NATIONAL PARKS PROJECT LIVE with ANDREW WHITEMAN, SOPHIE TRUDEAU, CASEY MECIJA, PAUL AUCOIN, BRY WEBB and others at the Royal Cinema (608 College), tonight (Thursday, May 19), 9:30 pm. $15. 416-536-5252. See listing.
The concept of The National Parks Project is brilliant: let’s celebrate the centennial anniversary of Parks Canada by sending 39 Canadian musicians and 13 Canadian directors into the national parks for five days to create music and films inspired by their surroundings.
While the resulting short films (read an interview with one of the filmmakers here) and soundtracks are stirring, it’s the process behind their creation that fascinates us most. Here’s what some of the musicians had to say about their time in the wilderness.
Bry Webb
Gwaii Haanas National Park, British Columbia
We flew in to Skidegate, a Haida community in the Queen Charlotte Islands, and travelled the Strait in a large sailboat under pretty heavy weather conditions. Sarah Harmer has experience sailing and handled the waves with aplomb, whereas Jim Guthrie and I broke our desperate focus on the horizon just long enough to laugh at each other’s pale, sick faces.
After that, the trip was all highs. At one point we were surrounded by 10 humpback whales breaching in pairs just 10 feet off the side of the boat. I heard a whale trumpet through an underwater microphone. We played music around a campfire at an original village site, and I spooned Jim in a longhouse. We met a strange old Quebecois hippie, who made us a feast of seaweed, massive shrimp and crabs from his own traps.
Christine Fellows
Marr Lake National Park, Bruce Peninsula
The crew was amazing. We could stop literally anywhere, anytime to collaborate, record and write. It was such a weird and wonderful way to experience nature. We camped the entire time and it was John Samson’s first time, so that was pretty hilarious. He’d insisted on bringing a pair of corduroy pants that got wet the second day and stayed wet for the rest of the trip.
I was wary about the documentary “reality television” aspect of the project, and although it wasn’t ideal and felt a bit unnatural at times, we were too busy to pay much attention to the cameras. One night we had an exhilarating session on a rocky Georgian Bay beach under the stars, filming and recording together – a truly collective, ecstatic freak-out involving choreographed headlamps and a Shakespeare hymn-sing with the hollow, coral rocks clattering underneath it all.
Sophie Trudeau
Prince Edward Island National Park, PEI
I love camping so I felt comfortable on the beach right away. And the food! Our chef made the best seafood chowder I’ve ever eaten. I’d played with Chad Ross before and always enjoyed his style, so that was an easy fit. And I worked with Dale Morningstar on a record a long, long time ago.
We knew we were to write music for a short film inspired by the surroundings but not that we were meant to be part of the film itself. That came as a surprise and was a little frustrating because it left us with less time to write. We played whenever we could, mostly at night. We had to work with what we had, so there were no second takes or over-thinking parts or arrangements.
Tony Dekker
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia
We started by hiking up Franey Mountain, which was breathtaking, and some musical ideas came together right away. It was great to learn about the Acadian and Boreal forests, and waking up to a family of moose moving through our campsite was magical. We camped between a mountain and an ocean beach, which was inspiring on many levels.
We tried different configurations to weave the environment into the music – incorporating pieces of driftwood and rocks into our instruments to respond to the crashing waves on the beach. The scope and depth of the project is phenomenal. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of. It sort of changed the way I think about music.
Jennifer Castle
Mingan Archipelago National Park, Quebec
One night I thought I heard something ooohing in the woods and then I felt the presence of a close animal, which freaked me right out. I was by the campfire. If it was the wind in the trees it was the wildest sound from nature. For me participating was very last minute. I was told to come to the park and play music. I hardly knew anyone. I got picked up in a cab and we headed to the airport.
We had a great cook at camp, a great captain at sea and a great trail guide. [Director] Catherine Martin was obviously taken with what she was seeing. She would get up very early and be half-done shooting by the time we got up. She loved the look of the weeds in the water. We had some fun out there playing music in such exposed settings. It was a lot of playing music together with no real beginning or end feeling. Just “now you are together and now you are not.” When I got home I sort of missed articulating every moment with a jam.
Laura Barrett
Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta
The highs included the beautiful vistas, sleeping in a tepee, experiencing the vastness of the land, meeting Narcisse Blood and Bruce Wolfchild and learning about Blackfoot history and culture, hiking through woods and across the buffalo jump. The major low was the rain. We had to be cautious about our instruments (especially Rollie Pemberton’s, which were all electronic), a few excursions had to be cancelled or moved around, and we couldn’t continue sleeping in the tepee.
I knew Rollie and Mark Hamilton, and I’d actually worked with Peter Lynch on a project called City Sonic. On the first day we jammed out some instrumentals. We added a couple more instrumentals, and each one of us wrote a song with vocals to which the other two added their own touches. It was magical how quickly and organically the whole thing came together. We were conscious of the time limit and managed to fit everything into the five days, including some last-minute piano additions in the lobby of the Prince of Wales Hotel.
Matt Mays
Wapusk National Park, Manitoba
The only guidelines given were to prevent us from getting our heads ripped off by polar bears, so we were totally down with them. The Northern Lights, helicopter travel, canoeing rapids, seeing polar bears and wolves in their natural habitat, hiking the tundra – it was so radical.
I’ve known Kathleen Edwards and Sam Roberts for years so there was no awkward “getting to know you” period. We got straight to work on the jams with a heavy vibe. When we weren’t playing and recording we were scoping out the tundra, riding the river to the Hudson, watching the Northern Lights explode. It was like a strange new planet. Now and again you’d find a foot-long eagle feather that would remind you that you were on earth.
