Hamilton based duo Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland aka Whitehorse return to Lethbridge, this time with an expanded band in support of their new CD “Panther in the Dollhouse.
The two multi-instrumentalists will be joined by band mates Gregory MacDonald on keyboards, who also plays with Sloan, Ryan Gavel on guitar and drummer John Obercian.
“It’s a different experience for us. We’ll be joined by the rest of the band in Winnipeg where we start the Canadian part of the tour,” said guitarist/vocalist Luke Doucet, from Chicago, where he and wife Melissa McClelland are touring as a duo.
The band allows Melissa and I to relax a little bit because we‘re usually playing everything,” he said.“We usually have to be pretty disciplined. But we thought the new music would be best served with a band,” he continued. The band are also on the CD.
They are touring in support of their new EP “ Panthers in the Dollhouse,” which has a more ’90s Brit pop sound, especially Portishead. Their three-year-old son, Jimmy, who often tours with them with the help of their nanny as well as Doucet’s 21-year-old daughter, inadvertently influenced the sound of the new record.
“We’ve been listening to a lot of ’90s pop like Supergrass, Portishead and Blur. And he really likes it a lot. We‘ll pull it up on Youtube and he’ll watch a lot of it. It’s also the best way to keep him quiet in the car,” Doucet continued.
Whitehorse like to keep things new and fresh by exploring different sounds on each record.
“Response has been really great. People like the juxtaposition of different production and sounds,” he said.
We like to do different records, really, because we get bored. And we feel we have to try everything while we‘re young. If we want to release a jazz record we will or a country record we will. Not that that’s what we‘re going to do. ‘The ‘Northern South’ was a blues album, though it didn’t really sound like it, though they were all old blues songs,” he said. Before that they released French language album.
“A lot of bands like to stick to one sound that works and release the same record 10 times. But that’s not us,” he said.
Hamilton based roots rock musician Terra Lightfoot opens the show.
Whitehorse return to Lethbridge to play Southminster United Church, Oct. 17 for the Geomatic Attic.Tickets are $32.50 or $42.50 with priority seating up close. The show begins at 8 p.m. sharp.