A Lie” is also available to post and share via SoundCloud. Royal Canoe also announced an extensive North American fall tour. All confirmed shows are listed below.
Last month, NPR Music premiered the official music video for “Somersault” from Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit. Royal Canoe’s Matt Peters told NPR, “When you’re creating something, the end result is pretty much all anyone else sees or hears. But running invisibly underneath the finished product are all of the hours you spent in your bedroom struggling to find the right melody, or the planning that went into executing an idea correctly.” Peters also remarked: “This behind-the-scenes work and even the abandoned ideas that never go anywhere have their own value, especially to the artist, and they often bring as much to the story as the polished result.” The video was directed by Nathan Boey and choreographed Kaja Irwin and streaming to share via YouTube.
Almost three years have passed since the release of Royal Canoe’s sophomore album Today We’re Believers (2013). Those years were full. The band played 200 shows, which included tours with the likes of Alt J and Bombay Bicycle Club, and stops at major festivals like Bonaroo, Iceland Airwaves, and Osheaga. The hard work paid off: Today We’re Believers received critical acclaim, was nominated for Alternative Album of the Year at the Junos, and won Best Independent Album at Western Canadian Music Awards.
After two years of writing and recording between tours, Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit surfaced with a unique and intensified voice. It was co-produced and mixed by Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, Deerhunter), who concentrated their sound-crafting attention on two fundamental elements: drums and vocals. Royal Canoe has always had an intensively rhythmic heart and that is more the case than ever. Their lyrics grow organically out of an addictive percussive flow and the unique topography of each track. Reinforcing their vocal and percussive core allowed them to be more adventurous with experimentation; more determined in their ongoing pursuit of the elusive musicality that can be found in collisions between digital and analogue worlds. In addition to their their usual buffet of synthesizers, effects pedals and homemade samples, late nights lead to to rabbit-holes of attaching contact mics to water bottles to play them like percussion instruments and convoluting synths through beluga whale field recordings.
In addition to a renewed sonic focus, Something Got Lost brings an emotional clarity. But it’s a particular kind of clarity: one you experience when what’s most clear is that you’re really unsure about what’s happening with your life or, unsure about what happened to the life you once took for granted, while you were off experiencing stuff, being busy, accomplishing things. Life, and especially the life of musicians, tends to be shaped by an ebb and flow of leaving and returning, cycling between an extroverted, transient mode of being and one of introversion and staying put. Within the broader cycles, even our most important relationships can shift, morph and drift, no matter how much we try to hold them steady. |
