Harbour Coats Produce Music For Lovemaking

Bryan Webb keeps pretty busy singing and playing guitar with the Constantines. Many people in similar situations may unwind by pursuing other non-musical interests during brief periods of band down time. But Webb focuses his energy on getting his side project, The Harbour Coats, up and running.

"The more creative work you do, the better your work gets," explains Webb. "You're always thinking about making something, so you're always open to ideas.

"You know, I just love playing guitar, so I have to keep trying to put myself in situations where I'm always playing guitar, always singing, always learning."

The Harbour Coats formed two-and-a-half years ago and include Snailhouse and Bell Orchestre’s Mike Feuerstack on lap steel guitar, ex-Tricky Woo drummer Patrick Conan, Stephen Evans on bass and banjo, and recent addition Cherie Pyne on saxophone, accordion and guitar.

While they've only performed a handful of shows, they hope to gig on a more regular basis and will take their first step towards their goal this week with shows in southern Ontario and Quebec.

"Most of our songs were home-recorded demos I had made over the last five years or more," says Webb. "My wife told me to get my shit together and start playing them live.

"But I don't really like playing solo, so when these guys seemed interested, I started to get it together. I like being in bands."

Creating a name for the act wasn't easy. The group originally operated under a series of joke monikers like The Blogs, Hoar Frost, Blue Tots and The Rich Girls before settling on The Harbour Coats. Webb feels the name is well-suited for the band and the romance that their mellow songs are intended to induce.

"We sound like Chris Isaak on codeine," Webb offers. "The Harbour Coats are music for lovemaking.

"It's nice to balance out the wildness of the Cons with some softer business. Like, the Constantines are a mountaintop guitar solo, and The Harbour Coats are a steamy hot tub party.

"Maybe I'm going to regret saying that."

The Harbour Coats have about 20 songs in their repertoire, and are in the midst of self-recording their debut on an old Tascam 38 half-inch, eight-track reel-to-reel machine in Montreal. Although taking breaks to fine-tune existing material and continuing to craft new numbers has slowed the process, the band plan to put out something before the end of the year. Webb is keeping his options open on how they'll distribute it.

"We'll get it out by this autumn, I swear," he says. "I can't start thinking about a label until we know what we've got.

"Maybe we'll release it as a limited-edition flexi-disc free inside the Toronto Sun."

Here are The Harbour Coats' tour dates:

March 4 Guelph, ON @ E-Bar
March 5 Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah w/Fast Reactor and Phil Williams
March 6 Waterloo, ON @ Trepid House w/Jon-Rae Fletcher and Jenny Omnichord
March 7 London, ON @ Call The Office w/Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains and Flash Lightnin
March 8 Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo w/Old Believer