Land Of Talk Are Connected

12/01/08 3:19pm

by Jen White (CHARTattack)

Frontwoman Liz Powell has been building her musical resume for years

Land Of Talk might only just be releasing their debut full-length, Some Are Lakes, but they're by no means newcomers to the music scene. The Montreal indie rockers have been on the road making a name for themselves since they formed in 2006. They first caught music bloggers' attention that year with the release of their Applause Cheer Boo Hiss EP, and have since toured with the likes of Tapes 'N Tapes, The Decemberists and Broken Social Scene. They've also signed a deal with Saddle Creek in the U.S.

But vocalist/guitarist Liz Powell's first foray into the music world way predates her band.

The enthusiastic and quirky frontwoman started out as a singer/songwriter when she was 16 years old. Accompanied by an acoustic guitar, she played open mic nights in her hometown of Guelph, Ont. until the bar crowd became too much for her to handle
on her own.

"It was [hard] trying to compete with the oblivious party crowd at local bars, which at that point was the only place for me to showcase my songs, and I thought the answer was to get an electric guitar, a distortion pedal and a rhythm section.

"And there was no shortage of awesome musicians in Guelph... Jimmie Guthrie, Gentleman Reg, Aaron Riches — all those kids were five years older than me, so they took me under their wing and I always got to either open for them or they would play in my band. It was kind of an incestuous, everybody-shared-everybody's-drummer-and-bass-player [situation]."

Once Powell moved to Montreal to attend Concordia University, she finally got her own band members: bassist Chris McCarron and drummer Bucky Wheaton. They recorded Applause Cheer Boo Hiss on a tiny budget in a matter of days. While they had more freedom recording Some Are Lakes, it proved to be a more difficult task.

"That recording experience was actually really terrifying, arduous," says Powell.

The album was previously recorded in February 2007, but those sessions were scrapped when Wheaton left the band a month later.

"When we got back from tour, I just felt like we had to re-record everything because the songs had taken new shapes and I just wanted to get new blood on the album, even just for my sake. So we got Andrew Barr [from The Slip], who's been one of my favourite drummers forever.

"We re-recorded it in September and we had way more time, and money was a little bit more free, but I promised myself after that recording experience that the next time we go in the studio, I'm going to cap it at four days. There's something to be said for tight timelines, a tight budget; less is more. The more time you have, the more time you spend.

"I'm like a one-to-three take sort of person, and after three takes you could be in the studio for seven hours, and I just don't have the patience, and I'm not a perfectionist. I just like to nail it or throw it in the garbage."

While Powell says she would have never considered working with a producer, a chance encounter with Justin Vernon, a.k.a. Bon Iver, changed her mind. The Rosebuds — a band Vernon worked with — watched Land Of Talk at their SXSW showcase in 2007 (the same day that Wheaton left the band) and were blown away. The two bands later toured together and, through their connection at a stop in Seattle, Powell had a jittery schoolgirl moment when she finally asked Vernon to be her producer.

"I remember it was raining, and we were outside, and I asked, 'Can you please work on the next Land Of Talk record?' And he was like, ‘I was waiting for you to ask!' It was perfect.

"I can barely keep track of my own thoughts, what I want. I just thought throwing a producer in the mix would complicate things. But Justin knew exactly where to take the songs, and he knew when to do these beautiful boys' choir-layered, drenched and reverbed harmonies, and those are all of his signature trademarks. And that's definitely what I wanted. It was a very happy experience."

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Friends Of P.

Land Of Talk vocalist/guitarist Liz Powell has a lot of musical friends. Here's a smattering of her connections:

Brendan Canning — Powell met Canning at the age of 15 when she was dating a member of his band, By Divine Right. Canning used to record her vocals for his DJ tracks. She's since worked with him on The Tracey Fragments soundtrack and his Something For All Of Us… album. Land Of Talk are currently touring with Broken Social Scene in the U.S.

Karkwa — Powell appeared as a guest vocalist on their Le Volume Du Vent album. She met the Montreal band through another local musician, Patrick Watson. She also guested on his Polaris Music
Prize-winning Close To Paradise.

The Decemberists — Colin Meloy name-dropped Land Of Talk in some interviews, and Powell tried to get in touch with the frontman to thank him for the mad props. This led to an opening slot on The Decemberists' European tour last fall.

The following feature is taken from the October 2008 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, head on over to the Chart Shop.