Shawn Hewitt Finally Strikes

09/25/08 5:38pm

by Cameron Gordon (CHARTattack)

It's a long way from the east end of Toronto to the borders of West Germany, and yet somehow singer/songwriter Shawn Hewitt has managed to bridge the gap one note at a time. Hewitt has garnered a reputation for making "Krautrock for people who don’t know what Krautrock is," even though his music is so much more than plodding drums and moody drones.

Hewitt has long been a staple of the Toronto club scene and a popular touring act elsewhere (having played with the Constantines, K-OS, Metric and Saul Williams, among others), and mixes spoonfuls of Kraut with a seamless array of other influences to create a dense, original sound that defies categorization.

Spare Hearts is Hewitt's full-length debut. While fans have waited the better part of a decade for the album (his only other release was 2005's The Soft Society EP), he made it worth the wait with material that grows hooks and fangs with every listen.

Hewitt has lain dormant for long stretches, patiently waiting for inspiration to hit. And even though he's been playing in public since 2002, he never pressured himself into full-length mode.

"I've always been a pretty huge perfectionist, so ultimately I wanted to have complete control over the production and songwriting process when my first album came," he explains. "As an artist, your debut release will speak volumes about how you'll initially be received and the course your career will take, so I did everything in my power to ensure that the conditions were just right before I committed to anything."

Spare Hearts was recorded earlier this year with the help of producer Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos!) at Newfeld's newly opened studio in Trenton, Ont. Hewitt says Newfeld was always his target in terms of production duties.

"My relationship with Dave goes back a few years, and I had known for a while that he was my top choice of producers to record with. Around the time I was ready to kick things off, Dave was moving his studio to Trenton, so it was a bit of a start-stop proposition for the first little bit. But once the move was complete, I was one of the first people to work with him in the new space, this beautiful old church that made for an amazing environment to record in.

"Dave actually mentioned early on that the studio had bats, which was a bit of a warning. But luckily, they didn’t interfere with the sessions."

Shawn Hewitt & The National Strike will perform at Montreal's Le National with Wintersleep, Bonjour Brumaire and Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains as part of Pop Montreal on Oct. 3 and at Toronto's Music Gallery with The Dears on Oct. 9.