>>PREVIEW
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS
Friday, November 25
That Empty Space (afternoon)
Liberty Lounge, MRC (evening)
"Yeah, I’ve swam in all of (the Great Lakes)," says Tony Dekker, on the phone from San Francisco.
A gentle singer-songwriter, Dekker is the maestro behind the Great Lake Swimmers, Toronto’s lush soft-sung gift to the world.
"I’m kind of biased towards Lake Erie, which I grew up on and swam in as a kid, because there are some really nice beaches down in the Niagara region," he says, "but Superior is also really cool, too, just because it is up near Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. It’s really nice and clean and fresh and crisp."
Beginning as a solo endeavour, this particular project seems to ebb and flow depending on the surrounding performance and recording requirements. While this visit to Calgary finds Dekker on his own, it sounds as though the number of people onstage doesn’t really affect his performance much.
"I’m basically doing the same kind of thing – still really sparse and stripped-down," he says. "I don’t try to re-create the record live anyway, so I think it makes sense and I think it works as a solo thing and as a band thing, too."
Their most recent recording, Bodies & Minds, which was released in Canada earlier this year, is a stunning turn of phrase that emphasizes the way each song was written and has earned Dekkar a lot of attention and golden reviews that draw parallels to Nick Drake and Neil Young. Those lofty comparisons to the favourite sons of songwriting, while flattering, don’t seem to affect Dekker beyond repair.
"It’s not bad company to be in," he says. "I feel influenced by them to a certain extent, but honestly I don’t pay too much attention to that stuff. I feel like I’m doing stuff that’s still pretty mysterious to myself."
That "stuff" has the ability to be ethereal, melancholy, specific and true. And there is maturity in each song, almost as if each line contains the passage of time. Extremely thoughtful, Great Lake Swimmers are not in the habit of recording background music – this is for active listeners only.
"I guess that’s my critical process – letting it age for awhile and seeing if it still holds up," he says. "I’m not really a spontaneous songwriter. I like to think I put a little bit of thought and craft into it. If it stands that test, then I’ll record it or play it live."
Dekker chose to record Bodies & Minds in a church because he wanted the natural acoustics and reverb that such a structure could provide. Since recording, there have been some rare opportunities to play shows in similar venues.
"It’s been really humbling," he says, "and it’s something that I really enjoy, getting to play in venues like that."
As Great Lake Swimmers tour North America, audiences everywhere are being introduced to Dekker’s sound. With the added bonus of having Bodies & Minds now enjoying a U.S.. release, there is a slight irony in the fact that the album’s distributor south of the border is Secretly Canadian. Is there anything secretly Canadian about our Great Lake Swimmers? Dekker laughs.
"There’s nothing that’s secret about me being Canadian. I tell everyone that’ll listen." |
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