Interview with Dan Mangan

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Marlys Klossner: Where did the sedation theme for Club Meds come from?

Dan Mangan: It’s funny, I think for every one of my records when I first start working on it I don’t have a huge intention or angle on it, and then after the songs are put together I start noticing patterns and lyrical connections. I’ve been an opinionated person for a long time, but when I was younger I didn’t put those opinions into songs. I had a little bit of a softer touch. With this record as I got into it I found myself not angry but incensed with a lot of things that I see in myself and in the world. There’s a natural tendency for us to waver back and forth between feeling incredibly connected and aware of the streams of thought and energy around us and other times having our eyes closed, head in the sand, and just focussing on the next task. I think we all do that and if we were to spend too much time at either end of the spectrum that wouldn’t be helpful for us.

MK: For Club Meds you had a sort of re-unification with your band Blacksmith, with whom you share top billing for the album. How did that come about?

DM: These are the same guys I’ve been working with for many years, but the writing process has definitely been a little more collaborative that it was in the past. Before I used to have a song pretty much fleshed out and they’d play along. This time around when we got together I had lyrics and melodies but I hadn’t totally figured out how the song was going to sound, and so the guys’ musical expertise held a lot of weight onto how the songs were put together. I think if you know myself and the other guys in the band quite well, you can kind of here everyone’s different personalities come through in certain songs. Everybody really gave it everything they had. I think because I gave the guys a little more responsibility with this record, they took that responsibility head on and really wanted to make sure to give it their best.

MK: Do you have a favorite place to play?

DM: We have our spots. I love playing at home in Vancouver, of course. Germany’s been really great for us, we love touring in Germany. We’re consistently overwhelmed by the response over there. They have a particular kind of way of being really attentive and listening at shows and its really normal over there for people to drive two or three hours to go to a gig. That’s been a sort of second home to Canada. Great shows can happen anywhere at any time, so there’s not really one place.

MK: What was scoring a movie (Hector and the Search for Happiness) like?

DM: It was a lot of work, sort of humbling in a lot of ways. I had operated in a space of getting my own way creatively all the time and feeling like I knew what I was doing. Being in a scenario where I was very much the rookie and having to prove myself was good for me. I learned a lot. I hadn’t been in a situation where I was collaborating on a project that was way bigger than my part of it. It was really fun. Getting to hang out with the actors, getting the behind the scenes scoops. Also just creatively it was a really fun task. I probably wouldn’t want to do it all the time but every couple of years would be a trip.

MK: It seems like almost every year you put out some new music. What can we expect from you next year?

DM: Right now I’m working on a little EP, not a full record. It’s kind of stripped down going back to my solo roots. I’ve been in the studio messing around, but no full length album anytime soon.

Mangan will play the Coast Hotel Kamloops Theatre on Nov. 22

Sarah Jane Scouten to Tour BC

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Sarah Jane Scouten, folk singer from Bowen Island, has announced tour dates for her Alberta and British Columbia tour starting this month.

Scouten is very influenced by the history of BC, and revamps old mining songs from the turn of the century. She and her band will be performing traditional songs as well as her own original material.

BC Tour Dates:

November 29 – FERNIE, BC – Clawhammer Letterpress and Gallery
December 2 – CRESTON, BC – A Break in Time Caffe 
December 3 – NELSON, BC – The Royal
December 4 – YMIR, BC – Ymir Schoolhouse
December 5 – KELOWNA, BC – Streaming Café

December 8 – VANCOUVER, BC – The Rogue Folk Club

December 9 – DUNCAN, BC – House Concert
December 10 – VICTORIA, BC – The Duke Saloon
December 11 – PARKSVILLE, BC – MacMillan Arts Centre
December 12 – TOFINO, BC – Tofino Theatre with Little Saturday
December 13 – BOWEN ISLAND, BC – Cates Hill Chapel

BC Artist Registry

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The BC Alliance for Arts + Culture has launched a BC Artist Registry. The goal of the registry is to learn about the artists in the province for research, and none of the information given will be used for commercial purposes.

As of Nov. 10, 1000 BC artists had signed up. The project is following in the footsteps of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance, who started theirs in 2013.

The Alliance hopes to find out what the environment is like in BC, not just for people who have art as their primary income, but also part time artists.

“The long term goal is to build on basic informational tools, such as the census, to better understand the situation of artists in British Columbia,” said Rob Gloor, Alliance executive director. “For example, according to Statistics Canada, there are 25,000 artists in BC, but that number only includes those whose primary source of income is their art. If their primary income is something else, such as teaching, the census does not count them as artists. Through the BC Artist Registry, we will have a platform to learn more about all artists in our province, regardless of how much their art contributes to their income.”

Registration is free and can be done through filling out this simple questionnaire.

Big Little Lions Dubbed Ensemble of the Year at CFMAs

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Helen Austin and Paul Otten of Big Little Lions are probably feeling pretty good about themselves right now. The singer/songwriter duo won Ensemble of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards held in Edmonton last week.

Big Little Lions were the only winners from BC this year, with most of the prizes going to groups from Ontario or Newfoundland and Labrador.

Austin and Otten met when appearing independently as part of a panel on songwriting. At the time Austin was living on Vancouver Island, and Otten in Ohio. They began a long distance musical reationship, and Big Little Lions was born. Today Big Little Lions is based out of Comox Valley.

Floorboards Update: It Ain’t Over Just Yet

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Sean Seal, vocalist and guitarist for Floorboards, emo punk band from Kamloops, said that although the band is technically broken up, they aren’t quite done yet.

” The final EP is still in the production process. We need to finish a few more guitar tracks and record vocals. After that we can have the tracks mastered and ready to be released for free download. We’re also planning on trying to get one last all-ages show together in Kamloops. We don’t want to host it somewhere that we’ve played in the past so we’re currently looking at venue and sound possibilities,” said Seal.

Seal also said that there is still hope the band may reunite at a later date.

” Everyone in the band is in their early 20’s and in a transition period of their life. Unfortunately we all have a lot going on with our regular lives and we just aren’t able to commit all the time and resources needed to continue writing music, booking tours, and playing shows. There’s always a possibility that may change in the future, but at this period in time it isn’t viable for us to continue as a band.”

To keep up with the news of their forthcoming EP and potential final performance take a look at their Facebook page.

We Are The City to Release New Album Next Friday

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We Are The City is about to get very busy. Their third album, Above Club, comes out in two weeks, and they will be touring the US throughout November and December. In January they will start a European tour, and the dates for a 2016 Canadian tour will soon be announced.

We Are The City have been in a purposeful social media blackout, until they started live streaming some grainy video of them recording what would be Above Club. The live stream ended last week. With so much strangeness surrounding its creation, intrigue about their latest album is high.

“Keep On Dancing”, released last month as a stand alone single, will also be on the album, and is the only glimpse we have of what Above Club will sound like.

The Art We Are November Line Up

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The Art We Are is one of the best places to scout new local talent that has yet to build up a big fan base.

Their November schedule looks a little sparse this year.

On Nov. 7 Malik Mohammed, a 16-year-old acoustic indie crooner, will perform. Mohammed’s passion for indie music started with Ed Sheeran, and he is also inspired by Damian Rice and Passenger. Tickets are $4.

The next show isn’t until the end of the month. On Nov. 28 Noah Derksen will play for donations. Derksen is a folk singer/songwriter from Winnipeg who has been living in Vancouver working on a Science degree at UBC. Derksen released his first EP, ‘Man That I Am’, in January of this year.

Both performances will be from 7p.m. to 9p.m.

Hopefully more performances will be scheduled, because winter months are exactly when people want to see some chill live music. As it gets colder out and closer to the holidays, musicians are more reluctant to travel away from home to perform, but that is just when the audience is there, waiting with hot cocoa in hand. November should also be busier because it is essentially the last month for live music. The family-focused mindset that December brings doesn’t pull in a lot of audiences, and is usually a time when musicians take a break as well.

Take advantage of these two performances, and keep an eye on this space for more to come.