AARON BOOTH
Friday, March 26
Liberty Lounge
When Aaron Booth opens the song "Cool Again," from his latest album The Last Escape, with a reference to leg warmers coming back into style, you might cock an eyebrow. What’s more surprising though is how Booth takes such a kitschy image and turns it into a beautiful pop song.
"The idea from that song came from a conversation – the idea that ‘that old thing’ will be trendy some time in the cycle in the future," says Booth. "And at that very moment I was going through the worst breakup of my life. Ending a long-term relationship and it just hit me that it would be a great way to write about what I was going through and present a message to the person I was parting ways with that I thought we could make amends and we would be OK sometime down the road."
Booth is now well into the second part of his musical career, having left Calgary for Toronto, but as in the case of those allegorical fashion accessories, certain things are resurfacing. The songs on Our Last Escape are all classically oriented pop-rock gems. Augmented by sophisticated arrangements, the album also sees Booth reworking material from his debut Tune Up with a fuller production. This is no accident. Booth looks at the new album as a throwback to the poppy sounds of his early solo work that was maybe not so apparent on his second album Transparent.
"When I arrived (in Toronto) I was isolated and I wasn’t a part of other projects. I was forced to focus on my own music. Transparent was an organic lets-see-where-this-goes album, whereas the new one is more of a conscious effort. I had more of a clear idea of what I wanted to create – building the arrangements before I went into the studio."
But even outside of songwriting, there are familiar patterns appearing in Booth’s life. While in Calgary he clocked several hours behind the wheel of a car as Calgary’s hippest waiter en route. Now he navigates the streets of Toronto snapping photos of apartments for a rental website. Booth has traded in his talented musical compatriots from Shecky Forme in Calgary for an instrumental network across the country, which includes Mike Feuerstack (Snailhouse) and Jeremy Gara (Weights & Measures). In fact much of what he is doing seems to be similar to his achievements in the past, only on a larger scale – opportunities that Booth attributes to his Eastern move.
"I had been (in Calgary) for 10 years and I felt I had explored all the possibilities… and wanted to expand a little bit," he says. "What does Toronto have that Calgary doesn’t have? The opportunity to expand out of the microcosm into the macrocosm."
This is illustrated by the fact that he now no longer releases albums solely on his own Boon Box imprint, but now has the support of Winnipeg’s Endearing records. He continues to wow the crowds and his recent performance at Canadian music week was, in Booth’s modest opinion, a success. Despite this, it seems the little triumphs make him just as happy.
"I’m starting to find my way. When I got here I tried to check out a bunch of local communities to see where I would fit in and I really didn’t fit into any of them so I kept doing my thing. Now things are naturally evolving. The people who are playing with me are people who have asked to play with me, I didn’t have to go out and beg for people to join my band," he says before modifying his answer. "Well I did a bit at first."
CELEB TOP FIVE
The Top Five most underrated Canadian artists according to Aaron Booth:
1.Vail Halen
2. Chad VanGaalen
3. The Sea Snakes
4. Geoffrey Pye of The Yellowjacket Avengers
5. The Silt |
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