What do you see when you close your eyes and look at the sun ? What do you feel in that moment just before you fall asleep ? What do your dreams smell like ? If you can answer these questions with any kind of clar ity , then you might have a chance of describing the recently released Pick a Piper album .
follow the piper
by Matt J . Simmons
What do you see when you close your eyes and look at the sun ? What do you feel in that moment just before you fall asleep ? What do your dreams smell like ? If you can answer these questions with any kind of clar ity , then you might have a chance of describing the recently released Pick a Piper album .
Pick a Piper is a collabora tive project ( recently signed to Mint Records ) tha t has Car ibou ’ s drummer and musical madman , Brad Weber at the helm . Weber , if you ’ ve ever had the good for tune to catch Caribou in concert , is an exceptionally talented dr ummer , but in Caribou , that ’ s his g ig — drumming . And sure , when it comes to rockin ’ a Caribou show , that ’ s a big role ( drums are front and centre on the stage ), but it sure isn ’ t as big as leading a collabora tive psychedelic electronic dance outfit into the murky and uncertain world of putting out a record .
“ Dan Snaith wr ites and r ecords all the tracks in Caribou and br ings it to the r est of us ( m yself , John Schmersal , and Ryan Smith ) and we collaborate on how to make it work as a full band ,” says Weber . “ Pick a Piper is my creative / songwriting outlet where I can finally get pesky song ideas out of m y head and hopefully into the ears of many friendly listeners !”
The self-titled alb um opens up with Lucid in Fjords , a song formed from a driving percussive rhythm , insistent bass line , and spacey psychedelic arpeggios . Ryan McPhun from the Ruby Suns pulls the track together on vocals . McPhun ’ s not the only guest vocalist to make the record . “ Dan Roberts and Angus Fraser are my main collabora tors and I couldn ’ t have done this without them ,” says Weber . “ But I also open up the doors to other likeminded friends . I kinda describe the process as ‘ sampling my friends ’.”
The album ’ s second track , All Her Colour s , has Weber ’ s bandmate Schmersal ( who also mix ed and engineered the record ) singing falsetto to a bac kdrop of tight Caribou-esque drums and percussive elements , with washy synth lines making the whole thing come acr oss almost orchestral .
“ I start with a drum loop usually and then maybe add bass and / or a melody or two and various pals record ideas / loops / bits along to it ,” Weber says . “ Often two or more people r ecord along to the same trac ks without hearing the other person ’ s ideas . I choose what I like and cut up and manipulate what they have given me and make full tracks from it ! In the end I had a few good friends rerecord our vocal ideas with their voice , or in some cases without me asking , gave me entirely new vocal ideas that ended up being amazing ! I believe a lot in collabora tion , you ’ ll find a lot of that on this r ecord , but I ’ ve strived to make it cohesive and focused in a w ay that tricks the listener into thinking it ’ s the ideas of just one or two people .”
Did it w ork ? Well , you can tell the difference between singers like Raphaelle Standell-Preston from Braids and Andy Lloyd from Born Ruffians , but apart from distinct vocals , the alb um has a pr etty cohesive sound . Like the Chemical Brothers ’ use of cameo vocalists , Pick a Piper weaves its variety of contributions into something that feels , from start to finish , like the product of one mind , albeit a mind that drifts in and out of wisps of aural ephemera . Weber cites Schmersal ’ s adeptness in the mix as being integral to the album ’ s togetherness . “ It may not sound that way , but I tried my best to really focus into the key ideas of each track and not to make it too dense . This record is actually pretty sparse for me compared to my past . [ Schmersal ] further focused our record by really honing in on the k ey ideas of eac h track in his mixing process .”
If you want to get an idea of wha t Pick a Piper sounds like , without actually listening to it , think of early Caribou ( back when they went by Manitoba ), focus in on the percussive elements and add a heaping tab lespoon of
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