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Saturday, June 14 - Saturday, June 14
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As Calgary bloats and expands, clumsily trying to become the metropolis that its swelling population demands, it’s easy to understand why Calgary artists can become disenchanted. As Fast Forward reported in its May 8, 2008 issue, the arts are underfunded and underdeveloped, like so many corners of Calgary, leaving the creative people who make their home here feeling frustrated and stuck. Clinton St. John, however, is comfortable. Having spent the last six years taking audiences on zig-zagging journeys through pitch-black woods, he’s an accomplished musician. Given the quality of his upcoming solo album, Black Forest Levitation, there is no ceiling in sight for his potential, which makes one wonder what the hell he is still doing here.
“It’s easy to say, but I’ve got a love-hate relationship with Calgary,” says St. John. “What I love about it is it’s my home, it’s my place to live; it has become that. But a million people live here, and I think about it in terms of that. It’s a very interesting place to have decided — and I use that term loosely — to live, considering the kind of music I make.
“I think a lot of the things that I seek out in music sound sad or sound pretty or beautiful,” he continues, “and in the city there just isn’t that kind of beauty that I ultimately seek.”
Despite his personal qualms with city living, St. John says the business-oriented environment of Calgary shouldn’t be a reason for artists to make a break for greener pastures or to throw in the towel. Having toured Europe with popular folk singer Nina Nastasia, as well as recording with indie music legend Steve Albini, St. John’s reach is much greater than your average local artist. These opportunities have not only given him plenty of material, but provided a welcome break from the pessimism and desperation that can easily well up in this city, and lent him a little perspective.
“Once you start taking things too seriously and thinking Calgary is the place, it’s like no, it’s just a little place,” St. John says. “You can take your record and give to somebody, and I think if you stayed true to what you believe in for music and songwriting and if you respect your own good intentions with music, as fucking cheesy as that sounds, then people that don’t live here are going to pick up on that.”
While bringing The Cape May to the world made St. John’s life more interesting, he’s been more than satisfied living a quieter lifestyle this past year. Now, out of his hermit cave, he is finally ready to debut his first solo album. Black Mountain Levitation contains 10 tracks that creak and tremble around St. John’s soft, smoky vocals, with strings that slide and shift between lines of gently plucked acoustic guitar. For the album release on Saturday, June 14, St. John has also enlisted experimental noise artist No More Shapes and indie-pop sextet The Consonant C — and the fact that both acts are entirely appropriate choices to accompany his music is a testament to Black Mountain Levitation’s subtle complexity.
“I didn’t want to have any unnecessary parts, maybe you call it musical filler; stuff to fatten up the sound,” he says. “I wanted it to sound a little old, which is to say timeless. Minimalist is a good way to put it, because each idea is there for a reason. Even though it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot going on on the record, everything that was placed there was trial and error, and had I don’t know how many different forms, until finally it fit perfectly.”
