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The New Black

From catharsis to comfort, to a simple beat to dance to, music serves a million different functions for individual listeners. Curiously, Calgary experimental folk artist Neal Moignard (a.k.a. Knots) says that his long-awaited debut album, The Blistering Sun, The Pale Moon, Ha Ha Ha Ha, first and foremost provides an audio artifact of the different person he feels he was during its creation.

“When you don’t have people other than yourself to justify a release, you ask whether or not it’s even worth it to release something, especially when you’ve moved past everything on it,” Moignard says. “I’ve decided that it is important, because you have to give yourself credit for creating something, even if it’s a former self. I think that [the album is] beautiful, but it isn’t so much related to me anymore. That’s an overly personal way of thinking about it, but it’s how I have to do it, to continue putting energy into something I’ve moved on from.”

It’s lucky for the rest of us that he decided to release the album, as the subtly crafted soundscapes, image-driven lyrics and heartily sung vocals have definitely been worth the wait. The album’s final instrumentals were recorded with Ryan Sadler of The Sub-Linguals and Thee Thems at his Spectratone Studio, but Moignard says he first began fumbling towards The Blistering Sun all on his lonesome.

“It was recorded two-and-a-half times, really,” he says. “Christmas, 2007, was when the first set of songs was done, but I was totally off the wall then, and didn’t know how to record. I had my guitar running through a whole bunch of computer effects, out through computer speakers, which were miked, and then running back into the computer. I really liked the sound I could get, but had no idea what clipping was.”

On top of crafting the album’s backdrops with Sadler, Moignard recorded the majority of its vocals with another local luminary, Morgan Greenwood of Azeda Booth.

“We went to his mom’s house in the deep, deep south, outside of [Calgary], and spent a weekend recording vocal takes,” he explains. “We ran around the whole house, because he had a huge cable extension, doing recordings outside, in the shower and in a wardrobe. It was a pretty fun time.”

Inspired by his former musical hero, Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum, Moignard has included a foldout poster with the CD, complete with an original illustration by Calgary artist Heather Smith. (“I think you should wholeheartedly steal from what you love,” he laughs.) Following his release show, Moignard is also set to open for Mount Eerie at this month’s Sled Island festival, creating a neat culmination of his musical past.

“Going back to thinking of two selves, the Neal that initially loved Mount Eerie and got into making music essentially because of him has moved on quite a bit,” he explains. “I have an incredible nostalgic fondness for his music, but that isn’t the same as having a close emotional connection to it. Still, I’m going to play that show the best that I can, in the same way of releasing this album: to honour the person who would really care about this.”

He’s moving on in a physical sense, too. Later this summer, Moignard will trek from Calgary to Montreal, where he’s been accepted into Concordia University. He’ll continue pursuing music as well, but doesn’t harbour any romantic notions of whirlwind success.

“I’m going to Montreal to make art,” he says. “[Former Calgary band] Braids have had a great deal of success there, and it’s a music city, but I don’t have any ideas of a scene taking me along somewhere better than what I can accomplish in Calgary. A city is a city is a city, and what you do everywhere is what you do.”