Pretty much everyone has those family stories – you know, Grandma Florence leaving her teeth on the bus, great great great Grandpa André never having been more than 10 kilometres away from the family farm … that kind of thing.
Not everyone, though, has family stories encompassing the same drama as Jay Malinowski’s.
Malinowski, Bedouin Soundclash frontman, will share some of those stories, now put down for posterity on an album, as part of his new project, Jay Malinowski & The Deadcoast, at Communitea Cafe, Monday (March 24). Calgary’s Astral Swans will open.
The five-piece are touring in support of Martel, an 18-track album that spans Canada from Atlantic to Pacific. Based on Malinowski’s ancestor Charles Martel’s life, the album is part family tree, part introspective.
The band’s stop in Canmore is part of a Victoria to Montreal tour (Meet Me At The Gate Tour) and Malinowski will perform with The Deadcoast, Patrick Krief on guitar and the string section of Elliot Vaughan, John Kastelic and Martin Reisle.
“I’ve never written songs about an ancestor before,” said Malinowski. “But a grandfather on the East Coast always talked about Charles Martel and after he passed away, I thought it would all fit well with The Deadcoast. I got inspired to work on this about two years ago.
“My grandfather had handwritten notes and family tree information and I talked to East Coast family members in Cape Breton. This record is based on all that, and on my own life.”
Malinowski did plenty of research on Charles Martel, a Huguenot in France who saw his mother beheaded in Lyon for her religious convictions. Martel had a narrow escape from France, made his way to the New World in Canada and fought with Wolfe at the battle of Louisbourg in 1758.
When Wolfe was victorious, Martel was given land along the Cape Breton coast as payment – his bones rest there still, alongside Malinowski’s grandfather in the cemetery of St. James.
After Charles, the Martels become sailors, privateers and pirates, something Malinowski identifies with as he himself has been travelling for most of his life.
“Once I had the songs written, that took about a year and a half, I knew I wanted to work with a string section and I started working with the guys on the arrangements.”
Along with the album Martel, Malinowski has been working on an accompanying novella, Skulls & Bones (Letters From A Sailor To A Long Lost Granddaughter) where he’ll release offerings every six weeks. The novella features ink sketches designed by Malinowski.
Chapter one of Skulls and Bones was released by HarperCollins, March 18. Loosely based on Malinowski’s historical roots in Europe and the East Coast of Canada, Skulls & Bones takes the reader on a voyage through the eyes of a seafaring soul searcher, Martel, his granddaughter, Kit, and an inquisitive spectator, Ana, who lives on Spain’s Dead Coast.
“Writing that was something totally new for me,” said Malinowski. “I had the lyrics and songs for the record, and I had all the background from my research.
“I’ve written before, but nothing this in-depth. There’s a lot of allegory in the stories and songs musically. I wanted to re-create his life.”
Originally from Montreal and now living in Vancouver, and with family on the East Coast, Malinowski has seen the country from coast to coast. “There seems to be a call from the ocean. Our family is always near the ocean,” he said.
Malinowski’s present tour will last two and a half weeks and after that, the summer will be spent playing festivals and working on new material.
“I’m looking forward to playing Canmore,” he said, “that should be an intimate show and I’m excited about being there.”
In relation to Martel and Skulls & Bones, Malinowski wrote, I’ve never created something as reflective of my own journey. What started out as an album that almost didn’t see the light of day, has become all encompassing – an album, a novella and drawings that I hope will take people on an adventure through the eyes of two wanderers; one past and one present
Malinowski’s interactive website of audio and visual pieces can be found at www.whoismartel.com
