Woolly Leaves Allow Will Kidman To Express His Quiet Side

When Will Kidman joined the Constantines prior to their 2003 masterstroke, Shine A Light, he set off a paradigm shift in band dynamics. Kidman injected a healthy dose of distorted keyboards to the Cons' choppy guitar racket, helping the band's music reach a new level.

Yet, in between tours and band meetings, Kidman likes to dwell in a simpler, more introspective place — namely, his Woolly Leaves side-project. With a taste for subtlety and a new full-length called Quiet Waters, Kidman manages to stretch his songwriting chops through restraint and (gulp) tranquility.

"Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love playing loud rock 'n' roll," says Kidman from a van parked somewhere in downtown Toronto. "I get to do that a lot with the Cons, and it really frees up my headspace to concentrate on quiet music when we're not touring or recording."

As the sole member of Woolly Leaves, the project allows Kidman to explore musical terrain that he might not reach otherwise. He says an acoustic guitar was the only instrument that he owned for the longest time, and an unwillingness to learn other people's songs forced him to explore the songwriter's craft from a young age.

Now older and with a few more resources at his disposal, Quiet Waters sees Kidman targeting that home-schooled feel while taking full advantage of modern recording techniques. The result is 11 songs that manage to engage without having to rely on much beyond some very basic arrangements.

"There was definitely a goal of capturing that spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment feel with the album, and it seems like that comes across pretty well," Kidman confirms. "For example, the day I recorded 'Neverending Song,' my roommate Melissa [Boraski] was just down the hall, so I grabbed her and asked her to sing on the track, right on the spot. It worked out as planned, although I had to ask her not to sing so well because it was actually crushing my vocals.

"The record sounds really simple and basic but, believe me, there was a lot of effort getting it to sound that way. Jeff McMurrich, who produced the last Constantines record, would sit around with me for hours, working through the smaller details. It was great having him around because he was always there to get me to finish up. That's something I'd never be able to tell myself to do."

Here are Woolly Leaves' tour dates:

Oct. 5 Kingston, ON @ Grad Club
Oct. 11 Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
Oct. 12 Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod Beeblebrox
Oct. 13 Montreal, QC @ Lambi
Oct. 14 Quebec City, QC @ Rouge
Oct. 18 Fredericton, NB @ Capitol Bar
Oct. 20 Sackville, NB @ Goerge's Roadhouse
Oct. 21 Halifax, NS @ Sam The Record Man