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Sea change
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“This album would be fun to roller skate to!” exclaims Angela Desveaux, giddy over the impending release of her sophomore record and newly minted band, both named The Mighty Ship. Those who saw Desveaux during tours in support of her 2006 debut album, Wandering Eyes (outside of the occasional solo set or duet), will recognize the line-up: guitarist Mike Feuerstack, bassist Eric Digras and drummer Gilles Castilloux. And although the new songs all originated with Desveaux’s lyrics and melodies, the band members moulded them together, creating a country rock sound once removed from the style of the last record. “It’s got a lot of energy and a little more confidence. Maybe that’s how I was feeling for the last two years—I fell in love, and I live with my partner now,” Desveaux explains. “Wandering Eyes put me to the test, and I came out a little stronger from the whole experience. What a scary world the music industry is!” Desveaux’s debut was released by the mid-sized, Chicago-based indie label Thrill Jockey (who’ve licensed the new disc to Sonic Unyon), allowing her to tour the world for the first time. “When you leave your home base, your comfort zone, which is Montreal for me, all is exciting and unpredictable,” she says. “There were some up and down moments, but my biggest and best opportunity so far has been to tour with Bruce Cockburn in Europe. He’s shown me that music requires a lot of dedication, discipline and patience. “Bruce is always playing guitar—he loves his instrument and telling stories of his experiences travelling to less fortunate countries. And when he plays in a bar in London, he brings his listeners to another place, experiencing a different lifestyle. I cried at every show when he played this one song called ‘Pacing the Cage.’ I still cry when I hear this song. Something about him reminds me of the Maritimes—the sea, or just simply being lost in life.” Although Desveaux is a Montrealer at heart, part of her will always belong to her childhood hometown, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In its less roller-skate-able moments, the record mirrors the melancholy and hardship of Maritime life, even referencing the sinking of the Titanic, whose dead were brought to nearby Halifax (while the survivors went to New York City). “These things happen quite often in Cape Breton, due to the land and the types of jobs these people are forced to work in. Several songs are about shipwrecks, and mines on Cape Breton Island. “The title track is a song I’ve wanted to write for and about my grandmother for a long time. She lost her first husband at sea, when she was a young wife and mother. It was a tragedy that marked her, my mother and a lot of villagers at the time,” Desveaux explains, before diving into the record’s metaphorical deep end: “The Mighty Ship represents the vessel that battles through unpredictable rough seas.” CD LAUNCH WITH ORILLIA OPRY AT |
