Calgary’s The Cape May and Victoria’s Run Chico Run — two great tastes that sound phenomenal together

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Pale air Singers with Ghostkeeper & Karate Girlfriend
Broken City
Friday, April 17 - Friday, April 17

More in: Rock / Pop

When two or more established acts come together to create music as a new, unique entity — a super-group, if you will — there are a lot of ways things can go wrong. On one hand, it’s important to avoid being dominated by one of the contributors and ending up as a mere spinoff; on the other hand, if everyone is given equal weight, the outcome can be a cluttered, muddy amalgam of sounds.

Combining the talents of Victoria’s Run Chico Run and Calgary’s The Cape May, Pale Air Singers make their super-group status work. Their upcoming record, which was recorded well over a year ago in two brief collaborative bursts, combines falsetto harmonies with melodic, reflective folk-rock. The result is a cool pastiche of styles that sees the Chicos getting a little more melancholy and The Cape May cheering up a bit. And while many fans will be eager to hear the first new material from either band since 2006, it might be the participants who are brimming with the most excitement.

“It puts me in an interesting position,” says Cape May frontman Clinton St. John. “It’s like we took our songs and put them on a mix tape, or maybe we crafted the mix tape, so it’s got moments I can sit back and enjoy without being too analytical. Just having someone else singing on the track is a luxury I’ve never had, but also having [the Chicos] as those singers — crazy good! It gives me chills, and I wouldn’t necessarily get that from listening to myself sing.”

As with any project involving such a large number of veteran musicians, it’s interesting to contemplate how new circumstances have affected the songwriting dynamic. Especially for the Chicos, who weave complex songs around the tight two-man axis of Matt Skillings and Tom Shields, working on a new collaboration required a significant shift in mindset.

“Tom and I do a lot of writing on our own,” explains Skillings. “We’ll write parts for each other’s songs sometimes, and now and then we’ll jam songs and parts out, but usually we’ve got a pretty solid idea of a song [when we bring it to the band]. Pale Air Singers was more like five or six people sitting around, picking apart each other’s ideas as they come, which is a lot different.”

Fortunately, if this unfamiliar territory presented any obstacles to the making of their self-titled debut, the Singers were up to the challenge. Starting out strong with the sound of feet stomping on a piano body in an empty garage, the album takes the strong points from both bands and blends them seamlessly into an altogether new esthetic, laced with vaguely Appalachian folk and blues. Could it be that strong individual contributions are the key to escaping super-group purgatory?

“I think this project worked because everybody filled in a niche,” says St. John. “Matt and Tom have their harmonies, and they come up with really great riffs. I maybe helped pull the thing together with a lyrical thread. Jeff Macleod is versatile, does a bit of everything, brings in riffs, good drummer, has a good sense of songwriting structure. And Matt Flegel’s just a bad-ass bass player. I always find his contributions are some of my favourites — he’s an all around mad genius, like our Johnny Greenwood. He’ll puke on his pants, then be like ‘But dudes!’ [shredding noises] ‘Check this out!’”

One of the best examples of the band’s promise is “Horse Trade.” The song’s no-nonsense riff is perfectly complemented by the ingenious pairing of St. John’s raspy, rapid-fire delivery and Shields’s trademark la-la-las. Recalling a high point of the joint creative process, the two songwriters explain that the two vocal lines were originally tracked as separate options. Only after “a talk and a drunk and a hot tub session,” as St. John puts it, did they realize that, with some minor tweaks, neither part would have to be ditched.

“It took a little bit for our ears to adjust,” he recalls, “but the two parts playing together actually sounded pretty great.”

Indeed, considering the cumulative years of studio experience, it’s really no surprise how often the Singers hit sweet spots in their recording. But with a roster that has so many hands in so many pots, is there any possibility of this album being anything but a one-off?

“First and foremost for me, I’d like it to be a recording project,” says Skillings, who says he would like to see the Singers get together for a recording session every year. “It’s great to approach a band and have just one small fraction to deal with, instead of half or a third. You can add your parts when you see fit instead of trying to breakdance on the whole floor. You just throw down your choicest moves.”