THE BESNARD LAKES at the Horseshoe (370 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, March 11), 12:10 am, as part of CMF. $16 or wristband (limited). cmw.net.
The Besnard Lakes don’t just make music. They live and breathe it.
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When we catch singer/guitarist Jace Lasek, he’s at his studio, attempting to finish mixing a record by fellow Montrealers Land of Talk before leaving on a three-month tour in support of his own band’s newest, The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night (Jagjaguwar).
“It can be detrimental to have your own studio because you can keep labouring forever,” Lasek says.
“But the studio was so booked by other bands that we actually had a very small window [of time in which] to record our own album.”
Lasek’s engineer work looms heavily over Roaring Night. Slow-building guitar epics share time with ambient drone and explosive hooks. It all comes together precisely and consistently.
“It’s an asset to always be working at my craft. When we get in to do our own records, I know exactly what textures I want and what positions and techniques are going to create those textures.”
The album also draws from classic rock, a result of the expansive record collection Lasek shares with his wife/co-bandleader, Olga Goreas.
“We’re always trying to grab what was cool about the past in order to propel our own music forward.”
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