Check out the full album stream here<\/a>. The show is at Ace Art Inc.(290 McDermot Ave.), with Slow Dancers opening.\u00a0 Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, and available at Into the Music, Music Trader, and through the band members.\u00a0 Doors at 9:30 PM. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Stylus: The album\u2019s creation story, the fact that it spanned over a year being finished\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\nNick Liang<\/strong>: Longer than that, yeah.<\/p>\nStylus: Can you explain the creation story a little bit?<\/strong><\/p>\nRob Gardiner: <\/strong>We started in February of 2011.\u00a0 We flew in Howard Bilerman to engineer the album.\u00a0 He came in from Montr\u00e9al.\u00a0 We had some trouble the first couple days because the tape machine didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\nStylus: This was at Private Ear?<\/strong><\/p>\nRG:<\/strong> This was at Private Ear, yeah.\u00a0 The tape machine didn\u2019t work, so we had like two and a half days to record. So, I don\u2019t know if we even finished the album\u2014how many songs did we actually record there?<\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> We were a little bit rushed at that point.\u00a0 We were just sitting on our hands waiting for the tape machine to be fixed, which, very nice of Private Ear, they really did work twenty four seven to get it up and running.\u00a0 Technically we recorded the entire album, but not up to our standards really.\u00a0 So we ended up\u2014<\/p>\nRG:<\/strong> Touring.\u00a0 And finishing each others’ sentences.\u00a0 We ended touring east that summer, and had about two days in Montr\u00e9al where we almost re-recorded half to two-thirds of the album.\u00a0 Then mixing was done via correspondence with Nick over emails.<\/p>\nNL: <\/strong>We recorded to tape, so [mixing] was a very painful process.\u00a0 Howard would have to do a mix, and then send it to us.\u00a0 I\u2019d sit down and listen to it critically, and then send it back to him.\u00a0 Minute, very small things that are easy in person, like, move this fade slightly, EQ, panning, you know, takes a few days.\u00a0 And then he was doing it in the off time of the studio, so it\u2019s not like he could just leave the board set up the way it was at the time, because he had other stuff to do.<\/p>\nGraeme Wolfe: <\/strong>He had to recall all the mixes.<\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> So he is very patient and great on that account.\u00a0 You want to record an album?\u00a0 Record it with Howard Bilerman.\u00a0 He is great.<\/p>\nWe mixed the songs, and then after we finished mixing, which was fall of 2011, we wanted them mastered by Bob Weston, but Bob wasn\u2019t available for about a month and a half.\u00a0 He was on tour with Mission to Burma or something like that.\u00a0 So we waited for him to be ready and we mastered it.\u00a0 It got mastered by the beginning of summer this year.\u00a0 That\u2019s the brief history.<\/p>\n
Stylus: What about Howard Bilerman?\u00a0 What was the reason you flew him out here initially?<\/strong><\/p>\nNL: <\/strong>Well, I knew that Howard would be sympathetic to the kind of music we are making.\u00a0 That\u2019s my canned answer.<\/p>\nGW: <\/strong>Were there any specific records by him that made you decide on him?<\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> Nope. That influences me very little.\u00a0 I knew that bands get to make their own decisions.\u00a0 I knew that he\u2019d be good to work on the album.\u00a0 He would be sympathetic to what we are doing, which is the most important part of who you work that.\u00a0 We corresponded for a while and then he came here.<\/p>\nMost of the first recording session was glorified hanging out.\u00a0 Like, we didn\u2019t actually record that much.\u00a0 We pretty much sat in a nice studio with Howard, hanging out.<\/p>\n
RG:<\/strong> Expensive hanging out is what it was.<\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> The reason that I record to tape, or made that decision, is not because of some sort of lofty appreciation for the quality versus digital recording.\u00a0 It\u2019s the process.\u00a0 The process is what pulled me in more than the [the sound]; there\u2019s no discernible difference between that and digital.<\/p>\nSo yeah, the tape cost is prohibitive, you have to do all the parts and be decisive on all the takes you want to keep, unless you have lots of money to buy lots of reels, which we didn\u2019t have.\u00a0 And you have to be able to perform.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t do a single tape editor on our entire album.\u00a0 We had to overdub obviously, but everything is straight from the floor.<\/p>\n
So, again, all those things will inform the end result much more than recording with shitty microphones or whatever.\u00a0 Howard is very intuitive and understanding of the entire process, and tape is his medium, that\u2019s the best way he works.<\/p>\n
Stylus: And Bob Weston?<\/strong><\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> The reason I picked Bob Weston is because he does lacquer masters, so he actually uses a lathe, where as, there\u2019s maybe two other places, I think, In North America that have that\u2014Sterling Sound in New York and maybe Golden has that.\u00a0 Maybe some really expensive places do too.<\/p>\nSo yeah, the cutting lathe and he\u2019s put a lot of work and effort into his studio and his mastering company (Chicago Mastering Service).\u00a0 And again, with a mastering engineer, you want to try to find someone who is sympathetic to the kind of music you are making so that they understand the intent of the idea to translate it properly.\u00a0 It\u2019s important for them to have a frame of reference.\u00a0 The guy who masters Katy Perry probably won\u2019t know much about capturing us.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I went with him.<\/p>\n
Stylus: What was it like recording in Montr\u00e9al as compared to Winnipeg?<\/strong><\/p>\nRG: <\/strong>Well it was the summer, so it was warmer.\u00a0 That\u2019s about all. [Laughter]<\/em> It felt much more like a vacation.\u00a0 Most of us were in school when we recorded in Winnipeg.\u00a0 Me and Alannah (Walker) would come from school with our homework, and we would be doing homework in between takes.\u00a0 Whereas Montr\u00e9al we could relax\u2014we cooked!<\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> We had a very fortunate set up, because Steve (Kesselman), his sister lives in Montr\u00e9al, goes to school there, and has an apartment with roommates, but they don\u2019t live there during the summer.\u00a0 They pay rent\u2014they don\u2019t want to lose their apartment.\u00a0 So we have an empty apartment for the summer to go to Montr\u00e9al.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty great.<\/p>\nIn terms of the studio, Private Ear is a nice sounding room, like a really nice sound room.\u00a0 Probably the takes that we kept from Private Ear were the louder songs.\u00a0 All the more nuanced stuff, we did at Hotel2Tango.<\/p>\n
RG:<\/strong> We were a tighter band.\u00a0 We were a better band going to Montr\u00e9al, which I think is one of the biggest reasons we recorded so many of the songs over again.\u00a0 We kind of worked through the struggles while we were on the road before hand.<\/p>\nStylus: You\u2019ve gone through a handful of lineup changes over the past two years.\u00a0 How did this affect your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> It stayed pretty static.\u00a0 Yeah, the writing stayed static.<\/p>\nGW:<\/strong> Nick has a pretty good sense of arrangements for the songs.\u00a0 He starts them himself and typically has parts almost lined up in his head, and then its just matter of getting those to come out\u2014to explain them to us to make them happen.<\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> Yeah.\u00a0 The most important part about being in a band is the personality and character that is being injected into the parts that are being played.\u00a0 You can be playing dissonant noise and it will be played with the intent and attitude of your personality, and it will be interesting.\u00a0 The best part of playing with each other is that everyone gets different results.\u00a0 No one sounds like Rob playing drums.\u00a0 No one sounds like Graeme playing the bass.\u00a0 Like Steve, really, it would be\u00a0 really hard to try to translate those things to other people to play.<\/p>\nStylus:<\/strong> It is out on Borana records.\u00a0 I am completely unfamiliar with Borana.<\/strong><\/p>\nRG: <\/strong>So is everyone else.<\/p>\nNL: <\/strong>Really, it\u2019s just us releasing ourselves.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s engendered in the band\u2019s mind\u2014doing things ourselves.\u00a0 Not being subordinate to anything.\u00a0 I think we\u2019ve made some strides so far.<\/p>\nStylus:<\/strong> What are your plans for the next year?<\/strong><\/p>\nGW:<\/strong> Well, we\u2019re going on tour, doing some Canadian dates in about a week and a half.\u00a0 Going as far east as Montr\u00e9al, then we come back west and do three dates west of Winnipeg\u2014Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton.<\/p>\nNL:<\/strong> Touring, touring, touring.\u00a0 We like touring.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot of fun.\u00a0 And yeah, recording maybe?<\/p>\nStylus: Can you tell me some records, not obvious ones, that people should check out if they\u2019re into your band?<\/strong><\/p>\nRG:<\/strong> I think people should check out The Ex’s 30th<\/sup> Anniversary Collection.<\/p>\nNL: <\/strong>Slow Dancers.\u00a0 They are going to come out with a record next year, probably.\u00a0 Come see them play [on Saturday]. \u00a0They\u2019re fantastic.\u00a0 They\u2019re like nothing else in Winnipeg, or in general.<\/p>\nGW:<\/strong> There are probably elements of a lot of ambient, less rock oriented bands in the record.\u00a0 Maybe something by Brian Eno?<\/p>\nNL: <\/strong>Another Green World<\/em> by Brian Eno.\u00a0 That\u2019s a great album.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been listening to William Basinski, The Disintegration Loops<\/em>.\u00a0 This Heat is pretty big for us.\u00a0 Deceit <\/em>by This Heat or Health and Efficiency<\/em> is a great EP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Darcy Penner This Saturday, October 13th, 2012, Winnipeg post-rock five-piece Departures will be celebrating the release of their debut full length, Still and Moving Lines (released October 9th on Borana Records). Recorded by Howard Bilerman between Private Ear in Winnipeg and Hotel2Tango in Montr\u00e9al and mastered by Bob Weston, the album is already turning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22,255,440,875],"class_list":["post-5526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-ace-art","tag-departures","tag-howard-bilerman","tag-slow-dancers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pmapronline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/DeparturesArtwork.jpeg\" "\\"Departures")
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