Discussing “Birds of a Feather,” Jay Malinowski noted, “The song is about our enduring relationship in this band. Eon and I met on the first day of school. We never had any intention to play in a band. Like the best things in life, everything just kind of happened, like it had already been written and we were just the players. Our journey has been incredible. I sometimes look at our lives and can’t believe what we got to experience together. Ashleigh Ball sings on this track, and she has such an incredible voice. We were sitting there in the studio and then she pulled out a flute and we all got really mesmerized for a couple hours listening to this dubbed-out flute.”
Regarding “Beyond Four Walls,” Malinowski added, “This was written in the heart of lockdown—-it’s somewhat self-explanatory; that beyond four walls there is a world happening. The pandemic forced a lot of change. I think it put a spotlight on habits and ways of being that didn’t serve us well. We spent so much time with ourselves that those issues became glaring. I realised over the pandemic I had put up a lot of mental walls of limiting beliefs that had to be confronted.”
In the spring of 2021, Bedouin co-founder and bassist Eon Sinclair booked an open-ended trip to join Malinowski at his new home on Vancouver Island with the hope of reigniting their once-prolific creative spark. “We didn’t really have a set agenda,” notes Sinclair. “We’d been sending a few ideas back-and-forth between Toronto and Victoria early in the pandemic, and it was a welcome outlet considering everything that was going on. So even though I wasn’t really sure of what I wanted to do next, I thought I’d go out for six months – maybe come back early, maybe stay longer – just to see where things would lead.”
They quickly settled into a comfortable workflow, riffing and writing through the week at Malinowski’s family home and then heading into The Hive studio every couple of weeks to capture the results.
“There wasn’t a lot of discussion beforehand about limiting things in terms of instrumentation, but I think the way it unfolded was really enjoyable for us – a really powerful sound from basically just guitar, bass, and drums again,” shares Malinowski.
Sinclair elaborates: “No matter where we are or what’s going on in either of our lives, if one of us picks up an instrument and plays something, everything else kind of dissolves and our shared focus becomes, ‘How can we turn this into something people want to hear?’”
About Bedouin Soundclash:
Formed in 2001 and named after Israeli dub artist/producer Badawi’s 1996 release, Bedouin Soundclash’s debut album Root Fire (2001) received critical acclaim and Sounding a Mosaic (2004) followed. The album featured top 5 Canadian single “When The Night Feels My Song”, produced by Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains, and the band went on to pick up their first JUNO Award in 2006 for Canada’s Best New Group, along with accolades around Europe.
The follow-up album Street Gospels (2007) earned a ‘Pop Album of the Year’ nomination and ‘Video of the Year’ nomination for the single “Walls Fall Down” at the 2008 JUNO’s as well as three Much Music Video Award nominations for their video for “Until We Burnin the Sun” in 2009.
Bedouin Soundclash released their fourth studio album Light the Horizon in 2010. Produced by King Britt, the album included the singles “Mountain Top”, “Elongo” and “Brutal Hearts” which featured French-Canadian singer-songwriter Coeur de pirate.
The band’s last offering, MASS, was co-produced by Bedouin Soundclash and Philadelphia House DJ King Britt, along with musical direction from Ben Jaffe of Preservation Hall, ‘MASS’ spans two communities, recorded at Marigny Studio’s in New Orleans with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and in Vancouver at St. James Church with the children of the St. James Music Academy.
Track listing:
1. We Will Meet In A Hurricane
2. Walk Through Fire (feat. Aimee Interrupter)
3. Something Lost + Something Found
4. Longer Days in Shorter Years
5. Beyond Four Walls
6. Shine On (feat. The Skints)
7. Birds of a Feather (feat. Ashleigh Ball)
8. Hard Road
9. Man from Cascades
10. A Torn Jacket with Silver Lining
11. Margie, Do Your Best
12. Into The Black…
4. Longer Days in Shorter Years
5. Beyond Four Walls
6. Shine On (feat. The Skints)
7. Birds of a Feather (feat. Ashleigh Ball)
8. Hard Road
9. Man from Cascades
10. A Torn Jacket with Silver Lining
11. Margie, Do Your Best
12. Into The Black…
Upcoming shows:
7/30 - Canmore, AB @ Canmore Folk Festival
9/17 - Prince Edward, ON @ Base 31
No comments:
Post a Comment