Whether they are powering ahead with peppy, upbeat barbershop harmonies or hanging back with soulful, slow-burning croon-ballads, The Good Lovelies have carved out their own unique path in the Canadian music landscape.
Their style can often take the ear of the listener on a voyage through time, as their kind, warm and ear-elevating melodies and plucky instrumental backdrops can sound like they are from the 1940s or ’50s.
The Juno-winning, multi-award nominated and vocally versatile trio of Caroline Brooks, Sue Passmore and Kerri Ough will play Communitea Café on Sept. 7, and they are set to release another full studio record in 2015.
After dropping their off-the-floor concert album Live At Revolution in 2012, which included a smattering of old and new tracks, the band is eagerly anticipating a full new album of brand new tunes.
Passmore, one-third of the ever-smiling trifecta, has already seen the early merits of being back in a recording session setting.
“It feels pretty good to be back in the studio. It’s refreshing to get some new songs on the table because once this comes out, it will have been four years since we released a full studio record,” she said with a chuckle.
“It’s so nice to just spend two weeks here and with such a great band of talented players. Overall, it’s been a very fun and creative time.”
Stepping away from the three-piece setup, the new and untitled album will feature a full band, including guitar guru Christine Bougie and the eclectic Adam Warner on drums.
Unsure of their future live look, Passmore and crew are trying to let the music come together first.
“It’s so early in the process, but we are not sure how we will look on tour,” she added. “Everything feels pretty open. We might expand, but we might stay as a three- or four-piece.”
With a deep admiration for Western Canada, the Lovelies are looking forward to revisiting some of their favourite scenic spots in Alberta and the Prairies.
“We love touring Alberta,” Passmore said, adoringly.
“We always have such a great time and we love seeing all of the beautiful spots out there. We absolutely love playing in Canmore, and in Calgary, and it’s been a while since we’ve played in Lethbridge, so we are looking forward to that too. It’ll be nice to go back. We just love coming back so we keep trying to plan our tours that way.”
Having trekked around Canmore a few times, Passmore has some mountainous memories of the resort area.
“We hiked up a mountain (in Canmore) and it was so nice. We took some pictures and it really does look like we are sitting in front of a backdrop. The beauty out there is so surreal.”
Over the years, Passmore has seen the family dynamics of tour-travel change with the addition of her bandmate Caroline Brooks’ baby daughter Annie.
“She’ll be two at the end of September and she’s a joy to have on the road,” Passmore said, laughing. “She’s been growing and her personality is coming through and she is a lot of fun. She’s incredibly entertaining, and it has changed the dynamic, but in such a neat way. It’s really a situation where every month and every tour is such a new thing because she goes through so many changes all the time.”
Displaying their true community-oriented colours, the band also recently decided to do a different take on the heavily circulated, social media-saturated ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Ice Bucket Challenge.
“We decided that instead of doing a video, we all have charities that we donate to regularly, and so we donated to ALS and then matched it to our band charities, like Because I Am A Girl, Doctors Without Borders, and a few more. We took the challenge as more of a reminder to actually give to those charities.”
En route to Alberta, and having recently played in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Passmore is continually thankful for every opportunity she has to see a different chunk of the country.
“Because Canada is so big, there are so many different parts and every little piece is unique,” Passmore noted.
“And we have seen so much more of it than I ever expected to, but in Lunenburg, we were billeted with a couple from a previous trip, and they are such lovely people … They even made us a dinner of ‘fresh out of the ocean’ clams, mussels and lobster. I had never had lobster before, but it was so fresh and incredibly delicious. You get treated to some really unique experiences when you travel.”
With Passmore living in Victoria, B.C., and with her stage sister Kerri Ough now living in Newfoundland, the Lovelies have become quite splayed across the country but they still spend more time together than apart.
“B.C. to Newfoundland is pretty far, but we are on the road so much that we see each other all the time. I live in Victoria now. I realized that I wanted to spend a little more time out there when we were touring, so I decided to move there, and I love it.”
Offering a tiny, sneak peak at the new album, Passmore says that Lovelies listeners might be somewhat taken aback by what they might hear.
“You can look forward to a slight change,” Passmore said.
“It’s not going to sound the same as our last record. It will still be The Good Lovelies, but it isn’t going to be the same sound. It’s all moving in a slightly different direction and that’s very exciting for us, to move on and mix things up.”
