LUCIDMEDIA

On The Road With Elliot Brood

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Monday, 14 May 2007 11:26

There’s often an inherent oddness in the way that bands form. Take the star-crossed formation of Elliot Brood, the story of how a cartographer and a film editor teamed up to be the first wave in a new genre they call “Death Country”. Casey LaForet and Mark Sasso grew up in Windsor together, and although their lives took some initially deviant paths, they soon found themselves fated to tour as one of the hottest live shows in the country.

While there may be nothing jaw-droppingly outrageous about the music of Elliott Brood, except for maybe an added presentation factor of bringing rock-style showmanship to country-folk, the music of the band necessitated an entirely new sub-genre: Death Country. “Originally it was a thing we came up with when we started getting heard and we were getting dumped in with the country or alt-country—or even bluegrass sometimes—and we didn’t think we were any of that really,” says LaForet. “We thought we represented a darker kind of thing as opposed to ‘happy’ country. I guess we’re country in that we use all the same instruments and a lot of the songs revolve around bad things happening. But death country was coined to describe what we felt we were doing, not necessarily what we were, we just felt we didn’t fit into any of the categories that were being put on us.”

Elliott Brood reaches back to a more traditional kind of storytelling through song; gothic folk and blackgrass are two other labels that have been applied to the band’s sound. Their lyrics are personal and designed to be more than just words; every song is a story and every story is a chapter in the greater narrative. “The music that’s come out us has never been anything really intentional. We never set out to say that we were going to make this specific kind of music. It’s just that these were the instruments we were playing and these were the stories we wanted to tell.”

By coincidence, the manner in which they wanted to tell their stories—and how they ended up telling them—got the band hung with a country label, initially. “We weren’t raised on country by any means, and I think the lines are being blurred now and the best parts of all music are being combined into new forms of music. There’s very traditional country that’s always going to be there, but I think there’s a lot of bands that are taking the good parts—like storytelling and instruments— and doing different things with them. Like, you don’t need to be in a bluegrass band to play the banj; even bands like Modest Mouse are using it pop songs.”

But country became a running theme and they wanted everything from their album packaging to their website reflecting an Old West design aesthetic. “We wanted the artwork of the album to coincide with the style and the music, and the artwork and packaging has been paramount along with the music. These days you can get music for free if you really want it, and we always wanted to create something, so with Mark’s original design work came out of the fact that we had no money and we were trying to send out demos. Now it's to the point where people who love the music recognize the packaging just as much. And if you can give people something more than a compact disc and present them with something they might want to keep then it becomes more than just a disc; it becomes a collectible.”

Aside from the collectibles, it is the diverse appeal of their music that has allowed Elliot Brood to gather the following it has in a rather short span of time. The band only formed in 2002 and produced a demo disc called Tin Type to get some buzz going and to land a few gigs in the Toronto area. Three years later the band released their first full-length album called Ambassador and were keeping up a hectic coast-to-coast touring schedule. They’re still going coast-to-coast, spending much of October out west with an appeal that seems to be limitless, playing coffee houses to arenas with crowds representing all demographics. “We play to older crowds: 50 and 60 year olds, like dinner crowds and down to punk rockers with spikes stickin’ out of their necks. There was a show in Lethbridge where half the crowd was cowboy country people, and then there was a group of D.O.A. fans with anarchist A’s on their chest. It’s amazing; we’re kind of lucky that way.”

While LaForet credits downloading and the Internet as essential tools that have allowed Elliott Brood to build and maintain a fan base, he notes that their desire to be a great touring band as the real key to their appeal. They model themselves after groups like Phish and Blue Rodeo, bands that tour small towns and create personal relationships with the audience. “We’re a touring band and we want to build audiences with the live show; the CD sales will come after that. We want to be one of those bands that build a huge following by producing a really great live show like the [Grateful] Dead who have people follow them around because they love the live show so much—not that we’re anywhere near there yet, but that’s the idea we’re shooting for with our careers.”

This past spring their diligence and dedication paid off in an unexpected way, when the group received a Juno nomination. Although they didn’t win, LaForet is grateful in a way and truly believes that it’s an honour just to be nominated. “I think the Juno nomination has just given us more attitude,” he says with a laugh. “Not winning is the best thing that could ever happen because there’s a lot less pressure now; it did definitely open doors for us, and people can use it for promotion, but the best part for us was being able to go out to the East Coast, go to the awards, and see Nickelback. We were just blown away to be mentioned in the category with all those bigger names.”

Currently, Elliott Brood has been traveling with Corb Lund and opening for them on their tour. LaForet believes that the combo of Brood and Lund is a good ticket and that the bands really seem to complement each other. “I think it’s a good package because Corb represents the good parts of country music—interesting stories, interesting lyric—right down to the way he phrases his lyrics compared to New country or whatever they're playing on CMT these days. I think its going to be a really great night.”

Remember too that this entire conversation took place while the band was on the road to their next stop. And while Casey LaForet concedes that touring non-stop and playing everyday can get tiring, it’s only until you remember that you are getting to play everyday, and for the musicians of Elliot Brood, that’s better than alright.