THE DEEP DARK WOODS with Michael Rault at Adelaide Hall (250 Adelaide West), tonight (Thursday, November 14), 8 pm. $18.50. LN, RT, SS, TW.
“We’re not really depressing,” says Deep Dark Woods singer/songwriter Ryan Boldt over coffee in Toronto’s west end.
Sure, many of the songs on their fifth album, Jubilee (Six Shooter), are melancholic and full of regret – tales of rambling, cheating and travelling down lonely roads. And, yeah, two of the band members – Boldt and new guitarist Clayton Linthicum – live together in the ominously named town of Mortlach, Saskatchewan.
But the guys have a sense of humour.
“We’re saving [depression] for our 40s – now we’re in our 30s,” quips bassist Chris Mason, whose opening road song, Miles And Miles, evokes psychedelic Neil Young and Crazy Horse Canadiana. (They aren’t all in their 30s Linthicum is 19.)
Boldt says the band wanted a more hands-on producer this time around, and they found one in Laurel Canyon folk revivalist Jonathon Wilson, whom they met at the Newport Folk Festival. (Wilson also produced Father John Misty’s 2012 album, Fear Fun).
The record is lush-sounding (sometimes recalling the Band), but Wilson suggested they play a couple of songs in a more restrained manner closer to Boldt’s home demos.
Part of what allowed them to experiment that way was the fact that they recorded at an isolated cabin in Bragg Creek, Alberta, over three weeks in March.
“We were eating all our meals together and hanging out, driving each other crazy sometimes but bonding a lot more,” says Mason.
“It was probably the first time in seven years we were in a place where all we had to do was play music,” adds Boldt. “During supper or afterwards we’d play whole songs on acoustic guitars. We haven’t done that since our first tour, when we were excited 22-year-olds who just wanted to play music all the time.”
Boldt and Linthicum have a brotherly vibe and co-wrote three of the songs on Jubilee. But all that togetherness still leaves room for disagreement.
I ask if they draw inspiration from their lives, or if the tunes are mostly fictional.
“It’s a bit of both really,” says Boldt, coyly. “It’s fictional for me,” says Linthicum. Everybody laughs.
Interview Clips
Deep Dark Woods talk about how producer Jonathan Wilson and engineer Bryce Gonzales hadn’t seen much snow before they recorded Jubilee:
Chris Mason tells the story behind his song East St. Louis:
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