>>PREVIEW
IN-FLIGHT SAFETY
Thursday, March 16
Liberty Lounge (MRC)
Friday, March 17
MacEwan Hall (U of C)
Ambition and ego are two separate things. The two seem inherently linked, but you can have one without the other.
Take John Mullane, singer-guitarist for Halifax, Nova Scotia’s In-Flight Safety. When he talks about recording the band’s second album, The Coast is Clear, he’s all ambition.
"Our goal was just to make great records and go to great lengths to do that," he says. "We just work on a record and work on it until it sounds like we want it to. And if it doesn’t sound like we want it to, we won’t put it out."
Out of context, that could be the rantings of a studio prima donna – an artiste who won’t be satisfied no matter what. But with Mullane, getting what he wants has nothing to do with ego and everything to do with making something he’s proud of.
"We have done some crazy things to get things sounding right. I think that is what separates us from a lot of bands – the amount of energy and thought we put into making albums."
Flashback a couple of years and In-Flight Safety are in their old hometown of Sackville, New Brunswick recording their debut EP Vacation Land. Mullane puts some of his experience as a soundman at the Kyber Club in Halifax to use and for only $600, the band walks away with a recording that is lush, epic, driving and thoughtful.
"We had an idea that we could make a record that would change the way you perceive it based on the fact that you didn’t need a lot of money to do a record with the production we wanted," says Mullane. "We didn’t want to be an indie band that sounded like a raw discordant kind of thing."
The album’s standout single, "Somebody’s Watching You," fuses Brit-pop atmosphere with a loping country rhythm. Aching with melancholic guitar and pinprick xylophone solos, you would never imagine the meagre cost. Given the results you wonder what they could do with a bigger budget. That is where the ambition comes in.
For The Coast is Clear the band crossed the country to work with Vancovuer-based producer Warne Livesay. Known for his work with Matthew Good and Midnight Oil, Livesay proved to be the perfect match for Mullane’s perfectionist streak.
"It was almost like making a major movie where no detail was too small to consider in making the music, whether it was the room you were recording the drums in or the drum sticks you were using," he says.
"I can remember on the song ‘Silent Treatment’ there was a 14-person choir in the background there. And you can barely hear it on the album, but I know (keyboard player) Dan (Lewdell) and I spent hours trying to get the voice in the right place and tonally getting them working."
But The Coast is Clear didn’t end with Livesay. After sessions on the West Coast, the band returned home for more work in Halifax before Mullane mixed the album himself. The end result is considerably more massive than their first attempt. Ideas that were spawned on Vacation Land come to fruition.
Mullane’s vocals are just as smooth, but the instrumentation that backs him is gutsier. The album swells and fades with the subtlety of the best shoegazers. It burns like an Unforgettable Fire but jangles with all the longing of a Nashville Skyline. Mullane likes it, even though he is sure others won’t.
"I knew when we made this record that we would be panned by some people," he says. "We all knew that they would say, ‘what the hell are you trying to do.’ I think there is something negative about being ambitious with your sound.
"Ambitious bands, at least in terms of sonics, have had a bit of a negative connotation, because that slacker vibe is a bit cooler or more accessible."
That’s why ambition is so important. While indie circles are embracing dance rock and oblique singer-songwriters, and corporate radio is searching for the next Nickelback, Mullane has an album he is happy with regardless of what anyone else is buying.
"I think it is a harder sell because I think it is confusing. You have a band that is passionate about making these very grandiose arrangements but at the same time is very aware of its place as an indie band. So those are two very contradictory things. I think that is changing and that is the cool thing for us." |
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