‘In our hearts we’re still just a rock band, I swear’ — The Summerlad find the time to kick back amidst their hectic schedule
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Cathedral Church of the Redeemer
Friday, December 14 - Friday, December 14
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When Calgary’s The Summerlad was commissioned to do a piece for One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo in the winter of 2005, they worked to create something that tapped into the spirit of the city they love. The result was “City of Noise,” a 40-plus-minute epic that borrows as much from the movements of classical music as the soaring riffage of rock to tell the story of a day in the life of a city. The band asked for help from a number of Calgary musicians to make the performance as bombastic as they had dreamed. The show was a sold-out success, and remains one of the most talked about performances by a local band in recent memory.
The members of The Summerlad are no strangers to collaboration, having ingrained themselves into the fabric of the local music community. On top of their musical duties with the band, the band’s members have played in a host of influential Calgary bands both past and present (see: The Primrods, Falconhawk, The Ex-Boyfriends, Martin Fulton Overkill and many more). Arran Fisher, the group’s bassist and guitarist, does production work for a host of Calgary’s best talent, including Woodpigeon, Gunther and The Cape May, to name a few. And let’s not forget the RAMP music series the members curate each month, a breeding ground for what they call “unusual, unexpected and always entertaining performances” by dozens of local artists to date. But the success of the “City of Noise” performance exceeded everyone’s expectations, and inevitably, the band started thinking about recording it.
Fast-forward three years and the band is finally releasing the long-awaited project on Calgary’s own Saved By Radio. Available as both a CD and double LP, the album contains the studio recording of “City of Noise” in all its droney, elongated glory, as well as a single version, which clocks in at just under four minutes for the band’s more ADD-addled fans. While the live show revolved around the band bringing in many of their favourite Calgary musicians to aid them, with a few exceptions, the bulk of the recorded counterpart was recorded solely by The Summerlad.
“It’s pretty different than the live show in that sense,” remarks Fisher, “because the live show is all about collaborating and bringing people in and throwing them into a pot and seeing what happens. We did have some people like Aimee-Jo Benoit from Woodpigeon, Ian Russell — who used to play with the Fake Cops — and Chad VanGaalen help out with the record, but for the most part the recording is strictly us.”
The only other collaboration on the album is with a group of “chanters” who were assembled from fans who saw the band share the stage with Woodpigeon last year. The band asked everyone in attendance if any of them were interested in shouting “hey you rockers/ hey you shockers,” and the rest is rock ’n’ roll history.
“It was actually pretty hilarious,” recalls Garrett McClure, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist. “I had ‘rockers’ and ‘shockers’ written on each of my forearms and I raised and pointed at the one we needed the gang to shout to lessen the confusion. It was like I was a rock ’n’ roll conductor.”
While McClure laughs at the idea of being a conductor, it isn’t too far from the truth. Live, the members of The Summerlad cue their “City of Noise” performers with a series of gestures to move from one section of the song to the next, working the ebb and flow of the piece based on feeling rather than a rigid structure.
“It’s not scored like a classical piece,” says McClure. “Which is a good thing, since I don’t think any of us could really write sheet music, and I don’t think many of the people playing with us could read it. Instead, it’s like, ‘Here are the parts that were played on the recording, and just go from there while keeping it within these parameters.’
“The one thing I really loved about when we performed ‘City of Noise’ live is that it was very organic,” he adds. “Parts were extended and everyone was really trusting of just creating something with each other. The non-band members change the piece and add a whole different dimension that is truly magical.”
To celebrate the release of City of Noise, the band has decided to once again perform the piece live in its entirety, aiming to bring back the magic of that first performance. To help, they’ve enlisted a host of Calgary acts including Chad VanGaalen, Gunther, Grandfather Fire and the Holy Morning, Jane Vain and the Dark Matter, Ian Russell, Lucky Sonne and The Cape May’s Clinton St. John. To make the event even more stunning, the band has asked a number of the guest players to start off the evening by performing quick solo sets.
“We’re really lucky to have so many amazing people interested in playing this with us,” Fisher says. “I know I can speak for everyone in the band when I say that we are all huge fans of everyone playing with us. It’s going to be an amazing evening, and I can’t wait to see how this group of people performs the song.”
The band’s excitement surely shows in their preparations — since they booked the Church of the Redeemer for the upcoming show, the members have been sorting out how to make the performance a truly unique occasion, including using real-time video manipulation and using the aisles of the church to provide live surround sound. When asked if these forays into atypical realms of performance and sound are a way of separating themselves from the rest of the world’s bands, Fisher just laughs.
“In our hearts we’re still just a rock band, I swear.”
