Traer find common ground under a black canopy

Traer released their full-length iitoomhkitopi, which translates to “First Rider"

by Christine Leonard
31 October 2016

What do you do when 50 shades of black just isn’t sufficient to satisfy your festering soul? You invent your own Mordorian subgenre. That’s exactly the twisted forest path that Calgary-based doomsters Traer have opted for. Comprised of a wraith, a recluse, and a lupine fiend, this tightly-knotted ensemble is poised to unleash a new universe of sturm and drang where black holes double as porch lights, guiding the way home.

“All three of us have a history of playing with different bands,” explains Traer’s vocalist/guitarist Ghûl. “The bass player, Nekro, and I are best friends and have been playing together for a decade. The drummer, Scara, is from Red Deer but moved to Calgary once he started dating Nekro. We decided to form a brand new group together; something Calgary hasn’t really heard before. Traer is our interpretation of what we enjoy most in black metal.”

An icy sonic avalanche that engulfs and numbs in equal measures, Traer’s most recent recordings are incredibly dense yet carefully devised. Each emergent track builds the suspense with stealthy rhythms and veering melodies gradually revealing the shadowy world between reality-blurring distortions and riveting details.

“I’ve always had a love for black metal,” says Ghûl.

“For me it’s a way to express that kind of grim, hopeless, darker atmosphere that I find myself drawn to. Even in my previous bands it’s creeped in as a major influence for me. And I’m not just talking about those core black metal bands most people would know, like Mayhem or Burzum. Nekro is also a fan of that dark imagery, not necessarily Satanism, but that cold, life-sucking esthetic. Traer’s sound is rooted in a traditional manner of playing black metal, but with a slower doomy feel. I’m totally obsessed with that whole black gaze scene. You can see it in my music and the way I play guitar. No straight power chords, but rather weaving a spell.”

Another ascendant to the dark throne of mystical music, Ghûl’s bandmate and BFF Nekro has discovered a bastion for self-expression in the catacombs of Traer’s gothic fantasies. Also a member of the horror-punk outfit Frightenstein, she’s proven herself capable of morphing from a ravenous zombie into a solemn sylvan banshee without skipping a dolorous bass note.

“Frightenstein was my stepping-stone into the music industry. It gave me the opportunity to become a zombie character in the band. I wanted to add more of me, so I added the corpse paint with the gore and put spikes on my boots,” Nekro says.

“Twelve years is a long time to be in the music scene, especially in metal/punk. I have been laughed at, told I wasn’t pretty enough, told it was a gimmick to have a female in the band, I was a joke, trashed talked and that ‘girls don’t know how to play music.’ Not only did I have to battle the sexism, my real challenge is the racism, not only in the music but just in general,” says Nekro, who is an indigenous woman.

“There are many negative aspects, but I use them to my advantage and I do feel that it makes me more resilient, empowered, and stronger.”

Smelting an iron will with a fiery spirit, Traer have smithed a blackened metal masterpiece that is ready to be visited upon the masses. A more refined example of the slothful surges heard on the band’s live-off-the-floor “Demo 2015” release, Traer’s forthcoming debut iitoomhkitopi (a.k.a. First Rider) is a fitting introduction for a band that excels at manipulating the familiar and making the unusual instantly accessible.

“There’s no direct storyline to the album, it’s more of a tribute,” Ghûl elaborates.

“The title means ‘First Rider.’ which was Nekro’s grandfather’s Native name. The front cover of the album has a picture she took at his place on the Siksika Reserve, so it’s called ‘Grandpa’s Trees.’ It’s of our way of honouring him. We definitely draw on supernatural themes, and every culture has their own version of ghosts and witches of the woods. Our music is like slow creepy storytelling; it’s much more organic than your typical black metal. That’s why our name is Traer, which translates as ‘Trees’ in Norwegian.”

Rife with taut tunes such as “Banshee,” “Silence in the Forest,” and “Blood Sacrifice,” each bend and scrape on Traer’s self-released homage to the passage of time reverberates with the age-old clash of inescapable fate and strident mortality. Unblemished by fractious misrule, the three bandmates’ solidarity of purpose slices through the subterfuge and delivers a deathblow worthy of Sauron’s most elite soldiery.

“When my husband (Scara) and I started writing the first few songs for Traer, this other very dark side was exposed,” says Nekro.

“It was so raw and authentic, as I continued to write more music, I started to understand myself better as an artist. Never have I ever felt so alive in my life. All the sadness, pain and trauma in my life gave me the power to write. This band has given me the stamp of approval to really embrace that feminine side, but remain tough as nails. I am fortunate to have two amazing men call me their leader. Their support and love is mind-boggling.”

Traer released iitoomhkitopi on October 21st. The band performs on November 4th in Edmonton at Rendezvous Pub with Korperlose Stimme and Solarcoven; check online for more November events in Calgary.

Swedish goth rockers Ghost conjure the unholy spirit

They who cannot be named: Ghost conjures the unholy spirit

by Christine Leonard
11 October 2016

“I have an assigned task and that’s to speak to you,” flatly iterates the Nameless Ghoul on the other end of the line.

After all, as contradictory as it may seem, anonymity is at the aesthetic coeur of his band’s identity. Emanating from Linköping, Sweden in 2008, Ghost (known as Ghost B.C. in the United States) is a gothic-rock outfit that draws their dramatic and visually stimulating persona from dark religious imagery that is typically associated with the realms of heavy metal.

Recipients of multiple Swedish Grammis Awards, for their albums Infestissumam in 2014 and Meliora in 2015, the six-member ensemble paraded down the aisle and into the international spotlight this past February when they accepted the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the Meliora single “Cirice.” Led by their highly-decorated anti-papal overlord, Papa Emeritus III (two previous Papas have already been retired – to the South of France, one would presume), Ghost’s five Nameless Ghoul instrumentalists drew stares of Los Angelian disbelief as they mounted the dais in mouthless Minotaur masks.

“Whether or not this is a comment or rock stardom, initially the whole image was just something that suited the music. We never counted on being popular,” the customarily mute minion explains.

“Even though we had achieved some success in Europe beforehand, America has always been the growing ground for us. This is by far where we have played the most and where we spend most of the touring cycle. We’ve come to a level now, which I really enjoy, where we want to play everywhere. We’ve always been very insistent that we weren’t really doing the work unless we were playing Medicine Hat and Kamloops.”

Proving that humour is never far removed from tragedy, Ghost has rendered the imposing genres of hard rock and metal more accessible to general audiences thanks to projects like their EP, If You Have Ghost, which included cover songs produced by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters. The faithful masses have also responded favourably to Ghost’s most recent EP, the September-released Popestar, which features covers of Eurythmics and Echo & the Bunnymen alongside the anthemic band’s “strongest concert-opener” to date, “Square Hammer.”

“I don’t think that anything would have been successful had we not done the tours. We would never have been nominated for or received a Grammy. We would never have been signed to our American label. Had we not done the tours I don’t think Dave Grohl would have known who we are; so, I am a firm believer in touring. I think that that is the shit.”

And now that they’ve rocked a million faces, Ghost has some very pragmatic reasons for not revealing their own.

“It’s a hard one,” says he-who-cannot-be-named. “Some of us get recognized to a certain degree; there’s always someone in a record store or guitar shop coming up and whispering ‘I love your band. Thank you!’ Whereas for more normal bands they are not subjected to that level of respect. Because if you are an artist and you put yourself out there, and you have an Instagram account and you’re photographing everything you’re about to consume, I think people, more or less, will regard you as some sort of public domain. And, you are also sort of expected to be your onstage persona to a much further degree than we ever are. I must say that any wishes that you might have had as a younger person of wanting to be recognized, to the point where we are recognized in our street clothes, I don’t feel I’d like that to be happening on an everyday basis. It feels being very comfortable being able to step in and out of that recognition.”

Able to reconcile the oppositional forces of fame and freedom, Ghost’s avoidance of celebrity status while exploiting cultural iconography is perhaps their greatest artistic achievement. Relying on archetypal constructs to elicit an emotional reaction is nothing new in the world of agent provocateurs, but Papa Emeritus III and his entourage of elemental familiars have brought a burgeoning generation of fans into their demon-strative fold with a flair for creating musical rituals that leave a lasting impression.

“Our thing has always been look bigger than you are and you will become bigger! If you’re going to take it to the arenas, you’d better look like an arena band. Otherwise why would they believe you?”

He continues. “Now we’ve swum out way too far. That’s why we’re doing this tour with all of the new pyro and production and all of the staging stuff, because no one is going to applaud if we don’t show up with big things.”

Ghost perform with Marissa Nadler at MacEwan Hall in Calgary on October 11th and at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver on October 13th.

Bitch Media co-founder Andi Zeisler rejects ad-hawk feminism

Is feminism for sale? Bitch Media co-founder Andi Zeisler doesn’t buy it

by Christine Leonard
6 October 2016

As Andi Zeisler puts it, she didn’t “set out to write a book about the commodification of feminism.” But as co-founder and creative director of Bitch Media, observing and steering the pop-culture imagination of a nation, she found that she had accrued more than enough material to pen We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement, a unique tome on the subject at the heart of her two decades of experience as an independent journalist and advocate for women’s rights.

“Is it a more dangerous time to be a feminist? Maybe,” says Zeisler. “It’s unfortunate that the advent of new technologies and forms of communication means that there are now more ways for anti-feminists to attack individuals and the ideas that they’re trying to put forward, but at the same time the rise of social media has made it easier than ever for likeminded people to come together and find solidarity around the issues that matter to them.”

Finding common ground while sharing divergent opinions, and gathering knowledge from grassroots sources of expertise, is the ultimate expression of cultural community-building; and something Calgary’s Wordfest annual literary festival has ingrained in their organizational architecture. As a forum whose audience appreciates spirited debates and discussions on the juiciest of social topics, Wordfest has set out a cerebral buffet of events that will provoke and satisfy the rebel reader in us all. Zeisler a.k.a. Andi Z is slated to engage in a Literary Death Match opposite fellow print-jockeys Jillian Christmas, C.C. Humphreys, Kenneth Oppel, Alissa York, Aaron Paquette and Mark Leiren-Young. Cajoled into performance-mode by jet-setting host Adrian Todd Zuniga, a variety of authors will read selections from their most eyebrow-raising passages before a cocktail-lubricated jury of their peers. The following evening Andi Z will return to flex her intellectual muscle alongside a panel comprised of women word-bombers including cultural anthologist Lynn Coady, graphic memoir creator Teva Harrison, and novelist Lisa Moore. This much-anticipated gathering of Bionic Women Writers is exactly the kind of real-world activism Zeisler has identified as the true catalyst to social progress.

“I think that over time feminism as a concept has shifted from being a collective purpose to a source of individual identity. When we say that feminism has been sold out, that doesn’t mean running down Miley Cyrus for twerking and calling it empowerment. There are many versions of sexual empowerment. What we’re talking about is the selling of an image of what it means to be a feminist on a much larger scale. For example, that Secret commercial that tries to convince young women that if they want to do their part towards closing the wage gap that they should be wearing a certain brand of deodorant. It’s absurd.”

Given that she has written on activism for the likes of the Washington Post, Salon, Ms., and the Los Angeles Review of Books it’s not surprising that the Oregon-based Zeisler has encountered more than her fair share of armchair critics. The winds of discontent swirling around the issues she examines in her latest book have only gained momentum with gong show that is the current U.S. election. And as those currents have grown so have her concerns about the blatantly racist and sexist attitudes that have been exposed in the midst of the tensions that are gripping her country. In the end, Zeisler is more concerned with actions than words. A position any advocate for Team Human can surely appreciate.

“I think the question that people need to be asking themselves in the face of these massive and complex social problems is, ‘What am I willing to do to make a difference in the world?’ Rather than just applauding celebrities and calling them ‘brave’ for identifying themselves as ‘a feminist’ in an interview, we should be asking them how they are going to use their fame, and their influence, and their money to really change things for the better.”

Andi Zeisler is appearing at Wordfest on Oct. 12 from 9:15-10:45 p.m. and Oct. 13 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. on both occasions in Art Commons, Big Secret Theatre.

Wordfest general director Shelley Youngblut shares the good words

Wordfest 2016 illuminates the modern manuscript

by Christine Leonard
6 October 2016

It wouldn’t be autumn in Calgary without a little leafing through, and Wordfest 2016 is the perfect occasion to pick up a new tome or two. An inspiring and informative whirlwind that whips the city’s literary circles into a frenzy of activity this annual gathering of readers and writers has exceeded its original scope and now extends to events staged throughout the year. The locus of Wordfest’s focus, their 10-day “main event” festival in October, has become both a valued proving-ground and a hallowed institution of cultural exchange for audiences. According to general director Shelley Youngblut, this year’s festival will be one of the enlightening encounters with some 70 writers who are actively plotting-out the shape of Canadian literature to come.

“We’re now in the 21st year of Wordfest and it’s my second year and first full year of programming,” says Youngblut. “I’m really emphasizing the idea that we’re connecting Calgarians with life-changing ideas. We have brought in this second-tier of Canadian writers; people who are writing with such brazen originality. There’s one writer named Andrew Sullivan his book is as if the Coen Brothers had given up on the lightness. He’s got a book called Waste where his main characters are Skinheads. There’s another author Jay Hosking ‘Three Years with a Rat’ that’s deeply original. And Affinity Konar ‘Mischling,’ so watch out for those.”

Building showcases around the festival’s roster of award-winning and emergent authors, who are considered “Ones to Watch,” Youngblut hopes to draw eyes and attention to the works of cutting-edge writers from across North America and beyond. Designed to dive between the lines and dig beneath the surface, Wordfest manipulates the template of literary workshopping by facilitating provocative and interactive presentations that illustrate the written word by engaging audiences with potent doses of live performance and, more often than not, contagious laughter.

“We’ve also got fantastic late-night events at the Big Secret Theatre. The first one is Literary Death Match, anybody who’s been to Wordfest in the last four years knows that you have to go to it. We’ve got this guy Adrian Zuniga from Los Angeles who does them all over the world, it’s a must-see thing. Friday night it’s The Naughty Bits Read-a-Thon, in which our Festival writers are going to read aloud not-safe-for-work passages from either their books or other people’s books, from a bed on the stage. And then on Saturday it’s the Adult Spelling Bee! We staged it last year for 50 people and there were no pictures allowed because of a certain amount of nudity. People loved it. So, we’re bringing it to the Big Secret Theatre where we can have the potential for full-nudity and, of course, the bar. It’s not your Mother’s literary festival and that’s part of what makes Wordfest in Calgary so special!”

Food for thought will not be in short supply as Wordfest strives to shed light on the inspirational storytelling of novelists such as Madeleine Thien, who will be conversing on her trade during a private Breakfast Talk at Sidewalk Citizen Bakery in the Simmons Building. Likewise, author Mark Leiren-Young will be anchoring the Curiosity Showcase, providing insight into his humourous approach to history and the penning his CBC Ideas documentary “Moby Doll: The Whale that Changed the World.” The celebration of creativity claims its space with a retinue of envelope-pushing artists such as Karen Hines, a two-time nominee for the General Governor’s Award for her avant-garde dramatic works, and a powerhouse line-up of female authors who translate their experiences to text without trepidation.

“I hope everybody checks out Karen Hines,” says Youngblut. “Her alter-ego, Pochsy, is really big on the alternative theatre scene. Anybody who’s been to Fringe plays, or has seen her collaborations with Canadian clowns of horror Mump & Smoot, will recognize her. We’ve got her for five nights in the Arts Commons’ Motel Theatre, performing a staged-reading called ‘Crawlspace’ for 30 people, where Karen starts talking to you about her experience with a real estate horror story. We also have a panel called the Bionic Women Writers,” she continues. “I’m really big on the idea of women with strong voices, the Festival is filled with them. I think for anybody who’s a part of Femme Wave, this is your literary version of Femme Wave. I think it’s going to be a real talker.”

An articulate answer to Calgary’s increasing demand for reliance and sustenance, Wordfest’s decision to engineer life-changing opportunities for readers is to be applauded. There’s no denying that a timely exploration of non-fictional topics that address an array of practical concerns and concepts, without setting foot in a waiting-room, is just what the doctor ordered.

“Canada’s leading psychiatrist, Dr. David Goldbloom M.D., is coming on Saturday, October 8th. He’s written a book called ‘How Can I Help?’ I think all of us have some mental health concerns right now, and so for 15 bucks, you can come and actually listen to someone who knows what he’s talking about. We also have a couple of panels coming up in the area life-changing ideas; the first one specifically deals with inclusivity, it’s a really diverse panel. And then the following week we have a provocateur’s Uncivic Politics panel that is perfect in terms of Calgary’s upcoming civic election (when nobody seems to be able to listen), which features James Hoggan, the author of ‘I’m right and you’re an idiot’ and Board Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation.”

Add to this reckoning a massive Wordfest Youth Program that attracts some 11,000 student-attendees and you have the makings of a literary happening capable of rivaling the most prestigious writers’ festivals in the world. As an annual occasion that has bloomed into a perennial platform for the exchange of ideas, Wordfest has come to represent the consumer’s thirst for knowledge as much as the creator’s impetus to share their innermost thoughts.

“It’s absolutely necessary to stress that the most important person in all of this is the reader,” Youngblut asserts. “This year in particular, if you come to any of the showcases you’re going to be hearing from, and getting a sense of, the writers who are going to be setting the agenda nationally and internationally. These are the authors people are going to be talking about and you will have heard of them first. So, it’s also a festival of discovery. It’s really diverse and really electric and kind of like the equivalent of having the New Yorker Magazine come alive but in Calgary.”

Wordfest 2016 runs Oct. 7-16 at various locations in Calgary. For a detailed schedule of events and complete list of artists appearing go to wordfest.com.

Slow Down Molasses bottle lightning in a jar

Slow Down Molasses crystallizes their melancholy jam with ‘100% Sunshine’

by Christine Leonard
3 October 2016

Celebrating a decade of rolling the haze and rocking watering holes across the Great Plains, Saskatoon’s Slow Down Molasses is slightly bemused by their own longevity. Long dark winters and hot dusty summers have left their mark on the melodious and moody ensemble, prompting pragmatic lead guitarist/vocalist Tyson McShane to take stock of all that has been accomplished and that is still left to be done.

“It has been a long while and I’m actually somewhat amazed that we’re still doing stuff,” says McShane, the band’s principal songwriter.

With a barrel-full of enduring releases to their credit, including; I’m An Old Believer (2008), Walk Into the Sea (2011), Bodies of Water: Remixes (2012), and Burnt Black Cars (2015) McShane and company are now poised to step into the sunlight, and maybe even show off their rumoured farmer-tans, with the release of their latest LP, 100% Sunshine (2016).

“This album is the first time we’ve recorded with the same lineup that we toured the previous album with,” reports McShane, who pioneered Slow Down Molasses’ last two albums with bandmates keyboardist/guitarist Aaron Scholz, guitarist Levi Soulodre, bassist Chris Morin, and drummer Jordan Kurtz. “Previously, it was always a very solid group of people, but there were a lot more that we’d bring in for recording sessions and we definitely weren’t playing the same arrangements all the time. Now it’s the same five people playing all the time and it has definitely made things a lot more concise and a lot more exciting in ways. It was very wonderful to be very collaborative in the past and get to play with a lot of local people I was a fan of, but it’s kind of amazing to have a good idea of what everybody else is going to do when we’re writing and performing live.”

Just because they’ve reigned in the guest list doesn’t mean Slow Down Molasses has turned off the tap when it comes to creating multifaceted pieces of recording studio pop-art. On the contrary, the quintet’s fantastically communal compositions have blossomed and grown in ways that are equally unexpected and consistent with their reputation for generating melodious melancholia.

“I think its quite funny how this new album is similar to how we used to indulge a lot of layers, except this time we were much more deliberate with what we were doing. That laid the foundation and now it’s a really exciting album to play live, because we can improvise around those more focused dimensions.”

As deceptively loose sounding as the cold-plagued McShane’s stogy sinuses, the album’s first single, “Moon Queen,” embodies the super smooth fulsomeness and echoing vibrancy that we’ve come to expect from this post-punk synth and sawdust ensemble. Intertwining the esprit of modern electronica within a traditional wire and wood framework, Slow Down Molasses crystalizes the momentum and portent of a civilization teetering on the edge of tomorrow. Toeing that barbed line between a fleeting fad and a steady fade.

“It’s really a key thing in what we do,” McShane acknowledges. “A least of couple of us are into drone and free-noise type stuff, while half the band came-up through playing in punk rock bands. So, there’s always a bit of desire, especially in a live situation, to tend to be more energetic. My songs are relatively simple and I tend to nail them, so we decided to be fairly chaotic onstage.”

Wise enough to know when a semblance of order is merited, Slow Down Molasses recorded 100% Sunshine’s eleven lugubrious tracks with Barrett Ross and Chad Munson at Ghetto Box Studios in their hometown before entrusting to Glasgow-based producer Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Teenage Fanclub) with putting a platinum-polish on the final mixes. According to McShane working alongside Doogan, at his infamous Castle of Doom Studios, was an invigorating experience. One which provided him with a valuable new perspective on something he’s been so close to for so many years.

“We were so incredibly excited to get to work with Mr. Tony Doogan on this album. He definitely challenged our preconceived notions of ourselves,” McShane recalls. “All of the records he’s done sound like big rock albums, but with a lot of chaotic stuff going on around them. He’s known for being able to balance those moments and he definitely delivered. It was above and beyond anything we expected. It was a fantastic experience and nice way to wrap up this album.”

A concerted attempt at preserving the dynamism of a live jam for future consumption, 100% Sunshine essentially bottles the emotional weight of McShane’s dreamy yet desolate narratives. But the vitriol and gloom of Slow Down Molasses’ humming-and-thrumming heartbeat cannot be constrained. Like the fount of his nostrils, it flows forth with an irrepressible force and a desire to spread free-wheelin’ and truth-dealin’ tunes like a virus.

“100% Sunshine is definitely a very sardonic title,” he confesses. “We tend to write ‘depresser’ songs and this album for me is probably the bleakest album we’ve done. Initially, I just wanted to call it ‘Disorientation’ because a lot of the lyrical themes deal with dissociative and obsessive behavior and that idea of presenting a façade that doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s underneath.”

Slow Down Molasses perform October 7th as part of UP+DT Music Festival in Edmonton, October 9th at Nite Owl in Calgary, and October 14th at O’Hanlon’s in Regina. They then head out to Reykjavik for Iceland Airwaves next month.