THE WILDERNESS OF MANITOBA with LEIF VOLLEBEKK and OLENKA KRAKUS at the Horseshoe (370 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, November 25), 8:30 pm. $10 at the door. 416-598-4226. See listing.
The Wilderness of Manitoba‘s harmony-laced folk rock has taken them across Canada and Europe, but their music-making radius barely extends beyond their house on T.O.’s Delaware Avenue.
Not only do four out of the five members live there, but they also re-cord in the basement and throw shows in their backyard barn. (Their intimate “Delaware House” concerts are the stuff of local legend.)
Our interview takes place in their living room, which seems fitting. After all, the Wilderness of Manitoba don’t just play music – they live it.
“There’s always someone around to bounce ideas off of or jam stuff out with,” explains Stefan Banjevic, “so we can pretty much be writing 24/7.”
“It’s never like, ‘Oh, we’re making music now,'” adds Scott Bouwmeester. “It’s a bit like…”
“…the songs are writing themselves,” Will Whitwham finishes.
It’s not uncommon for the members to finish each other’s thoughts like this. In conversation, as in song, the band functions best in tandem.
Their arrangements range from bare to lush, but at the heart of every -composition are impeccable multi-part vocal harmonies.
“We tend to adapt ourselves to the environment,” says Banjevic about live shows. “I play entirely different parts or instruments depending on whether or not there are drums or amplification.”
“It can sound completely different from night to night,” adds Melissa -Dalton. “We just give the songs what they need.”
This approach also informs WOM’s albums. Self-engineered and recorded in their DIY basement studio, Hymns Of Love And Spirits and its 2010 LP follow-up, When You Left The Fire (Vérité), evoke the homegrown intimacy of a campfire singalong.
“We purposely left in things like outside noises and breaths,” says -Bouwmeester. “Sometimes you don’t want the songs to sound perfect.”
“That can be hard for an outsider to understand,” adds Whitwham. “They can make the mix sound great, but that’s not always what the songs need.
“It’s a matter of experience. We’re going to know the music better than anyone else because we’ve been -surrounded by it for months on end. We’ve lived it.”
Interview Clips
The band describes their recent recording sessions with Jose Contreras (from By Divine Right) for an upcoming expanded re-release of their first EP, Hymns of Love and Spirits.
The Wilderness of Manitoba recount how their very first show, in the barn in their backyard, was crashed by undercover licensing officers.
The realities of living in a band house…
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