Music: {allcanada} The Dears regroup, feel renewed

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

{allcanada} The Dears regroup, feel renewed

Veteran Montreal indie rockers The Dears' newest album -- which recently made the 2011 Polaris Prize long list -- is called Degeneration Street.

But given the group's recent turbulent history during their last album, 2008's Missiles -- with mass member defections over creative differences and questions whether the group would even continue -- it should really be called Regeneration Street.

"It's definitely a time of renewal for the band," said frontman Murray Lightburn, with his wife and band keyboardist Natalia Yanchak by his side recently in a Toronto hotel restaurant.

"And so it's been a lot of fun so far, lot of laughs so far, very little (drama) if any. I think the biggest drama is us being late for something. Everybody knew coming into Degeneration Street what the purpose was, which was just to make the greatest Dears' record and put on the greatest Dears' shows."

The group personnel -- the two constants since the band's 1995 formation being Lightburn and Yanchak -- now includes returning guitarist Patrick Krief, keyboard and guitar player Robert Benvie, bassist Roberto Arquilla and drummer Jeff Luciani.

And even though you can hear The Dears' newfound stability on many of Degeneration Street's vibrant, soaring songs, the lyrics remain dark.

"I wouldn't say the album is a happy album," said Lightburn, with a laugh. "There's definitely a sense of driving off the cliff like Thelma and Louise style, like it's a fearless record. We were afraid of nothing. And we weren't afraid to try anything and we weren't afraid to reach out to the bleachers and beyond. We tried to create something that was like a supernova to your ears."

Added Yanchak: "I think there's a positive, hopeful tone to the album but there's also like a bleakness. There's definitely this notion of being at the bottom and life crumbling and things seeming hopeless but there's a light at the end of the tunnel and there's actually hope and there's hope within ourselves."

Lightburn continued, "With all Dears albums, in order to reach its resolution, you're going through something to get you there. I guess it's like the tone of the album is trying to, I think, resolve really, really big things, big issues, that are all sort of trapped in our cellar."

Lightburn said when the question of breaking up reared its ugly head after Missiles, he and Yanchak decided against it for the sake of the fans.

"Like maybe The Dears might be over but I think what wound up happening was we were sort of reminded to make a decision like that was a little bit selfish," he said. "That people were maybe connected to The Dears. And so it wasn't entirely up to us. Our audience is connected to the Dears, to the songs and the music, and emotionally invested, so it wasn't entirely our right to pull the plug on it."

So far, The Dears -- who made their second appearance on David Letterman earlier this year around Degeneration Street's February release playing its first single Blood -- have only two 2011 festival dates in Canada, starting Thursday night at Montreal's Club Soda as part of the International Jazz Festival, and July 22 at the Hillside Festival in Guelph, Ont. But they're hoping for a tour in the fall.

"There's a lot of people who didn't even really hear about Missiles that much, it wasn't really trumpeted," said Lightburn. "So we're really making an effort to reach out to all of our peeps. And so we're basically starting over again and it feels good and it feels great to start over like this, especially with this album, and somebody mentioned that it has a first album feel.

"Missiles was like the end of an era, the end of like the first book of The Dears' life. And now we're starting a new book with Degeneration Street and there will be several chapters to this one."

TWO CANADIAN DATES:

June 30 Club Soda, Montreal International Jazz Festival

July 22 Hillside Festival, Guelph, Ont.