Miracle Fortress: Not Just A Clever Name

Montrealer gets dreamy with his side-project

I really like Graham Van Pelt's new record, Five Roses. But when I tried to tell him that I was left with little more than dead silence and a hurried "Oh‚ thanks" before the subject quickly changed.

The crushingly modest Van Pelt is the man behind the increasingly popular Miracle Fortress, a name he derived from some drawings he'd been doing of "big colourful churches" and the "fortress" of looping pedals, keyboards and other musical instruments he uses at solo live shows.

Van Pelt grew up in Stratford, Ontario and relocated to Montreal's Mile End in 2004. In the intervening three years, he and friend Jack Dylan set up two multi-function art/music/living spaces, Tractor and Friendship Cove. The latter, located in Griffintown, is Van Pelt's current de facto homebase. He also co-founded party rock band Think About Life and embarked on a number of tours in North America and abroad.

Then Van Pelt got restless. He set out to write, record and produce a solo record that would allow him to indulge his love of arrangements.

"A lot of it is based on sampling," Van Pelt says. "So a lot of it comes out of chance, kinda playing something and then replaying it and listening back to it and taking something out of it and building it into something else. But [it's] a very digital process."

The sound of Miracle Fortress' arresting debut was influenced by the pop experimentation of The Beatles' Revolver, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and a slew of John Cale and Harry Nilsson records. His hope-filled work was also coloured by a burgeoning relationship and Van Pelt freely admits to being "in that kind of swoony euphoric phase."

Five Roses can be almost effusive in its wide-eyed romanticism, but to his credit, Van Pelt cunningly avoids any claustrophobic sentimentality and instead provides the listener with a glimpse into himself — though from a bit of a distance. The textural layering of '60s and '70s era pop music through numerous instruments and electronic tinkering produced a sweet and complex set of tracks punctuated by Van Pelt's high-register delivery.

Setting out with virtually no musical agenda, Van Pelt recorded everything at home, giving him total freedom to create what he wanted, when he wanted.

"I don't really like working on the clock and having to rush through things. I like to take ideas as they come and take big breaks and take a few days off here and there. I find there's just no schedule when you're working out of your house," he says, adding with a sly, slightly muted laugh, "You kinda just roll out of bed in the morning and record something and come back to it like a week later.

"And, uh, being able to do that and put all the instruments together by just playing whatever I felt like playing and not having anyone to answer to is pretty liberating."

Van Pelt found a supportive home for his particular brand of dream pop with his friend Andrew Rose and signed to his fledgling Montreal indie label, Secret City.

"It kinda just made sense," says Van Pelt. "He seemed to have a good idea of what he wanted to do, and he's always been a big supporter of the music, so it seemed like a good plan to start out with them. They have a bunch of experience on a different label so they're able to take care of things that I really didn't want to deal with."

Van Pelt is keeping an eye to the future. He wanted to recreate Five Roses live, so he happily added Sunset Rubdown's Jordan Robson-Cramer, Jessie Stein and Adam Waito to the lineup. He's also writing material for a new album. But he says with self-effacing wit.

"Yeah, I mean, who knows if I'll end canning all of it. At least I've got stuff."

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Our Favourite Fortresses

Graham Van Pelt may have his Miracle Fortress, but it's not the only cool fort out there. See also:

Cobra Terrordrome: This circular fortress complete
with bad-ass laser cannons was perfect for warding
off nerdy G.I. Joes.

Fortress Of Solitude: That fancy Arctic hangout that
Superman would go to when he was feeling sad.

Castle Grayskull: Damn if that Skeletor wasn't
always attacking it.

The following feature article is from the September 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue go to the Chart Shop.