SXSW Music Interview: Matt Peters of Royal Canoe (Canada) chats on touring new material, recording & more!

Royal Canoe‘s Matt Peters caught up with Larry at SXSW to have a chat about the Canadian six-piece’s new album, Today We are Believers.

The indie pop group have played in over 350 shows around North America and Europe, and supported Bombay Bicycle Club on their ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow‘ tour. Their new album, produced by Animal Collective and Deerhunter collaborator Ben Allen includes their new hit “Bathtubs” – a song about the rich creative process achieved in the band’s limited rehearsal apartment space. In order to accommodate for band practice, bathtubs were moved in to hallways of the apartment building.

Give us a taste of what’s new with the band!

When we got back from finishing the tour, we started writing songs and this process is a long drawn out thing. We rarely just bring a piano or acoustic bass to a finished song and just jam out. Mostly, the song starts on the computer and so from the initial genesis point, till the song is finished, it can be months and hours of work, because we are doing so much tinkering and trying layers of sounds. Just doing what we can until it feels like we are discovering something new. So the process from when we started writing, until we finished the record was probably about a year and a half. Then we went down to Atlanta and worked with a producer called Ben Allen, and we were really excited about how he challenged us as writers, producers and musicians.

When you are sitting with someone like him, do the songs change in that setting? Or do you go in with cemented songs in place?

For us actually, we did most of the producing remotely. He was in Atlanta for the production, we went down there just for the mixing stage, so on the production end, he is listening to things that we have recorded and then he will have comments and ideas that he then throws at us.

We will sit through that and see what is working and send stuff back to him, and having a conversation through email. He will work on one of the sessions for a while, bring it back to us. I think that is the way people are transitioning into collaborating. It is not just about sitting in the same room with a guitar and awkwardly humming together. There are really new and amazing ways that you can build on a session from being far away, its really great. So yes, I think the songs did change, but the nugget was still there. He was great.

Moving past the recording, the next stage is something that we are seeing ourselves through, which is transitioning from, ‘Okay, we have the recording, now how the hell do we play this live?’ Because there is very little jamming that goes on and so afterwards, it’s a struggle figuring out how we are going to play this and who is playing what.

There is so much I remember from seeing you guys a couple of years ago, there was so much going on, both in terms of eclecticism of the music as well as the amount of instruments and gadgets you had on stage to recreate it.

I think that orchestration is our secret weapon; our sound. Taking a number of different sounds and trying to fit them together in a way that produces something all together different and beautiful, and hopefully interesting and provoking.

That is what we want to do, we want to challenge the listener, and ourselves. At this point now, this album is completely recorded, the album no one has heard before is recorded and we are already working on new songs, as you kind of have to. I think for us, and for me at least, I have always thought that you are only really an artist when you are creating art.

It is easier to get caught up in the SXSW thing and in touring, doing interviews and taking photos and shooting music videos. But that stuff only matters if you are creating material that you are proud of. If you take too much of a break in between from recording outbursts or studio sessions, I think you can lose sight of your thread of your career and of your voice as an artist.

When you are looking towards the rest of the year, it’s releasing the record. What is the plan ahead?

We have a very sedative plan, it is not set in stone. But definitely some time this year, we will be putting something out, putting the album out, and we are hoping to tour as extensively as the world will allow us to. We want to play and we are hoping with the scheduling, booking and all things that come in to play, that in the near future we will be able to say, ‘We are playing your city on this day, come see us!’ So we will see.

For now, it seems like you are working the newest songs out, and I’m assuming you are going to be testing some out here today.

Yes absolutely, we will be playing mostly new songs. These are such short sets here that when you start feel like you are picking up steam like, ‘Yeah, we are playing this’ and then it;s like, ‘Guys we are done, it’s last song’. We are like, ‘Really?!, We are having fun.’ But its fine, it’s the spirit of this thing, and it is a wild time here.

Well, I can’t wait to hear the new stuff. I fell in love with you guys last time I was here and have been looking forward to it since then pretty much. We will see you out on the road at some point!

Yes absolutely, sounds good!

 

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