Hello, Blue Roses
by I stumbled across the Hello, Blue Roses track, My Shadow Falls, the other week and it set my ears alight, this subtle but beautiful song and its cascading melodic line which will at once ingrain yourself in your inner-ear iPod and then disappear out the other end, leaving only the sweetest of memories. I spoke with Sidney, one half of the group: You’re called Sydney and I’m from Sydney. Have you been yet? It would seem to be destiny to do so.
‘Nice to meet you. I have never been to your Sydney, maybe one day. My dad went once, and my cousin was born there. My dad brought back some Sydney paraphernalia like a giant pencil and an “I love Sydney” sticker, because there was a real dearth of that, as you may imagine, growing up in Canada — very few Sydney stickers and giant Sydney pencils. I was also obsessed with the Sydney Opera House and had a postcard of it up in my room forever. When the Sydney Summer Olympics happened, I had my own Sydney Summer Games at my apartment. It was a way to meet people because I had just moved to Montreal. But we played this terribly uncomfortable game called psychiatrist first and ninety percent of the new not quite never to be friends left. I have hats, and knapsacks, and t-shirts from that event’.
You dabble in art and music. Where’s the connection between your two creative pursuits?
‘I think it’s normal for creative people to move between modes of expression, or fields. I think maybe artists are more omnivorous in that respect, which is why almost everyone I know who makes art has also made or makes music, or writes plays or has some latent desire to. Some people are super focused or unilateral about their field, but I bet if you scratch a little into any musician’s life, they at one point had an affinity or aptitude for another art, like drawing or photography or film. Creative people tend to be more open to trying shit out. I think there would be a lot more overlap if artists and musicians weren’t constantly busting their balls trying to make ends meet, trying to make a go of it. They are forced to choose where to spend the time and energy. Those other paths don’t necessarily go away though, I think they tend to linger and follow, and once in awhile you take off in another direction. I don’t have any heroes or heroines who do both, I just kind of assume that the artists and musicians I like have other secret creative lives, or other creative potential’
Tagged: Canada, Canadian bands, pop music, Sydney
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Canada seems to be the land of amazing ambient metal duos. Montreal has Menace Ruine, and Toronto has Nadja, a formidable couple that churns out huge-sounding, bass and electronics-driven doom that draws your gaze up towards the stars just as old cathedral ceilings humble the faithful and make them think of the Almighty.
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Pink Mountaintops — a wry Canadian duo — are getting some pretty steady exposure on my stereo at the moment, and lots of others judging by their steady rise up the rock echelons. They’ve got that skaggy swagger and well-worked male/female vocal arrangements, particularly on Tourist in my Town, that drew so many people to Velvet Undergound and the other psych-stoner rock bands of that era, and the production is similarly lo-fi. Their 2004 eponymous debut album barely sold until frontman Stephen McBean released the debut album of his other band, Black Mountain, and news filtered out of this little gem. Listen to the song, Rock and Roll Fantasy.
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