On August 5th we headed out as a band to beautiful RiverNorth just outside of Peterborough to venture into new and mysterious musical territory. The idea began merely as a way for me to get away from the big smoke, using well earned vacation time from work, to enter into an atmosphere where I could explore songwriting on my own.  Realising that my Thoreau inspired dream would lead more likely to lonesome depression than a stirring of creative juices induced merely by being within nature, I soon saw this as an opportunity for the band to embark on a first ever 4-day songwriting retreat.

In a way the idea of going on a songwriting retreat was absurd.  In mere weeks we would be releasing our second full length album! We didn’t really have any need for new material – and we certainly didn’t need to add to our growing list of expenses (we were about to embark on a mini tour and purchase 1000+ CDs – all out of our own pockets!).  But then, if we were to make decisions solely based on finances, we would likely not be playing music at all.

It turns out that going to RiverNorth was fortuitously one of the best decisions we’ve made as a band in our 3 years together.  We have always considered ourselves to be a tight band both in terms of our camaraderie and our live sound – but the energy and organic quality of our subsequent live sets at the Hard Luck Bar for the Split Level Festival on August 12th, at Cafe Dekcuf in Ottawa on August 21st, and at the Mansion in Kingston on August 22nd, was truly unparalleled (I’ve got many new marks in my bass to prove it!).

And to cap that all off – we wrote 15 new songs together! Up until this point we have relied as a band on the veteran songwriting abilities of Colin but this new material was written as a collaborative effort, which sees lead vocal turns by all members of the band.  Given the contemplative environment  in which we wrote and recorded these songs (yes we recorded a number of songs on the front porch – and the banjo plays an integral part on a number of the tunes), much of this material came out more folksy and bluesy than our previous works.

While we do have analog 4-track demo recordings of all of these songs you will need to be patient, however.  It may take us a while before we get much of this material out into the world – we do have, after all,  a brand new album to promote. But to whet your appetite, here’s one of the songs we recorded for free download…

Climb Trees/Bruise Knees

Cheers! ~ Matthew

Thanks to Robert and Simone McCormick for being such wonderful hosts and welcoming our musical experimentations!