CARIBOU at the Phoenix (410 Sherbourne), Monday (May 3), 8 pm. $16. rotate.com.
It’s tempting to view Caribou’s (aka Dundas, Ontario’s Dan Snaith) new techno-influenced album, Swim, as a reaction against the giant Caribou Vibration Ensemble he assembled last fall for a handful of gigs. But as it turns out, his new direction was well under way by the time he’d put together that cosmic jazz-rock juggernaut.
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“That was something I’d always wanted to do, and it felt like a very natural time to do it,” Snaith says from his home in London, UK. “My past few records sounded like there were a lot of people playing on them, even though it was mainly just me.
“When we were doing those shows, the new record was more than halfway done, and I knew it was going to be less live-sounding. I felt like [the Ensemble shows] were a really nice end to that chapter.”
Those shows also affected the new Merge-released album in a way Snaith hadn’t anticipated. While putting together the sprawling band, he met four Toronto horn players who ended up on Swim. So did Luke LaLonde from Born Ruffians, also part of the Ensemble, who sings the final song on the album.
In fact, even though Swim sounds more electronic than anything Snaith’s done since his earliest bedroom recordings, back when he was still known as Manitoba, he says it’s actually his most collaborative album to date. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had his $20,000-dollar Polaris Music Prize from 2008 to help finance the occasional trip to a professional studio.
“Polaris meant that I could think beyond just me sitting in my room for a year doing an album in a very inexpensive way. It was still just me in a room 95 per cent of the time, though. That’s where I generate the best ideas.
“I don’t think going into an expensive studio for a couple weeks would have been a constructive way for me to spend the money, [but having the opportunity] to do those collaborations had a big impact.”
The real key to Snaith’s new sound actually comes from something unrelated to music. As you might guess from the title, water was a major influence, particularly its liquidy sound. It’s an unintended consequence of finally learning how to swim late in life.
“We had a swimming pool in our backyard when I was growing up in the country, and I could get from one end to the other with a very ineffective doggy paddle. But I never enjoyed it and couldn’t breathe properly.
“Last year my wife got me swimming lessons for Christmas, and I became obsessed with it. Apart from recording all day and DJing at night, the only thing I left my house for was to swim.”
It may be an unusual source of inspiration, but it’s effective. Comparing the songs on Swim to other music is tough, but the album definitely evokes the texture of water in surprising ways without ever going the obvious route of water drop samples.
“I’ve always been very terrible at having an idea and following through with it to the end. Whenever I try, the result just seems contrived. This is the first time I feel like my original concept actually carried through.”
Interview Clip
Dan Snaith talks about the new Caribou live show
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com
