BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - June 2016

TWIN RIVER
finding depth downstream
Written by Gregory Adams
Photo by Shimon
There are plenty of artists involved in
the making of Vancouver-bred Twin
River’s sophomore full-length, Passing
Shade. Most of them congregated over
to Colin Stewart’s current Hive recording
facility on Vancouver Island over the
course of two recording sessions last year,
one in the summer and one the following
winter. One conspirator’s contribution to
the record’s first single, “Settle Down,” is
unexpected though, considering he’s long
dead. In fact, he’s been underground for
centuries. As band founder Courtney Ewan
explains, the divide between her academic
and creative worlds isn’t exactly cut and
dry, which is how a project translating the
work of Euripides, a tragedian of classical
Athens, managed to seep into Twin River.
“He wrote a play called Hecuba. Many
playwrights did, actually. That’s sort of
the way it went. It focuses on her [Hecuba]
experiences after the fall of Troy.
She’s just lost her whole family — all of
her children, her husband,” Ewan tells
BeatRoute, noting that she’d staged a production
of the mythological tale earlier this
year while studying in Montreal. “When
I wrote ‘Settle Down,’ it was at the same
time as I was translating the play. I never
really realized until I was typing out the
lyrics for the liner notes that I absolutely
ripped off Euripides. I was typing out a
line and I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s
not my thought. That’s not my idea.’ I
felt absolutely sheepish for a second, but
that’s what [playwrights] do all the time.”
To say the least, Ewan’s got a handle
on the classics. Spending a blessedly
sunny Friday afternoon walking around
Vancouver’s idyllic Seawall, she’s
beaming with enthusiasm as she talks
about not only her group’s new record,
but starting up a PhD program at New
York University this coming fall. The
latter comes just as she’s wrapped up
her time-intensive studies at McGill.
In between school sessions, she writes,
records, and performs with Twin River.
“I’m trying to figure out if I’m a
social or anti-social person,” Ewan
explains. “I think I have strong tendencies
to be both, which I think allows
me to be an academic half of my
life and performer the other half.”
While a move to Quebec a couple
years ago might have discouraged other
bands, Ewan has managed to make it work
with the rest of Twin River. Founded as
the folk-dusted duo of vocalist/guitarist
Ewan and guitarist Andy Bishop before
expanding into a five-piece lineup for
2015’s pop and rock-exploring Should
the Light Go Out, the outfit’s schedule
can often be stunted by the distance
between Ewan and her West Coast-based
compatriots. And while her and Bishop
handle all the arrangements, the shape of
the rest of the group is in constant flux.
Looking over the liner notes to Passing
Shade, the songs were recorded with varying
lineups that could include bassist Franceso
Lyon (White Ash Falls), keyboardists
Rebecca Gray (Yukon Blonde), or Melissa
Gregerson and drummers Dustin Bromley
or Jordan MacKenzie (White Ash Falls).
Extra contributions come from album
producer Darcy Hancock and percussionist
Ryan Peters, both of Ladyhawk.
“If we could find a solid lineup, we’re
certainly not against that,” Ewan says
of the situation. “But we’ve acknowledged
the reality that everyone we’ve
played with all have a number of projects
on the go. It’s impossible to make
five people’s lives line up. If it doesn’t
work out, it’s no hard feelings.”
Despite the ever-shifting conditions,
Passing Shade is Twin River’s most
cohesive release to date. While last year’s
Should the Light Go Out jumped song
to song from banged-up pop-punk, to
thistle-chewing folk, to the cloud-soft
textures of dream pop, the new album
manages to mix these influences together
more naturally, often in the same cut.
“Hesperus,” another mythology-mining
piece, is a jam full of foggy synth and
bass sounds, though it hews to the band’s
folk roots via the light twang in Ewan’s
voice. “Settle Down” and “Natural State”
are likewise slathered in echo, but Bishop
balances this with some rail-riding lead
guitar work. The noisy, though emotionally
delicate “I Don’t Want to Be Alone”
re-imagines the Jesus and Mary Chain,
while “Knife” is a whammy bar-abusing
surf cut for the alt-country crowd.
“We didn’t sit around and say we
want it to be 70 per cent garage, 20 per
cent dream rock, 10 per cent folk. It just
became what we sounded like,” says Ewan
of the Passing Shade’s musical mash-up.
Unified throughout the album are lyrics
that hint at loneliness, the dissipation of
bonds between friends, and the end of romantic
relationships. Ewan admits that she
wanted to craft a “purposely autobiographical”
full-length, but it’s worth noting that
her academic career has likewise had her
analyzing how people cope with change.
“There’s a sociologist named Maurice
Halbwachs who did a big study
on memory, and he says that whenever
there’s a period of political change,
people strive to make sure that their own
personal legacies are safe. One of the
ways it shows itself in Rome, in particular,
is that all of a sudden the practice
of inscription has this huge boom.”
Though Ewan’s lyrics are more
personal than political, they nevertheless
reflect a shock to the system. Songs
like “Hesperus,” “I Don’t Want to Be
Alone,” and “Brooklyn Bowl” are all
tapping into a sense of abandonment.
“Baby” begins positively with a verse in
which Ewan praises the way a lover says
her name, but ultimately caps with “I
hate the way you leave me.” On the flip,
“Known to Run” is a song that suggests
she is tempted to split when the going
gets rough. In the past, she wouldn’t
have been as frank about her feelings.
“I’m a funny person, I think, because I
like to talk and talk and talk, but I have a
hard time talking about serious things,” she
says. “That’s the same for songwriting. I
can pump out a cheesy pop song, no problem.
I don’t have trouble putting one line
It’s harder for me to talk about things that are
real. I wanted to have a record that I could
pinpoint to specific memories and times in my life,
because this past year I’ve needed those anchors.
after the next, because I listen to a lot of
pop music and I know what the ‘B’ is that
follows the ‘A.’ It’s harder for me to talk
about things that are real. I wanted to have
a record that I could pinpoint to specific
memories and times in my life, because
this past year I’ve needed those anchors.”
There is a disjointedness to Ewan’s
life as she navigates school on one side
of the continent, a band on the other,
and all sorts of personal relationships
in between. Commemorating it all in
song has been a grounding experience,
though. It would seem that she might
not run from her problems after all.
“Sometimes I think that would be
a lot easier if I had those tendencies
in me, because I have a hard time letting
things go,” the musician adds. “It
would be easier to be like, ‘Ok, I’m
out!’ I hope that’s a good quality.”
Considering how she and Bishop have
managed to keep Twin River flowing,
it’s certainly not a bad one to have.
Twin River perform on
June 30 at The Cobalt.
May June 2016 MUSIC
9