>>PREVIEW
AA SOUND SYSTEM
Tuesday, July 18
Broken City
When Edmonton’s electro-roots, pop-rockers AA Sound System put on a show, you never know what to expect. Riding high on the success of the Saved By Radio label and their critically acclaimed album Lily Plain… You’re Hardly Poor, this trio of troubadours likes to mix up their music with plenty of suggestive samples and tightly-tweaked vintage guitars.
"The style of our performances fluctuates according to whatever extra toys we feel like bringing along," teases lead singer, guitarist and songwriter Ayla Brooks. "It all depends on the venue and how complicated we want to make things for ourselves and the soundman. Do we wanna make it rootsy? Or, do we wanna do a rock show? I think this time around we’re gonna rock out and bring all of our toys along. We’ll also be bringing some copies of our new CD. It’s not an official release, but we will be making it available. We recorded it last June out at the farm over the course of a week, just like the last album."
"The farm" is a quarter acre of land near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan that Ayla inherited from his mother. Originally owned by his great-grandfather, it offers a tranquil getaway from the everyday where Ayla and his main collaborators, bassist and keyboardist Lane Arndt and drummer and vocalist Marek Tyler, were able to once again commune with nature and call upon their artistic muse to create their second CD, Laissez Faire.
"We managed to get a producer, an engineer and all our equipment out there, and we even hired a cook. We set up a control room in the kitchen and the high ceilings and old structure of the place gave a nice wood sort of sound to the album. Everything we recorded sounds as comfortable as we were being there during the summer out of the city."
Blending together that signature woodiness with their own special brand of homemade electronic enhancements, AA Sound System achieves genre-defying heights of expression that find them straddling the realms of country, rock, roots, pop, reggae and electronica simultaneously. Pushing back boundaries and discovering new and exciting musical vistas has allowed the band and its members the creative license they need to bring their ideas to fruition, regardless of efforts to pigeon-hole or label their distinctively eclectic sound. As a music store employee, Ayla knows all too well the economic and social pitfalls of dropping your beloved title in one bin or the other.
"I put our last record in the ‘roots section of the store, which was kind of obstinate on my part," Ayla says. "It is folk music, really, just with new tools. The focus is the songs, we just like dressing them up in interesting ways. I see all these new psychedelic folk bands going into the ‘indie’ section because the cool kids don’t wanna look in the folk section. I guess I could place our newest album in the alternative section. Whatever that means.
"I think our new CD is more spring and the last album was more fall, to use a seasonal metaphor. It’s more optimistic and poppy, the songs are not as long and there aren’t as many instrumentals. It’s more concise. The name Sound System is a joke at this point, but we do have a big dub influence. We like putting electronics on top of what we do, not for the sake of being weird but to add another layer of texture. Why hold back if it sounds right? It’s just honest music that tells a story. Of course, if I’m going to write a song about a girl I always make sure it’s about two, so I don’t get into trouble." |
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