BeatRoute Magazine - BC print e-edition – [March 2017]

THE COURTNEYS
BY ALEX HUDSON
all around the world and back again
When
The Courtneys
scheduled
a weekend-long
session
with local producer
Jordan Koop at his Noise
Floor Recording Studio in
fall 2012, they had no agenda
beyond capturing a handful
of their songs. They certainly
never anticipated that the resulting
debut album, 2013’s The Courtneys,
would become an underground sleeper
hit, turning the trio of singer-drummer Jen
Twynn Payne, bassist Sydney Koke and guitarist
Courtney Loove into one of Vancouver’s
most hotly tipped indie pop exports.
“It surprised me,” remembers Jen, speaking
with BeatRoute in Moja Coffee on Commercial
Drive. “We had no expectations. We just
wanted to record the songs we had. And then
it took us quite far.”
So how did The Courtneys, who first formed in
2010, become so unexpectedly successful? Sydney,
reached on the phone at her current home
base in Strasbourg, France, cites “the moment
that changed everything for us” as an article by
Pitchfork, when the publication included them
in a feature about under-the-radar bands.
The added exposure meant that accomplishments
came quickly. The album sold out of three
consecutive vinyl pressings through Vancouver-based
label Hockey Dad Records, buzz band
Wavves tweeted lyrics from the single “90210,”
and the group scored deals to release and distribute
the album internationally. They also landed
high-profile opening gigs touring with Tegan
and Sara and Mac DeMarco, respectively. (Jen
is Tegan and Sara’s cousin, and she previously
played in DeMarco’s old band Makeout Videotape.)
The lengthy 2014 tour with Tegan and Sara
was a particularly pivotal moment for the threepiece.
“Touring with a bigger band, you learn a
lot from them,” Jen says. “It’s like a business,
how they run their crew, and then getting to
play these big venues.” Suddenly, The Courtneys
found themselves playing in front of crowds of
thousands in prestigious theatres and ballrooms
throughout the United States.
Sydney recalls, “It was sort of like rock ‘n’ roll
camp. They gave us a lot of advice on how to
prepare our tech rider and how to talk to sound
people, because we didn’t have our own sound
technician.”
This professional advice has been valuable for
The Courtneys as they rise in the music industry:
Not only do they often face on-stage technical
difficulties due to having a drummer for a lead
singer, their all-female lineup sometimes attracts
patronizing scorn from mansplaining sound
guys. Sydney points out, “We’re this really basic
three-piece band who are all girls, so of course
the way that the technicians treated us sometimes
was totally great and other times was with
quite a bit of suspicion. We had to figure out how
to act confident and know what we were talking
about to at least communicate how we wanted
to sound.”
As The Courtneys continued to rack up new
achievements, they booked a scattering of days
at Noise Floor Recording Studio. The drawnout
recording
process took
place over the
course of years:
lead single “Lost
Boys” came out way
back in January 2014, but
the bulk of the new material
wasn’t laid down until spring
2015. These sessions have now
spawned the sophomore album, II,
which came out in February. (Both Jen
and Sydney clarify that, although the LP
is sometimes mislabeled as The Courtneys II,
the correct title is simply II. “The album title is
kind of a reference to Led Zeppelin and Mac De-
Marco,” Sydney says.)
With its wonderfully straightforward combination
of fuzzy slacker-rock guitars, luminescent
pop melodies and witty lyrics, II recaptures everything
that made The Courtneys so addictive.
But it’s also a more ambitious effort, with many
of the songs riding surging, hypnotic grooves that
become more engrossing with each listen.
Opener “Silver Velvet” is a chugging, pastel-tinted
daydream that begins the album with
squeals of feedback and the blissed-out opening
lyrics, “The day is getting shady / Laying in the
aisle / There’s nothing in this life to do / But stay
here for a while.” The seven-minute “Lost Boys”
contains quirky lyrics about a “vampire teenage
boyfriend” and ends in an extended jam that
highlights guitarist Courtney’s stormy fretwork,
while “Tour” climaxes with euphoric refrains of
“It’s time for us to let go / Slack off and hit the
open road.”
Jen points out that these new songs are more
emotionally complex than the band’s past work,
describing the process of writing lyrics as “my
therapy.” Although some songs are about goofy
subjects like aliens (“Mars Attacks”) or a love for
television (“Virgo”), others concern relationships
and other autobiographical matters.
“On the first album, everyone was stuck on
saying that we were a summer band, and it was
beach-y and summery,” she says. “We have that
sound, but I read this review yesterday that was
saying that the songs [on II] were kind of sad. That
made me really happy. Oh my god, they get it!
They don’t sound sad, but they are in a way. They
go
deeper
than what is
first apparent.”
The album came out on
Flying Nun Records, an iconic New
Zealand label that has long been an
inspiration for the group. Sydney explains
that The Courtneys had offers from larger Canadian
companies who could have helped with
grant applications and commercial wheeling and
dealing, but they ended up choosing Flying Nun
for its distinct indie aesthetic.
“It actually just makes sense for us to be on Flying
Nun because our music sounds like the other
bands on that label,” she says. “Even though
it wasn’t going to be as good for our monetary
music industry career choices, we had to do what
makes sense for the actual music that we make
and what seems like it’s going to be the most fun
for us.” She adds that the band’s music is particularly
well received in New Zealand, making it a
logical choice for them to team with a Kiwi label.
With the album available now and already
receiving enthusiastic reviews, The Courtneys
are preparing for a North American headlining
tour that will kick off with a Vancouver show
on March 14. After the tour, their next move is
unclear: These days, the band members all live in
different countries, with Jen based in Vancouver,
Sydney in France, and Courtney in Los Angeles.
They all work jobs outside of the music industry
and have no intentions to pursue the band fulltime.
“Our whole thing is kind of that we don’t
have a career,” Sydney observes.
Photo by Andrew Volk
Most
importantly,
they’ve made an
album that they regard as
timeless. Although they continue
to embrace inspirations like ‘90s alt-rock
and Kiwi indie pop, II is much more than simply
the sum of its influences.
“I don’t know if we totally care what other
people think about the record, but I do think
that we all really like it,” Sydney reflects. “I’ll
be proud of that forever, and the validation of
it being released on Flying Nun is really, really
satisfying for me. I feel great about it and I
think the others do too. If people like it and
we get more opportunities in our lives because
of that, that’s really cool, but it’s hard to know
what opportunities we will accept and what
we’ll do next. We just have no plans and that’s
how it’s always been.”
The Courtneys perform on March 14 at
the Biltmore and on April 11 at the Cobalt
March 2017 MUSIC
9