54-40's Isolation Drills

10/07/08 12:34pm

by Scott Bryson (CHARTattack)

In an industry where bands live fast and die hard, 54-40 are an anomaly. The quartet have survived 27 years and 12 studio albums. One might reasonably expect inspiration to be a problem at this juncture, but the band's latest disc, Northern Soul, is just the first of many products they're planning to harvest from a challenging new songwriting impetus. We spoke to lead singer Neil Osbourne about this.

ChartAttack: Is it true that when you began working on this disc, the band's vision was to create 100 songs?
Neil Osborne: Yeah, we're still in the process.

Where did that idea come from?
It was to see if we had it in us to do that. It wasn't 100 songs in two weeks, it was just to write 100 songs before we could think of anything else. We got to about 36 and the record company said, "We'd really like just an album at this point." We slowed it down and focused on finishing up the 11 that are on the record.

Is it likely that your future releases will come at a faster pace?
It could be quicker. There are definitely a lot of songs in the can, but these things move slow, you know? I don't know why. People's lives have to be lived and that sort of thing.

Was there ever a plan to have all 100 songs connected by a common theme?
There's a song called "100 Songs" on this album that's kind of the title of the theme of the band for the next little while... Songs can come from anywhere — from multiples of places. The muse knocks on your brain and says, "Let's do this." So, we're just trying to open that up. That's about as conceptual as it gets, really.

You started working on Northern Soul in a former funeral home/chapel, right?
It was in the downtown east side of Vancouver, which is heavily populated with addicts and homeless — a real tough part of the city. It just seemed like it would be an interesting vibe, rather than going into a studio. We needed a place for a month and we certainly couldn't afford a studio, fully equipped, but we could bring in gear remotely in an environment that might inspire creativity.

What we did with this group of songs is we recorded it in the same moment. Somebody would come up with an idea and we'd flush it out and record it and keep flushing it out for three or four hours — maybe even for the next few days — and lay down some solid bed tracks and then move on to the next one. Those recordings are what ended up being the recordings that are on the record. They're very fresh — from the ground up. The original spark, if you will.

Was it your first time recording with this sort of process?
It was, yeah. We've done a number of different kinds of processes, but this was the first time that, in the actual creation process, we captured the recording. Usually, we go out and write a song and hit it live for a while, or we've done records where we just created it all in a studio environment and learned it afterwards. But this was the first time we'd done it quite like that.

And later in the recording, things moved to a waterfront barn, yes? Was it the same sort of set-up?
Yep, on Denman Island. Exactly the same process, completely different environment.

Did you see a distinct difference in the songs you created in the two places?
I guess the poppier ones were created on the island, but then also, the trippiest ones were created on the island. And then the sort of medium ones, like "Northern Soul," were created in the chapel. I wouldn't say there's a direct this way or that way, but it seemed like the lighter and the heavier sides were on the island and the middle was in the chapel...

Interestingly enough, the way these two environments are related, is isolation. When you're in the downtown east side, you don't want to go outside; it's just too sketchy out there. And then when you're on Denman Island in the winter and it's pouring rain and you're in this barn, you're not leaving, either.