Often if I was finished a track and we were moving onto the next thing , I would grab even 25 minutes on my cross-country skis out in the middle of the lake . It was pretty awesome .”
“ We really wanted to do four guys in a room , all the gear right there , in the cottage ; an intimate setting , and where the acoustics are very natural sounding ,” affirms drummer / percussionist Tyler Stewart . “ And you know , Mark , he had some really neat vintage mics , and some interesting old school gear .”
So , it ’ s clear where the intimacy on the album comes from . Foundationally , Detour de Force is perhaps one of the rawest efforts from BNL in over a decade . However , it does offer a very unique blend of off-the-floor vibes , combined with a very polished and deliberate big-record feel . This is owing to the fact that the band took somewhat of a detour themselves in making the record as the pandemic hit , electing to take the songs they recorded at the cottage , and subsequently bring them Toronto ’ s Noble Street and Vespa Studios with Canadian rock stalwart Eric Ratz for further production .
Robertson continues , “ I think we thought that would be the record , just a very live off-the-floor snapshot of where we ’ re at . The lockdown actually allowed us the luxury of time to listen back . You know , we thought we were going to go in with Eric and maybe just do a couple of the production-heavy tracks like ‘ Good Life ’ and ‘ Roll Out ,’ and ended up going over the record again , using loads of elements from what we recorded here ,” referring to his cottage from where he joined me for our chat . He points out , however , that some songs like “ Live Well ” and “ Man Made Lake ” are still very much just “ four guys in a room playing . There ’ s an alchemy to that sort of live energy that ’ s really special .”
To capture that live energy , it makes sense that they tapped Mark Howard to produce the cottage sessions ; known for his organic and off-the-floor style , Howard has worked with legends like The Tragically Hip , Bob Dylan , Lucinda Williams , Tom Waits , U2 , Daniel Lanois , and countless more . “ I don ’ t make records in recording studios , I just rent houses ; and I just kind of move in , set up , bring in rugs and lamps , and deck it out . And Ed ’ s place , I thought it was pretty big . But once we got everything in there it kind of shrank , because they ’ ve got two drum kits set up , and keyboards , and it was all a whirl , so it got pretty small , pretty quick .”
THE COTTAGE “ LIVE FLOOR ” SETUP IN ACTION
But Howard describes the recording process of having the whole band in the room , live , even going so far as to track without headphones .
“ I keep the speakers on , we don ’ t use headphones usually , and just go for a vibe . And we ’ ll do a couple takes , listen back to them , and then go back and maybe change the arrangement slightly and make sure there ’ s not a lot of dead wood in there ,” he explains . “ I don ’ t even use Pro Tools ,” he remarks . Instead , Howard tracked the band through an old iZ RADAR 24 digital multitrack recorder .
With Howard ’ s complement of gear , there also came a piece of music history that has its stamp on Detour ; a 1946 RCA 44 microphone that has recorded some of the all-time greats . While recording Tom Waits at one point in time , Howard and Waits were unhappy with the vocal sound they were capturing and decided to find some different mics to try . Howard headed to a used equipment dealer in Los Angeles and asked if they had any RCA 44s available . “ He goes , ‘ I don ’ t think so , but let me look in the back ,” Howard recounts . “ He comes back out saying ‘ I got this old one that ’ s been on the shelf ever since the store opened ,’ so I said I ’ d take it and bought it for 2,500 bucks .
“ And so , I found myself working at Capitol Records with Shelby Lynne , and I ’ ve got her singing into the 44 because I get this killer sound out of it . One of the tech guys that worked there his whole life , he goes ‘ That ’ s one of our old microphones !’ I said ‘ Really ?’ and he says ‘ Yeah , because with that microphone there , we were the only ones to ever put those toggle switches on them to roll off the low end for a vocal . Wait here a second ,’ and he goes back into the archives and he brings out all these photos .
“ He ’ s got photos of Frank Sinatra singing into that exact microphone . And you know , Billie Holiday singing into it ; you name it , whoever was working at Capitol , that was the microphone they were using , and I got my hands on it . So , a lot of the [ Detour de Force ] vocals are done on that 44 . And I ’ m not sure if you notice , but the vocal that ’ s on “ Man Made Lake ,” it ’ s just so warm and so cool and pulls you right in … I think once [ Ed ] heard that vocal sound , and I had it coming out of the speakers and he sounded like God , I think that made him emotionally come out and it was amazing . I don ’ t think they ’ ve ever made any recordings that have been that heartfelt .”
As for the songs themselves , there really is something for everybody here , and it really speaks to the musicality of the band , and the fact that they ’ re more or less just a group of guys passing instruments around and doing whatever they want rather than occupying certain “ roles ,” so to speak .
In classic BNL style , songwriting and lead vocal duties are split across the record , making it quite a fun journey as the varying perspectives and voices really keep things interesting from song to song . While Robertson ’ s eight songs comprise the bulk of the LP , keyboardist / guitarist Kevin Hearn penned and sang four songs for the album , while Creeggan wrote and sang a pair — “ Here Together ,” an intimate piece about the importance of constantly acknowledging the love
PHOTO : EDWARD POND
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 35