A few summers ago, the Besnard Lakes played Fringe Pop — probably the most informal, whatever-goes concert series in Montreal. The outdoor setting, the dancing grandma and the technical problems may not have done them justice, as we can see here. But it was one of my favourite concerts that year.
Ginger-bearded rocker and columnist Jonathan Cummins was added on the guitar. And after a squall of unwanted feedback, the wind just blew over the crowd and lifted up the intertwining guitars into the air. It. Was. Amazing. After that, everything seemed to take a life of its own onstage.
“I liked where that was. I liked it being outside and being really exposed like that”, recalls Olga Goreas, bassist, singer and frontwoman, who met up with us to chat on the Nomag couch last week (video below). “The wind was zipping around the building, I remember that. I also remember doing a long, incredibly long freak-out jam for like 20 minutes.” She laughs.
Richard White, Kevin Laing, Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek are the Besnard Lakes.
You see, Jace Lasek, Olga’s husband and second core-member of the band, is a gifted gear aficionado and record producer with a solid sound tech background; his Breakglass Studio is somewhat of a sound Mecca for local bands, where Malajube’s very first, Le Compte complet, was recorded, as well as Wolf Parade, Bionic, Patrick Watson, Sunset Rubdown and Land of Talk albums among many others.
The minutiae put into the band’s crafted brand of solemn, retro-aware, deft rock music certainly defines the Besnard Lakes. So sure, the atmospherics are a big part of the band’s sound, but what about not having total control over what’s going on?
“There’s definitely something along those lines, the studio manipulation versus the elements that come into play during our performances. There were a couple of times when strange things happened in the middle of a concert, like all of a sudden the power going down on the console — everything just dropping out.”
Things just happening: with the right amount of studio expertise, this is how the Besnards went from being The Dark Horse to being The Roaring Night, their third album coming out today.
“The title of the album kind of came in a roundabout way… it’s only after we finished recording that it came up as the title”, says Olga of The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, a record full of interlope affairs carried on by shortwave radio emissions. (You can listen to Albatross, the band’s gorgeous new single, here.)
“There is an ebb and flow of different ideas between Jace and I; we each have a music experience that is independent from each
other. It’s great being a couple because we are able to share these things with each other. There’s always this continuing storyline… The result is a juxtaposition: Jace likes the fiction of it; I like the fact of it. I bring in very tangible images, he brings in the spies, the war and the hatred… We think it works really well”.
Guitarist Richard White and drummer Kevin Laing round out the band. The Besnard Lakes will be hosting their launch for ...Are the Roaring Night this Friday at Il Motore after playing the Horsehoe in Toronto the night before.
by Evelyne Côté / film by Chrissy Durcak / editing by Rebecca Lessard
