Music: {allcanada} Seasons change for Wintersleep

Friday, June 1, 2012

{allcanada} Seasons change for Wintersleep

Wintersleep singer-guitarist Paul Murphy says it was time for a musical departure on the Halifax indie rock act's atmospheric upcoming album, Hello Hum, due June 12.

In this case, that meant more electronica and harmonies, and less guitar on the band's fifth studio collection, co-produced and mixed by Dave Fridmann (MGMT, The Flaming Lips) and Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai) in Fridmann's Tarbox Road Studios in upstate New York.

"We were very excited to get to work with Dave and Tony," said Murphy, who relocated to Montreal in 2008, where Wintersleep currently share rehearsal space with Stars.

"We've worked with Tony a lot for the last three records and then we had the opportunity to work with Dave Fridmann. So we went to New York and I guess it's trial and error and seeing what fit certain songs. The electronic stuff was just getting a different palette. This is our fifth record so it was a neat way to explore things that (Dave) had in his studio as well. It's just kind the gear he has and works with."

Murphy and his bandmates -- drummer Loel Campbell, guitarist Tim D'eon, bassist Mike Bigelow, keyboardist Jon Samuel -- also got to stay over at the studio, which has sleeping quarters, and soak up the atmosphere.

"You're walking through and you're going, 'This is crazy,' " said Murphy. "It's definitely the best studio we've ever recorded out of. It definitely felt like our most concentrated studio effort to date -- the amount of time that we were in the studio and the way we went about recording it. Usually we'll do more live off the floor but this one had a bit more of a layering approach to it."

Hello Hum comes after some significant chapters in Wintersleep's decade-long career, including winning a best new group Juno in 2008, opening for Paul McCartney in Halifax in 2009, and a performing slot on The Late Show With David Letterman in 2011.

"That was awesome," said Murphy of sharing a stage with Macca. "I'm a really big Beatles fan. He was walking by the stage when we were soundchecking and he just came up and said hi."

So if you ask him, Murphy says the band is happy with their career progression, as a critically acclaimed if not yet mainstream act with little in the way of radioplay, with the exception of the single Weighty Ghost from 2007's Welcome To The Night Sky.

Helping to raising their profile will be Wintersleep's club tour of Canada that starts Saturday in Victoria, with Montreal's Half Moon Run on a half-dozen dates as openers, and a larger venue fall trek expected as well.

Hello Hum definitely presents some challenges in a live setting, says Murphy.

"Just the amount of electronics and that sort of thing ... I don't play as much guitar on this record, so I'm playing lots of shakers, percussion. So that's a bit different to not have the guitar."