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4 years, 2 kids, 1 album later The return of Gogh Van Go by CHRIS YURKIW
In the pop life, four years is long enough for Arrested Development to come in and then become a footnote, but partners Dan Tierney and Sandra Luciantonio had a good two-year run with Gogh Van Go; multiple singles, a Juno Award-winning video and perhaps even more success in Europe than at home. Oh, and they pumped out a couple more bambini in that time too, bumping their happy brood up to five. Now it's time for Sandra and Danny to squeeze out the proverbial long-awaited follow-up and they've named it Bliss Station. As you might expect, a lot of things have changed with Gogh Van Go in four years, but not as you'd think. I imagined Dan the songwriter figuring that repeat fatherhood would be a good time to sneak a listen to those Barney albums, rediscover James Taylor and dig that spare tire out of the fridge. Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that, for Bliss Station, Tierney spent more time with a sampler than his acoustic guitar, collaborated with noisemongers and studio experimentalists like GVG live band members Jean Massicotte ("a computer music whiz type of guy") and Yves Desrosiers ("a real feedback, Robert Fripp type of guy"), and pulled songwriting inspiration out of bicycle jaunts in January. This is a leaner, meaner Gogh Van Go, replete with skronking guitars, streetwise loop beats and a Psychedelic Furs cover (compared to the first album's version of "Instant Karma"). "We're not a typical family," says Tierney, whose easy-going demeanour belies the tone of Bliss Station. "I didn't want it to be too organic. I wasn't into this swamp thing, you know, the atmospheric, Daniel Lanois thing that was happening when we did our first record. I thought there were other moods to convey... Sandra was pregnant during the recording, and she was throwing up or in a bad mood during all her vocals--which sorta helped because it fit with what she had to do." Tierney, Massicotte and Desrosiers had laid down some weird shit for Luciantonio to sing over. "At the very end of the song 'Always Think,' she started singing 'I don't know what the fuck I'm doing!' But that's what she was saying to us: 'Turn the fucking tape off, assholes!' That was the vocal take that we kept." Bliss Station was released this week |
It's been just over four years since Gogh Van Go released their debut album, a little self-titled number which turned them out of the Hodads into the first anglo act with Audiogram, and onto radio charts and critics' lists as "Former Montreal Country-Rock Duo Turned Folk-Pop Heroes Most Likely To Be Big In Berlin."