Sounds of the scenic route

Inspiration for Mise en Scene’s new album struck, fittingly, while Stefanie Johnson was on the road.

The pandemic was raging and she was heading up to Gimli, home at the time, when she spotted a church promoting drive-thru confessionals.

“I liked the mixing of metaphors, the idea of fast food and fast cheapness mixed with something vulnerable and secretive and special,” says Johnson, vocalist and guitarist of the local indie-rock outfit alongside drummer Jodi Dunlop.

Drive-Thru Confessional, out March 6, is Mise en Scene’s first full-length release in six years following the band’s 2023 EP, Reality Bites. The record is full of hazy, driving guitar and stories about the long, winding journey of growing up.

While writing the opening track, I Confess, Johnson travelled back in time to imagine a teenager confessing their affection to a crush working the drive-thru window of a burger joint — a scenario involving many laps to retrieve “forgotten” condiments and pop refills. As with fast food, young relationships are rarely healthy.

“You totally would’ve stalked them. ‘Hi, it’s me again, can I get another coke?’” Johnson says, laughing.

“And your number?” Dunlop adds.

The artists recreated the scene — sans declaration of love — while making the album artwork, which required circling the drive-thru of the Junior’s Restaurant on McPhillips Street to get the perfect shot.

The 10-track album covers a lot of ground beyond the messy excitement of first love — from depression (Everything in Gold) to breakups (Leftovers) to a road trip with a random dude in a beige Corolla (Beige Corolla). The focus is on lessons learned along the way, not the destination.

“I picture someone getting in their car and going on all these adventures — they’re getting in a fight at a bar with some douchebag, they’re getting into a car crash in L.A., they’re hanging out with their friends. Each song is a snapshot of a moment and you can really see yourself there,” Dunlop says.

The vignettes are specific enough to feel universal, with a nostalgic arc that moves from past to present, innocence to maturity. Drive-Thru Confessional closes with Remember This Feeling, a retrospective song about savouring the ups and downs of those formative experiences.

“It’s so easy to forget these really visceral feelings we have. Art’s job is to remind you of the human experience and to be unashamed of your own travels,” Johnson says.

The album was recorded in Johnson’s family cabin in Gimli and produced by Micah Erenberg of Secret Beach. The members of Mise en Scene both live in Winnipeg now, but the lakeside town remains close to their hearts — Dunlop was born there and Johnson grew up spending her summers there.

A lot has changed for the best friends and bandmates since their last full album, Winnipeg, California, in 2020. Johnson was pregnant with her second child while recording Drive-Thru Confessional and several months later Dunlop found out she was also expecting a daughter.

“That was a special moment,” Dunlop says of sharing the news.

“It was so cool to be pregnant with your best friend at the same time, and the person you have a musical journey with,” Johnson says.

Motherhood has created necessary lifestyle and career changes for the heavy touring band. It’s also influenced the reflective storytelling of the latest album and the speed at which songwriting is able to happen.

“We’ve got six pairs of little feet we have to watch out for now, everything takes a hundred times longer now,” Johnson says.

Still, music was always going to be part of the equation.

“You don’t have to just be a mom or just be an artist, but there are challenges and we’re starting to figure out what works best for us,” Dunlop says.

“I also think about our kids and my daughter and I want her to have a mom that she sees doing things that she loves.”

Mise en Scene has no plans of touring for this album cycle, but the band is set to throw an album release party on April 18 at Times Change(d), with backing by Ian Lodewyks and Clinton Giesbrecht. Kris Ulrich, who also released a new record last week, opens.

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— with files from Ben Waldman