Calgary based quartet the Northwest Passage are psyched about releasing their debut CD A_Wake.
They will be premiering it in Lethbridge at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, July 2.
“We adore Lethbridge and we always have, which is one of the reasons we’re focussing on it,” said frontman Paul van Kampen who was just at the Owl Acoustic Lounge last week playing with SAVK.
“We‘ll do a Calgary release later,” he said adding the CD isn’t officially out yet.
The Northwest Passage CD features Paul van Kampen (vocals, piano and synths), Darren Young (vocals and guitars), Laura Reid (violin), Daniel Wilson (drums and percussion), Russell Broom (bass guitar), Laura Jones (vocals), and featuring Arran Fisher (backing vocals in Lorelei).
The core four, van Kampen, Young, Reid and Wilson will be playing with Laura Jones and possibly another member if they are able to make it.
“We’ll be playing the CD from front to back and just let the CD do it’s thing,” van Kampen said, adding July 2 will be their first visit to Lethbridge under the Northwest Passage banner, though they have performed here in other incarnations.
The band have been playing the songs for about two years.
“ It‘s a look at life and death as a metaphor for love lost. It’s very deep and complex album,” he described.
“It deals with very personal subject matter,” he said adding it is dedicated to long time friend Carson Hemsing who passed away several years ago.
“He was a friend. His life paralleled mine and then diverged. It explores our friendship and our separation. It explores the deepest , darkest fears we all have, well, I only write from my experience, so it was my way of exorcising my demons,” he said.
“I think it works exceptionally well,” he said.
Russell Broom, who has worked with countless big name Canadian artists including Jann Arden produced the CD and played bass on it.
“He is really a top notch musician. He became like a fifth member of the band. He played bass on the album and really took us under his wing,” he said adding he helped focus the band.
“ The way our writing process works is I write 100 per cent of the songs and bring them to the band and it becomes a fight over who gets to take lead. There was a lot of back and forth. He came to one rehearsal. He broke down each of our parts and made sure each part served the purpose of the song,” van Kampen said.
“He was the voice we always wished we heard. His ear for composition is as strong as his ear for guitar playing which is what he is known for,” van Kampen said.
“The album has a lot of subtle nuances that can’t be performed live, but with his approach, now we feel the live show is close,” van Kampen continued.
“Just finding time for all of us to record was a huge hurdle, but we overcame it. I‘ve got four kids at home. So it was quite the endeavour, but it was also quite the achievement,” he said.
