Montreal space rock band the Besnard Lakes (husband and wife team Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas) recently scored a charming little interactive web piece called Pine Point, by Vancouver creative directors the Goggles (Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge) for the National Film Board of Canada.
The documentary project feels like a film in many ways, but the viewer moves through the story at their own pace, and interacts with it in various ways.
Chronicling the story of a northern mining town that was demolished after the local mine closed, it focuses on the frozen nostalgia of the former residents’ memories of what once was. The music provided by the Besnard Lakes is more stripped down and atmospheric than what they’re usually known for, and features a dreamy reworking of Trooper’s classic rock hit We’re Here For A Good Time.
We talked to Olga Goreas about how the Besnard Lakes got involved in it, and how they approached the challenge.
How did you get involved in this project?
We were approached by Mike Simons from the Goggles, who is an old friend of Jace’s from high school. He asked if we’d be interested in contributing some music for this project he was working on and he told us what it was about. We liked the idea so we said we’d do it.
Did the interactive format affect how you approached the work?
To be honest, we didn’t see any of the visuals from the website until it was finished. We were just working from an imagined narrative and creating the music from that.
Do Trooper know that you covered We’re Here For A Good Time for this project?
I’m guessing that Trooper know the song is being used – at least I know that the publishers of the song are aware of it! We had been asked right from the start about doing a version of this song specifically, because the creators really wanted that song in the project. I just remember the song from my youth, and kind of thought of it as a high school graduation type of thing, which works really well in this instance. I must say, I think it is quite a beautiful song, and very heartfelt and emotional at its base.
Planning on any more audio/visual collaborations?
Actually, we just finished scoring a film. It’s called Memories Corner, and is about a French journalist who travels to Japan to write a story about earthquake survivors. It’s an interesting take on how the Japanese perceive the dead who walk among us – a sort of updated ghost story.
Do you wish your hometown had been demolished like Pine Point?
No, not really. There are lots of things that bother me about my hometown, but there are lots of things that are good about it too. Like my family – they all still live there. I grew up in a house on a big plot of land with about a dozen fruit trees on it. It was a pretty idyllic way to grow up. But I also knew by the time I was 16 that I had to move away from there, which I did after I graduated.
Besnard Lakes are playing Lee’s Palace on Jan 29.
