Preview
FALCONHAWK
Friday, February 13
Liberty Lounge
So you’ve got yourself a band. You’ve written songs. You have even made enough money to record them. Now you gotta put your music out there. The next step – the all-important CD release party.
This month sees Calgary play host to several new local releases. Look for new albums from aggressive math rockers The Fake Cops, reggae stalwarts Strugglah and homegrown DJ Jon Delerious. Leading the pack is the debut album from synth-rock scenesters Falconhawk, and the requisite CD release bash.
"This is my first one," says Kara Keith, keyboard player and vocalist for the band. "I love throwing parties, so I’m excited about it." The key to any good party is to make it memorable and Keith aims to do just that. In fact she has so many ideas on how to throw this party that the hardest part about planning it has been dealing with the limitations.
"I just didn’t want to have it in the same old bar setting," she says. "I wanted to have a debutante ball, because that’s kind of what I think of this whole release thing. You are literally releasing it into the world… It’s like bringing the 16-year-old princess out and going ‘OK man. Here’s the lady and she’s saying good-bye to her youth.’ So I wanted to have a debutante ball like that where we would all be dressed up and have a lot of champagne and men with white gloves walking around with caviar."
The logistics of putting on such an event proved daunting and as a result the venue (which was originally supposed to be a mansion in Mount Royal) has switched and so has the concept.
"I change my mind everyday, so now it’s a Friday the 13th party," Keith explains. "I’m thinking of having the opposite icons of symbols of bad luck. Instead of having black cats running around I was going to let loose some yellow canaries. But someone told me that they would probably have heart attacks and poo all over everybody."
When Keith was talking to Chad Van Gaalen (who will be opening up for Falconhawk) he got very excited about the idea of spectacle. When he suggested the possibility of costumes, Keith responded immediately because that was the inspiration for the debutante ball in the first place. Situation would influence dress code and in turn behaviour, because according to Keith, people just act differently when they dress up. Now the costuming has become a little bit more elaborate.
"I wanted everybody in sailor suits. I actually have three sailor suits I have collected over the years but they don’t fit anyone else," she says with a twinge of regret. Regardless, she vows to find something for the boys of Falconhawk to wear.
The venue has been chosen, the costumes are well in hand, but when it comes to CD releases there is the small matter of the music. "By the time you get the CD done you have kind of moved on artistically," she says. According to Keith, Falconhawk performances in the past have had a tendency to be thrown together because she finds herself retiring material almost as soon as she has written it. As a result, her bandmates, drummer Dave Alcock and bassist Mark Rudd, have put the kybosh on new material until after the album is out.
"I’m really concentrating on practicing. I never do that. I never sit down and ask myself what we sound like objectively, because I’m so self-centred as an artist," she says. "There is more of a conscious effort (with a CD release) to do something worthwhile or do something classy."
So has the planning process given her any tips to pass on to those attempting classy CD releases of their own?
"Oh God no," she says laughing. "Wait till I actually throw this and then we can talk about it. I have no idea what’s going to happen. For all I know I’ll be drunk by 8 o’clock and barely make it on stage." |
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