Timeless timbre

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This article was published 27/04/2017 (3179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Almost all the visual media accompanying Timber Timbre’s new release, Sincerely, Future Pollution, are in black and white. 

The album cover — a hazy collection of buildings in an unnamed metropolis — the band promo shot and the music videos released for the singles Sewer Blues and Grifting all adopt a colourless palette.

“I think it’s because I’m just accustomed to things being timeless and I find that whenever I tried to incorporate something more colourful, it somehow betrays, it gives away the thing,” says Taylor Kirk, singer and guitarist for the Canadian act that’s part folk, part electro and part gloom.

“It doesn’t make any sense, exactly, I just feel like that information somehow dates or determines the era of the thing, and I’ve always been kind of interested in things being ambiguous.”

The only pop of colour comes in the video for Velvet Gloves & Spit, the opening track of the album and Kirk’s favourite song of the collection.

“There was something about it, I felt it sort of set the tone,” Kirk says. “It was just… it felt very different to me. I liked that it made a harder distinction against the rest of the catalogue, and the song arrived in a very honest and clear way.

“I don’t very often write songs that just kind of materialize, and it was maybe the one song that wasn’t messed about with. I wrote it in one go and the first take, the ghost track, was the one we kept of my voice.”

Sincerely, Future Pollution, which gets its Winnipeg launch April 30 at the West End Cultural Centre, is the Montreal-based (and Polaris Music Prize shortlisted) band’s sixth full-length effort, and sees them take a step into the world of electronic music, a stark difference from their more folk-influenced beginnings. There are moments that ooze pure Bowie and others that could be the soundtrack to a film noir. At the same time, the content is firmly rooted in the idea of urban growth, its impact on our daily lives and the increased feeling of isolation many people develop. 

To capture the mood, the band recorded the album in a chateau just outside of Paris. Many musician friends of theirs had sung the praises of La Frette Studios, a “walled-in, over grown” mansion. 

“We heard about this studio for years and years from different artists and people in the Canadian music community. We went to have a look one day a couple of years ago after we played in Paris, and we spent the day having a look around the studio and with some of the staff there,” says Kirk. “We were just kind of enamoured by the place. There was an interesting vibe about it and a really anomalous collection of things, and also just very hospitable… very eccentric little crew running that place. It was so much fun, we barely left the house in the two weeks we were there.”

Timber Timbre is known for being somewhat off-kilter in their sonic style — it’s a bit creepy, a bit haunting and isn’t exactly the kind of music you play to get a party started. It has always been interesting and beautifully composed, but not really what some would deem “fun” music. While the original idea for their newest release was to buck their own trend and create something dancey, they ultimately veered back toward more ominous notes (though there are glorious hints of brightness in some of the more pronounced synth lines).  Still, Kirk is not yet ready to give up on the dream of one day creating an upbeat Timber Timbre record.

“I’m determined to make something fun one day,” he laughs. “I’m serious, though, I am determined to do something that is not heavy as f**k, that’s not super dark and that doesn’t read to everybody, or most people, that way. But for now, we’ll go with it.”

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel