BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [September 2017]

YAWNING MAN
and the never-ending battle with boredom
Conjuring epic multihued shamanic yarns.
Waging a never-ending war on
boredom, the lumbering Californian
desert rock entity known as
Yawning Man dates back to the golden era
of the psych-rock fringe when the likes of
Brant Bjork, John Garcia and Josh Homme
caught wind of their free-wheeling space
rock ways. From pulling off clandestine generator
parties for a few friends the desert
back in the mid-80s to performing in front
of thousands of devoted fans at venues
around the globe, founding guitarist Gary
Arce has never forgotten the desolate internal
and external landscapes that informed
his early years.
“I actually lived at the Salton Sea, and believe
me, the Salton Sea is not that romantic!”
Arce recalls with a chuckle.
“I used to live near there, I grew up in the
Palm Desert also known as the Low Desert.
The place is a running joke with locals; cuz
tourists would go there and find just a toxic
puddle with dead fish on the shore everywhere.
I just remember going there and
walking along the shore thousands of dead
fish and meth heads walking streets like the
walking dead. In between where I lived and
Mexican border there was this weird culture
of illegal immigrants mixed with meth heads
mixed with dead fish.”
These days Arce is looking forward to
hopping the border together with the band’s
original bassist Mario Lalli and their 2014
addition known as drummer Bill Stinson, as
Yawning Man prepares to bring their ponderous
machinations to Canada for the second
time in recent memory. Having fallen under
the thrall of the land of ice and snow at last
April’s 420 Music and Arts Festival in Calgary,
the sidewinding trio is set for autumnal return,
but this time as headliners.
“I’ve toured all over the world and I love
Canada. It’s so beautiful and breathtaking
and the people are super sweet and it’s just
a rad place. This tour we really wanted to
go back there, so we asked the agency for
that to happen. This time we’re going as a
headlining band and it’s our first time going
out on our own!”
Hard to believe for a band that’s had such a
lengthy and influential run. Although admittedly
inconsistent, Yawning Man’s discography
has attracted ample attention and garnered
them many comparisons to other so-called
stoner rock acts, although he understandably
shirks that unimaginative label.
“I’m excited and I’m just hoping that people
come out to see us, because we get type-cast
into this weird metal-desert-rock thing like Kyuss
and all those bands. And yeah, we’re from
the same town as Kyuss and we’re friends with
all those bands, but we are nothing like Kyuss.
And I think hopefully people will start to
realize that we are our own band.
We’ve never followed trends. Never tried to
be metal or this or that. We’ve just done our
own thing.”
Sighting the work-ethic and nonconformity
of his favourite punk acts for a point of reference
amidst the ever-shifting sands of public
opinion, construction-worker-by-day Arce’s
primal howl dredges up the heart of darkness
from the bottom of the Salton Sea.
“Music for me is like another job; I do have
a hardcore job. I do concrete and construction
and I have to have a side of me where I’m
mellow and I do love ambient dark music. I’ve
always found something in it that’s mysterious
and innocent. I’ve always been into that kind
of sound.”
by Christine Leonard
Known for his ability to take a simple
musical phrase and spin it out into an epic
multihued shamanic yarn, Arce has come
to realize the importance of channeling his
creative impulses into increasingly defined
forms. Edging away from amorphous compositions
like those found on their foundational
albums Rock Formations (2005) and
Vista Point (2007), the threesome’s newest
constructs refer to a predetermined set of
musical blueprints.
“I started all these projects,” Arce explains.
“I’d call up all these friends and go ‘Hey,
dudes let’s drink beer and jam!’ We’d take
best of improvised jams and make a record.
It got to the point where all of the recordings
I was doing were all fuckin’ jammie with
no song structure and that started to get
boring for me. I was under the gun and I just
stopped. I told myself Yawning Man was one
band where I couldn’t afford that attitude of
just working off-the-cuff. Mario has moved
and now he lives right near me, so we have
closed the distance. We’re starting to get
focused and write more structured songs,
coming up with riffs and going back and
forth and playing it until we both think it’s
cool enough to keep.”
He concludes honestly, “I’m kind of a dick
about the beats being a certain way. I always
tell our drummer ‘Don’t play a silly four-four
beat. Give me something different that fits,
don’t play a dumbass rock beat over again!’
cuz I’ll get bored and once I get bored I get
lazy and lose interest.”
Yawning Man performs at the Palomino
Smokehouse & Bar on September 21 (Calgary)
and at the Starlite Room September 23
(Edmonton).
MAGLOR
answers the call of the forest by Sarah Kitteringham
After two of three members relocated to Canmore, it took
former Calgary act Maglor an ungodly amount of time to
release their second album Asunder. Not that it’s out of the
ordinary for the atmospheric black metal trio: everything they’ve
done has taken an ungodly amount of time, but the result is always
worth the wait.
“We do often have a difficult time trying to decide exactly what style
our music is. We’ve never really tried to specifically fit into any one
particular genre,” explains multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Beren Tol
Galen. Every member of the band uses a pseudonym; all members are
multi-instrumentalists.
“That said, we definitely draw inspiration from metal projects such as
Moonsorrow, Summoning, Enslaved, Wardruna... to name a few. Alongside
this, we are often heavily influenced by many soundtrack composers
as well: [American film, game and television composer] Jeremy Soule,
[American film score composer] James Horner, and [Japanese video
game composer] Nobuo Uematsu, among others. We’ve had our music
described as heathen folk metal, atmospheric black metal, and even
blackened folk metal.”
After forming in 2002 and functioning under the name Haven, the
band reassessed and renamed after “one of the seven sons of Fëanor,”
within J.R.R Tolkien’s collection The Silmarillion. They eventually released
2012’s Call of the Forest, delivering a layered and expansive sound
marked by cold tremolo picking, battering drums, hypnotic crooning
and chanting then shrieking vocals, alongside floating keyboard lines.
This approach is continued on Asunder.
“We tried to write the album with the idea that it is one, singular tale;
separated into chapters, each with a different sense or feel,” says Tol
Galen. “We try to create a sound born from realms unknown; of ages
long forgot.”
The album spans five tracks, taking the listener on an eerie, varied
journey that sounds best when blasted loud on its gorgeous 12-inch
format. The package visually utilizes a mountainous theme that spreads
across the cover and insert.
“For Asunder we decided to press vinyl as well as again releasing CDs.
We are all avid record collectors and really enjoy having an album on
vinyl format. The sound and feel, as well as full art and jacket is a really
nice package to have as far as physical formats go,” explains Tol Galen.
Both editions are available now.
Asunder is now available on vinyl from Sounds of the Land Records. Visit
https://maglor.bandcamp.com/ to purchase a copy or stream the album.
42 | SEPTEMBER 2017 • BEATROUTE SHRAPNEL