Toronto musician Eamon McGrath took advantage of being at home because of the Covid pandemic to breakaway from angry guitar based rock to record a more thoughtful, ambient, introspective new CD “ Bells of Hope.”
“That’s exactly what I was going for,” McGrath said, looking forward to touring with band mates Edmonton drummer Connor Ellinger and bassist Tavo Diez de Bonilla.
“ Like a lot of people who play a lot of guitar based music, I got burned out on it and wanted to move away from guitar. Then like a lot of people, moved back to it, so I can’t wait to tour this music with a three piece band,” he said.
“I started recording it in 2020, so it’s about time I got to tour on it,” he said, adding the forced isolation allowed him the freedom to move beyond the loud, punk infused guitar based sound he was used to.
“But I was also able to experiment with all the different sounds I could get away with in a low rise apartment in Toronto,” he said, adding he was also able to collaborate with a lot of people , which he wasn’t able to before mostly due to scheduling conflicts.
“But everybody was champing in the bit to work on music during the pandemic,” he said adding he worked with a lot of collaborators online including Julie Doiron, with whom he plays in another band with, and a saxophonist that drummer Connor Ellinger knew as well as Danny Miles from July Talk.
“ I did a solo tour in the summer to showcase these songs,” he said, adding they are different than his previous work.
“ There are sad songs on this album, which I never would have put on my other albums. But I also recorded this at the beginning of the pandemic, where every night at 7 p.m. people would be outside banging on pots and pans in support of health care workers, when there was hope, and nobody thought the pandemic would turn into the existential crisis that it did. So I wanted it to reflect that hope,” McGrath said.
He also released the album as it was recorded.
“ I could have recorded it as if it was a demo, but out of respect for everyone who I worked with, I released it as an album. It marks how I was feeling at that moment in time,” McGrath said.
He is looking forward to finally being back on tour with a band.,
“ I’m able to play music a cross section of music from the past three albums,” he said, adding he is also looking forward to sharing the stage with local favourites Biloxi Parish.
Eamon McGrath and Biloxi Parish play the Owl Acoustic Lounge at 8 p.m., Friday, March 4.
— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
