PATRICK WATSON as part of CBCMUSIC.CA FESTIVAl at Echo Beach (909 Lake Shore West), Saturday (May 23), 3:30 pm. $39.50. rotate.com, soundscapesmusic.com, ticketmaster.com.
Patrick Watson sips coffee in the Gladstone Hotel, reflecting on how he’s matured since winning the Polaris Prize in 2007, becoming a dad and writing his excellent new album, Love Songs For Robots. But he’s most interested in talking about science.
“We’re a couple of albums into our career, which is a stage where every decision you make from here on in [affects] whether you stay or go,” Watson says. “For me, I’ve done all these albums in this folkier world….”
Before he can finish that thought, he trails off and starts talking about the science journals he reads every morning, about artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics. (Last year Watson teamed up with Montreal studio Felix and Paul to create a virtual reality music video, which became one of the first demos for virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.)
For the band’s fifth album, “an ode to the science community,” Watson and his band distilled this scientific passion into a sonic universe where grandiose piano mingles with cosmic synth layers and alien-sounding guitar melodies courtesy of new guitarist Joe Grass.
“The first thing I really wanted to do… You know Blade Runner?” Watson asks. “The music in it is all synths, but it’s incredibly warm. Love Songs For Robots is not a cold disc. They’re still love songs.”
To keep the atmosphere sunny, and to match the season in which it would be released, the Montreal band headed southwest to Hollywood’s famed Capitol Studios. That was a big switch from 2012’s Adventures In Your Own Backyard, recorded in Watson’s studio next door to his apartment.
The new songs were tracked almost entirely live, and the band perfected their nuances before ever stepping into the studio. “We spent hours on those arrangements,” says Watson.
For example, the playful Good Morning Mr. Wolf went through hundreds of iterations, while emotional album-closer Places You Will Go – which contains one of the album’s most dramatic climaxes – took a year and a half to write.
“We had a one-mic recorder and we played each song until it gave us goosebumps. It’s my job to poke you, to open your inspiration and make you feel alive.”
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