Driven to dance

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This article was published 10/08/2017 (3360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the end of Funeral, the second-last track on Winnipeg duo Figure Walking’s debut record, The Big Other, a chorus of chanting people holler, “let’s just try to celebrate, dance until this all makes sense.”

The idea of people getting on their feet and moving was one that inspired songwriter and guitarist Greg MacPherson when he was considering which tracks to use on the album, which was long-listed for the Polaris Prize earlier this year.

“Whenever you’re playing music and people actually start dancing to it, it’s the best feeling you can have, I think, as a performer — to actually get people out of their seats,” says MacPherson. “I’ve always played music that’s more performance art in some ways than it is entertainment and I’ve found that the most gratification I’ve had as a performer, like the most fulfilled it’s been for me, is when people are really into it and start to dance. It’s an exchange; any good performance is an exchange between the audience and the performer and yelling and having a great time is one thing, but actually dancing is really special, it feels fantastic.

“The other piece of that is I have a real sense these days that our world is veering ever closer to some pretty bad times, and for some us those have already arrived, and I think we need to make change and metaphorically, the idea of movement is double-edged, right? So having people be part of a movement is really important to me, too, in that way. So we’re thinking about movement as dance but also somewhat ideologically, if not just in terms of us needing to take action as a species,” he says.

MacPherson and drummer Rob Gardiner have been working together for years under MacPherson’s solo banner, but because they had spent so much time on the road and developed a bond as friends and musical partners, the shift into a more formalized duo felt like a natural progression for the pair.

“I think we both wanted to do something a bit more intentional. Like, we talk a lot in the car about nostalgia and about wanting to shed things that are easy or conventional and we thought that a name change would provide some freedom just in terms of the music we want to play on any given night, and it’s worked out just like that, so it was a good choice I think,” he says.

MacPherson uses the word “intentional,” a lot when talking about the music Figure Walking is creating. He and Gardiner have a specific sound they’re after; gritty, sweaty and full of life and electricity.

The content, too, is clear in its direction, whether that’s deep-diving into political concerns or longing for dangerous romance, there’s not a lot of ambiguity on The Big Other.

“I’m just always writing, so I have a lot of work that isn’t really in keeping with what Rob and I are sounding like or where we want to go, so I’ll probably put another Greg MacPherson project out at some point, or call it something else depending on who’s playing with me, but I just love making music and I love writing,” MacPherson explains.

“Rob and I have a specific aesthetic we’re shooting for, and some stuff fits and some stuff doesn’t.”

The duo already have loads of music ready to go for a second album, which MacPherson is hoping to release next summer (”We’ve got a much better record ready to go,” he says with a laugh). In the meantime, they are booked with tour dates across the country, and will be paying Quebec some extra attention; Gardiner begins graduate school at Concordia University in the fall.

Locally, Figure Walking will be making two appearances this month — the first is an album release show at the Good Will Aug. 10, and on Aug. 18, they take the stage at Interstellar Rodeo at The Forks in the slot before headliner Father John Misty.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel