Deadly pop

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/04/2018 (2690 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For some bands, the style and genre that suit them best aren’t evident right from the beginning. For others, each record acts a stepping stone toward the perfect sound.

The latter is true for local indie-rock/pop five-piece Sc Mira, whose musical evolution has been a marked one, now culminating in the release of their newest, and darkest, EP yet, Drug Warm Coma.

“I think the music really started to change kind of after our first big tour — like five weeks — and we decided we wanted to add keys permanently and Caro (LaFlamme) joined and we sort of had two keyboards going and that really started to shape things into sort of what it is now, and it just keeps getting more and more heavy, moving into a different direction,” says vocalist and guitar player Sadye Cage, adding the band has been playing some of these tracks live for years, so finally recording and releasing them is an exciting relief.

https://youtu.be/xlrji-paWQY

“So this EP… it’s the first thing out there that is really reflective of what we’ve been doing onstage over the last year, so that’s nice.”

The band is releasing Drug Warm Coma on a double-sided vinyl with their previous three-song EP, Keep Crawling, which dropped in September. It may seem strange to divide up an already-small collection of songs into two three-song releases, but the band recognizes that each trio of tracks has its own distinct, even contrasting, vibe. This is evidenced by the packaging of the record — one side is white, the other is black.

“We kind of wrote in two cycles; we had some happy, boppy songs and some really heavy stuff and so we wanted to put that together,” Cage says.

“I would say the light side is sort of a stepping stone to our darker side, the dark EP is starting to actually sound like what we want — Your Hair is pretty much everyone’s favourite song in the band and it’s kind of where we started going and now we’re just keeping up that momentum,” bass player Mario Lagasse adds.

“And we did that on the last EP as well (2015’s Waiting Room Baby); Do Me was what we wanted to move towards, and we did that, and you see that on the light EP, and then the dark side is what we’ve been working towards,” Cage says.

And the term they’ve coined to describe that signature sound they’re working toward? Death pop.

“People might think that’s weird when you listen to a song like Mexico because it’s quite light, but I would say we kind of use.. that describes the lyrics and also sonically some of the songs are quite heavy and dark. And then the ones that sound lighter usually have darker subject matter or dark theme going on… we don’t really write happy songs,” Cage says.

“I’d rather describe it is pop than rock for most people — it’s like heavy pop with a harsher edge,” LaFlamme adds.

“Melodies are really big for us, whether that’s a bass line with a lot of movement or synth melodies and vocal melodies also happening.”

Sc Mira have long been known for their live performances, but for those hoping to catch a Winnipeg show in the coming months, this weekend’s album release at the Garrick will be one of the few opportunities to hear the songs off the EP — as well as a bunch of new music — in person (it also happens to be the biggest headlining hometown show they’ve booked to date).

Otherwise, you can catch them at the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival this summer at Twin Peaks Night: A Tribute To Angelo Badalamenti, during which they will take on the role of the Roadhouse Band, performing music from the guest bands at the end of each episode of the third season of Twin Peaks.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @NireRabel