“POP AS F***”: Library Voices are as cute as they are courageous
“Half of us have careers, the other half are bartenders”, says Carl Johnson only somewhat jokingly, . He is a bartender/server by day, but by night he is the Lead Vocalist for Regina pop-phenoms Library Voices.
Ten members, dozens of instruments, and a 6-song EP, “Hunting Ghosts & Other Short Stories" : Library Voices have covered an insanely large amount of mileage for a band barely a year old. Self-described as “Pop As F***”, March 2008 saw them opening for indie rock favourites Plants & Animals, and March 2009 hailed their much-anticipated appearance at Toronto’s Canadian Music Week. That brings us up to the present: 3 chairs, one bench, and a tipsy wooden table inside Lower El Mocambo. It’s amazing they appear so calm and cheerful after a recent van ride across the country, but impressively, every new event seems to be taken in stride.
“[Playing with Plants & Animals,] That was our first show, too” says Karla Miller, organist, propped up casually on her elbow as her fellow musicians joke around on the couch behind her. “We’ve had a lot of opportunities to play with bands like Final Fantasy… and Chad VanGaalen … we’ve been pretty fortunate and busy. We did an EP…[with] the first 6 songs we ever wrote…[and] we have another full album in the can that we just finished.”
Johnson leans over the tiny table to share his idea on how the group crystallized so fast: “When you’re in other bands you get to a certain level, like touring or putting out music, [and] you don’t want to start at the bottom again.” Now defunct Regina band National Frost became the “test run” for five present members of Library Voices. “That band died and gave birth to this one”, says Johnson. “It was like the ‘sacrificial lamb’… there was no blog post or anything. [National Frost] just stopped.” And what started was an unwitting experimentation in collaborative music writing.
A tight-knit musical community in Regina was the catalyst for the large line-up: Everyone just wanted to be a part of something new. Those who have grown up or lived in smaller cities understand that options tend to be limited in terms of where you can go, and who you can see, so your imagination and creativity must be evoked in WHAT you can do. Some members of Library Voices hadn’t played in a real band before joining up, but it didn’t stop them from instigating their own ideas of which aural terrains to tread.
Amid the gentle slide and tinkling of lead guitarist Brett Dolter restringing for the evening’s performance, Miller follows up on the spontaneous switch-over from Frost to Voices. “There was no huge plan from the beginning…to follow this path. It just unfolded like it did”, she says. Adds Johnson, “I think a couple of us wanted to go in a different musical direction in [National Frost]… we phoned all of our friends to come over [and jam], so there’s now 10 people in the band. From day one there’s been no master plan. Just everyone showed up… and it kinda kept going like that.”
“We try to sound like a 3 piece playing pop music,” Johnson explains, “[and] we kept exploring that in the new album we have in the can. [There’s] a band from Saskatoon called Volcanoless in Canada, [and] they’re a good example because they have three acoustic guitars. For me, that was kind of an inspiration, because they sat down and kind of intricately pre-planned out how they work together… had a vision for it. That was something we were conscious of for this band… don’t let [the numbers] hinder you.
Use it as an asset, but don’t let it get too carried away. Have the core ideas [melody, harmony] still focused.”
I note to them that they have name-dropped several Prairie-based bands since the start of the interview, and almost all of them are of different genres. Besides Volcanoless in Canada, they have mentioned Sylvie, The Wardoves, and Slow Down, Molasses. Having grown up in Saskatoon, I am well-aware of how cross-pollination works in the arts for smaller-populated areas. “Being from Saskatchewan is definitely a bit harder… you’re always isolated”, agrees Johnson. “In Regina and Saskatoon, you have to always be looking at it like you’re on an island creating music in harsh winters, locking yourself away because you can’t go outside.”
Johnson and Miller tend to view this smaller core of people as an advantage. Besides knowing they have a loyal fan base back home, they also know they have fellow musicians they can rely on to help out in disastrous situations. February 15th, 2009 saw the Vancouver theft of $10,000 worth of equipment, but it didn’t take long for friends and strangers back home (as well as abroad) to lend gear towards the continuation of the tour.
“There’s been really good things about [the theft], though. So many people that we don’t even know… saying how sorry they are and offering to help in any way”, muses Johnson. “It’s been pretty amazing.” Miller interjects her concurrence: “I think [our reaction to the theft] is a good indication of our band. Everyone remained very calm… No one was [sulking or] drinking alcohol, [we stayed] rational, and just took care of business. We were laughing and joking about it by the end of the day, and kind of carried on…everyone kept really positive.”
Dolter, who has been tranquilly working on his guitar at the table during the interview, suddenly turns to me:
“I have this theory [about] that [which] was stolen [from us]…:the proportion of what people lost is kind of proportional to how evil they are. I think I only lost my volume pedal by association.”
Johnson one-ups him: “And by that token, I didn’t get anything stolen!”
How Pop as F***.
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