Pandemic prelude

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2023 (896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It would be easy to guess Reality Bites, the upcoming EP by Manitoba indie-rock duo Mise en Scene, would be about the biting reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not so, says Gimli-based guitarist and vocalist Stefanie Blondal-Johnson, who along with Winnipeg drummer Jodi Dunlop release Reality Bites on June 23.

“The crazy thing, the song Reality Bites was written before the pandemic hit, which is hilarious,” Blondal-Johnson says of the title track to the record, which was released March 31. ”It was as if something was coming, the subconscious knew something was coming,”

Mise en Scene’s previous record, Winnipeg, California, felt the brunt of pandemic bad luck: its original spring 2020 release date was postponed to October in hope touring would return in the fall.

It would go on to win a Western Canadian Music Award for best rock album in 2021, but Blondal-Johnson and Dunlop spent no time resting on their laurels. They returned to the recording studio with a new batch of songs, some written before and some written during the pandemic.

“So (Reality Bites) is this epilogue to Winnipeg, California, but it’s its own thing. Or maybe a prelude to a whole new book,” Blondal-Johnson says.

“These (songs) have to come out. It was still part of this huge writing phase that I went through in 2019 and 2020, where I was writing constantly. There were so many songs coming out.”

Restrictions against public gatherings in 2021 meant Mise en Scene worked on Reality Bites at city studio Private Ear Recordings only with producer John Paul Peters, who has been behind the controls with artists such as Begonia, Royal Canoe and Propagandhi.

Like so many new ways of doing tasks in the pandemic, Blondal-Johnson hopes the recording process sticks.

“What we did was just lay down the duo tracks,” she recalls. “Jodi on drums, me on guitar, me on vocals and that’s all we did. We were able to leave and take some time listening to the songs in their rawest form, just me and Jodi. We were able to think where we want this song to go.”

Dunlop and Blondal-Johnson listened to the first draft while walking their respective dogs and when they returned to the studio they knew what to do next.

“By the time we got into the next round, all the overdubbing, the harmonies, it became this living, breathing thing.” Blondal-Johnson says.

Peters helped Mise en Scene with writing harmonies, and the pointers show in the group’s latest single, Burn Out, which has more of a new-wave vibe than Winnipeg, California.

“I’m a bit shy about doing harmonies only because I never do them. I’m the lead singer, why do I need to do harmonies?” Blondal-Johnson says with a laugh. “He was so great at vocal ideas, giving me confidence to get in there and do it. It has this richness now.”

Reality Bites’ delay until 2023 was far more welcome than the pandemic. Blondal-Johnson gave birth in December to baby boy Agust — named after Johnson’s great-great grandfather, who was Icelandic — because a newborn who wails as loud as an electric guitar requires more attention than a record release.

“Motherhood’s been such an inspiring time already,” she says. “It’s wild and I didn’t think it would be.”

Alan.Small@freepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall

 

Quick spins

The latest collaboration between the husband-and-wife musical couple of John K. Samson and Christine Fellows has led to a trio of songs released on Bandcamp.com.

Vivat Virtute is the name of the duo, and on June 1 it released June First. The project has Samson, the former Weakerthans’ frontman, pointing fingers at Canada’s banks — specifically RBC — while lightly strumming a guitar in Royal Bank of Canada, and Winnipeg’s political process in Budget Delegations.

The three-minute-and-19 second tune even includes a shot at the Free Press but mostly laments Winnipeg’s civic priorities: “Roads and police and police and roads / oh, that’s where most of our money goes,” Samson sings in a sad tone of voice.

The final song, All My Ex-Boyfriends Are You, is a melancholic memory of past relationships.

The songs can be streamed and purchased at Vivate Virtute’s Bandcamp page, wfp.to/vivatvirtute.

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Add Transcona country trio Petric to the Burt Block Party lineup on Aug. 18.

The four-time Manitoba Country Music Award winners will join an already announced lineup that includes Alberta crooner Brett Kissel and Ontario group James Barker Band.

The outdoor event takes place in front of the Burton Cummings Theatre. Smith Street is cordoned and a stage and room for up to 4,000 fans will be set up in the parks and parking lots in the area.