As one of the founding members of the highly successful Arts and Crafts record label, and the expansive, indie-rock super-group Broken Social Scene (BSS), Kevin Drew has never been afraid of throwing himself into monolithic musical projects.
Sometimes layered with multiple textures of fuzz guitars, screaming vocals and orchestral-rock soundscapes, the volume of BSS has always been a loud and confident one.
That’s why Darlings, released in March of 2014, is a bit of a departure for Drew, as the songs are dialed-back lamplighters that build slowly and keep a steady pace.
Drew will be visiting the area on June 28, and taking the stage as a solo performer at the Banff Centre.
Focusing mostly on band life for more than a decade, Darlings is Drew’s first solo release since his 2007 record Spirit If… and the process has given the busy musician some time to reflect.
“I live a life of being all over the place,” Drew said. “It was nice to focus on (Broken) Social Scene for a while and that’s what I did with the forgiveness album, and afterwards, I needed time to decompress and get back to the reasons of why, and I was also just hanging out. But I hung out for a long time and now it’s time to get back to work.”
Never shying away from wearing his sound influences on his sleeve, Drew has always been a massive fan of the work of two trailblazing, ’90s alt-rock outfits Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement.
“They were key players in what I do,” Drew added. “High influences and just the whole idea of wanting to play music came from film soundtracks when I was a kid, and J. Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) just spoke to me as a teenager, and I was like ‘oh my God – he completely understands what it’s like.’ In my later years and getting into (Stephen) Malkmus and Pavement, it took me a little longer, but they were such a great band. He was just able to put all of these references in there to literature and many other things – it was just so intriguing to me.”
Usually writing and starting songs in a guitar-based manner, Drew took a different direction with Darlings and began building most of the tracks while sitting down behind his friend’s old piano.
“Jimmy Shaw (from Metric) has this magical piano, it became sort of a starting point. I just kind of kept it that way. Then Charles (Spearin) and Ohad (Benchetrit) came in and I gave them a guitar and a bass and I just played keys around them.”
Spearin and Benchetrit were obvious choices for Drew’s band mates for the album, as they are members of one of his most adored musical outfits, in the soundscape-heavy Do Make Say Think.
“They are one of my favourites of all time,” Drew added. “I go to their records all the time and when you do something like that, you know you’ve been captured. I listen to their albums on a daily basis and it’s something that emotionally, I just get it. It gives me a soundtrack. I can just listen to them forever.”
Never afraid to forge his own path, Drew has always been an improvisational lyricist and has never liked the idea of writing lyrics down on paper.
“People can hear the impulse and the intuition and the on the spot feeling. I’ve always loved the idea of just capturing things and leaving them. Charles taught me to do that. Dave Neufeld, an old friend and producer, was like that too and always believed that first takes were the best. I think that impulse is something you can’t take from – you just have to let it come through. With lyrics and melody, I always wanted to capture the nature of one takes.”
Calling some of his songs “one-take wonders,” Drew has a good sense of humour about his strange style of lyrical creation.
“On a song like ‘Gangbang Suicide,’ you can hear that I don’t really know what I’m talking about,” he said, laughing. “A lot of the times, it’s not so much the lyrics – it’s the conviction and the delivery of what you think.”
Often using sex as a recurring theme in his songs, the Torontonian musical juggernaut often sounds like a street poet, and has never been afraid of using profane words to accentuate and fuel his passion on stage and in the studio.
“It’s what I’ve always written about,” he noted. “I like to write about love and I write about sex, and that’s generally it. I like to dive into things. Those topics are always more engaging to me – the survival aspects of it and the disaster aspects of it. It’s not that I hide in that, but I believe what I say and I can’t say ‘your eyes are like the ocean.’ It’s not going to happen.”
In the video for his latest single “Good Sex,” Drew and his friends wanted to capture the rawness of the song, and filmed many different gay and straight couples tearing each other’s clothes off and getting very intimate on a lighted, glass bottom stage.
“(The idea) definitely came from my friend Samir who took to it as a love song,” he said.
“We tried to find a bunch of people through this casting call, and it seemed like something I’d never done, and so right away, I was into it. Just watching them go for it was pretty powerful, and I felt very intrigued.”
Having loved the community or collective-based approach to music for many years, Drew has always loved surrounding himself with likeminded musicians, but he has also seen the downfalls of losing himself in a sea of noise.
“I have. I feel the strength in numbers and I love the support and I love to be supported. I’ve tried to get behind a lot of things and I’ve gotten behind a lot of things successfully. I was always a community man. It’s always been my way, even in high school and then walking the streets in Toronto. I like people. There’s no way around that for me. But lately, the theme seems to be to focus on myself more and so I have to follow through with that. So as far as community, I love to be a leader in a community and to help others blossom in a community. Introducing people is a great thing and seeing them get hooked up and get together. But you need to have strength and the right reasons for doing it.”
