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>>Receivers emit darkness and wonder
on Consider the Ravens

FLOCKING TOGETHER: Receivers

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Under the influence of producers who specialize in slow power and composers who are masters of ambiance (namely Phil Spector, Brian Eno, Angelo Badalamenti and Kevin Shields), it should come as no surprise to followers of the local music scene that most of the members of Receivers were once part of Marlowe. After releasing their sophomore album in 2003, Marlowe dissolved with singer Alex Olsen’s relocation to Toronto. For songwriter, guitarist and producer Joseph Donovan, it all worked out for the best.

“I wanted to start something fresh, go somewhere new,” he says. “We’re a little freer now, and probably more mature because we’re less tied to our influences.”

Enter singer Emilie Marzinotto, whose rich, melancholy vocals drape her bandmates’ pillars of sound, which are fraught with darkness and wonder, but not weighed down with electronic heft and “studio trickery.” Taking a more organic approach to the arrangements and production, Donovan wrote most of the music, while keyboardist (and Mirror assistant art director) Nicolas Côté and bassist Howard Martin “added their colours,” and Marzinotto penned the bulk of the lyrics.

“We also ended up working together,” says Donovan, “which is actually kind of weird ’cause lyrics are usually something that one person does and gets very precious about, but we’ve managed to find a way to collaborate on lyrics and music, to bash things against each other until it explodes into awesomeness,” he says semi-facetiously, as his bandmates giggle in the background. “Sorry.”

Consider the Ravens, out this week on local indie Either/Or Records, was two years in the making, largely due to circumstances. Donovan co-owns and operates Mile-End’s Mountain City studio, which, in recent years, has been overrun by the likes of the Dears, the High Dials, Sebastien Grainger, Priestess and Donovan’s old buddy Sam Roberts—for his work on the latter’s last album, a gold record hangs on the studio wall.

“The advantage of producing different bands all the time is that I’m always able to steal bits of energy and ideas. Because I’ve been working with ‘famous’ people, I definitely got an itch to play more,” says Donovan, who also stepped in as a guitarist for the Dears in 2004, just as Receivers was getting off the ground. “The actual creation process was drawn out but never tedious. It was enjoyable, actually,” he says. And the band has already written new material.

“Because of the work I do, I’m always getting better and buying fancier gear, so on that level, I’m super excited to start the next record right away,” he says.

But first come the shows, with new drummer Ramsay Jackson in tow. Jackson was an old friend of Donovan’s wife who had experience as a singer and bassist and suggested himself as the ideal man for the job.

“I said, ‘Well, that’s nice Ramsay, but you’re not a drummer,’” says Donovan, who decided to humour his friend with an ultimatum. “‘You’ve got three weeks: if you can learn how to play drums and our whole record by the time I get back from Mexico, you’re in.’ And since Ramsay is one of those fuckers who’s able to do whatever he sets his mind to, he totally fucking nailed it. Which is great, because now I feel like I did when I was playing with Sam in high school, ’cause it’s all just friends playing music.”

CD launch with the Diamond Sea
at O Patro Vys tonight, Thursday,
May 29, 8:30 p.m., $8