>PREVIEW
DO MAKE SAY THINK
Saturday, March 3
The Warehouse
"I need a little bit of sunshine," says Charles Spearin, the bass player for the post-rock miracle Do Make Say Think. "If you’re going to survive winter, you need some sunlight and vitamin D." Vocalizing our mutual preference for the bright cold of our respective habitats versus the dreary warmth of the West Coast, Spearin’s statement is a comforting one. "(Toronto) can still have a month of grey, which is pretty depressing, but it hasn’t happened this year."
What has happened this year is the release of You, You’re a History in Rust, eight stunning songs that seem to capture everything musically possible – risk, familiarity, hooks, concepts, structure and passion.
"We try not to exclude any emotional influence in our music," says Spearin. "We’re not just trying to cheer people up, we’re trying to find out what it is about being human – there’s space and there’s sadness and there’s joy."
Those qualities are heard as overall themes to the various compositions, and within the songs the musicians also balance each musical experience and make it human. This is no accident, as Spearin speculates that one of the band’s subconscious motives in continuing to create music is to find something that represents all aspects of life.
"You, You’re a History in Rust was kind of about losing your past. The artwork and title of the album suggest a sense of decay and loss, and forgetfulness is a big important part, in my perspective, of what the album is about."
"There’s little moments of beauty throughout everybody’s life that are gone forever and forgotten forever and there’s kind of a sadness that I find when I think about that. It’s kind of like a little death – a death that’s not mourned because it’s just forgotten. That wasn’t really so much the intention as much as the discovery of making the music."
Taking a cue from their name, Do Make Say Think live and perform in the present, and part of that means inviting surprise into their work. Fans of the experimental band might try to guess which direction they will take as each note, phrase and section unfolds, but the path is rarely predictable.
"We try to steer away from the verse-chorus-verse thing – although we did include a song like that on this record, but for us, that’s a surprise and something new, so it was a fun experiment."
This could also be said in reference to incorporating lyrics, which, up until now, the band has not done – at least not on any recordings. The song "A With Living" emphasizes the genius of chance and the effects of fluent collaboration.
"It was an interesting experience to try and pull out the meaning from all these words as a group, instead of one person having an idea and then writing it down. It was very much the same as when we write the music – everybody adds a little bit."
Created and performed with songwriter Alex Lukashevsky, who Spearin describes as taking on the role of an editor and, one of the band’s favourite lyricists, Tony Dekker of the Great Lake Swimmers, the music supports the sung story and sustains the theme, but does not surrender its own importance.
"Nobody can take credit for it, which is a nice feeling. Nobody’s ego is particularly involved in it – this is what we came up with as a group."
Neither lyrics nor standard song structure are being considered as part of future Do Make Say Think projects, yet it seems positively reasonable – especially in hearing the beautiful results – that they test these techniques at some point. The band will continue to consistently revise and react.
"I feel like a family – nobody’s in any danger of falling off the block," says Spearin. "Now that we’ve been around for 10 years, we stand on our own as having a sound." |
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