WAX MANNEQUIN with JENNY OMNICHORD and DOG IS BLUE at the Piston (937 Bloor West), Thursday, September 6, 9 pm. $8. 416-532-3989. See listing.
Chris Adeney – who has been recording and performing as Wax Mannequin for about a dozen years and has a rep for eccentricity – is wandering the streets of his hometown of Hamilton, even popping in to Dr. Disc, when I call him to discuss his sixth full-length, No Safe Home (Cargo).
Recorded at the White House in Hamilton with studio owner Nick Johannes, long-time collaborator Mark Raymond and other musical friends, the album reflects Adeney’s folkier, mellower side, with gentle melodies, poppy grooves, whistled solos and mesmerizing, near-whispered vocals.
Recording close to home, says Adeney, affected the final result. “It let us be more free and kind of loose about experimenting with the songs,” he says. “We were able to hash things out more on the spot, which was really refreshing for me.”
Written in part during dark and spooky sessions on a Greyhound bus tour out west, it’s not without sharp edges: an undercurrent of paranoia, lyrics about politics and war, and sudden loud, aggressive passages. But overall it’s quieter and folkier than the gruff, fierce, oddball anthems – like The Price and Message From The Queen – that Wax Mannequin built his name on.
Adeney attributes that to the fact that he’s been listening to more Canadiana and traditional music and playing the folk festival circuit. But he points out that 2009’s Saxon had folk material on it as well.
“It’s always been part of my songwriting, for better or worse, that some of my music is loud and energetic and some of it is quite the opposite,” he says, joking that he used to feel like two different performers, one acoustic and one “beefed up.”
“At a certain point, it became really important to me to play a full set that seamlessly covered all the ground that I’m fascinated with in my songwriting.
“But what’s really important to me is that certain melodic and lyrical themes come up again and again. I get a real kick out of tying a very quiet, more traditional-sounding song to something aggressive and abrasive that I’ve recorded in the past.”
If you’re curious about Wax Mannequin’s quirky old songs, he’s selling wax sculptures that encase USB sticks with his back catalogue on them. Somehow he makes this sound like a perfectly practical thing to do.
“On one hand, I wanted to keep my old music available,” he explains, “but like any self-respecting musician, I feel a great deal of shame about all my old material, so I also wanted to have it be slightly inaccessible.”
Interview Clip
Wax Mannequin on the inspiration behind the song Beware:
music@nowtoronto.com
