BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition October 2017

MUSIC
THE BLOW
SAILING PAST EXPECTATIONS TO A TENDER PLACE
GRAEME WIGGINS
TEI SHI
POP MUSICIAN MOVES BEYOND THE BEDROOM TO THE STUDIO
MICHAEL GRONDIN
cutline
Sometimes change comes when you least expect
it. It was six years between The Blow’s album Paper
Television and their next self-titled record. In
between, collaborator Jona Bechtolt left to work on
his YACHT project and Melissa Dyne joined singer
Khaela Maricich in the band. Surprisingly, The Blow
seemed like a continuation of their previous sound,
not branching far out in terms of style from what
they had been doing previously. With their new
album, Brand New Abyss, however, Maricich and
Dyne have taken a new artistic turn, delving into a
more quiet, electro-acoustic based sound.
The evolution of the sound came from the
experience of touring The Blow. As Dyne explains,
“with the last record it was sample based so that
was how we performed it. For me, because I was
in control of the samples there was an end to
that algorithm. You couldn’t go that far off of
the track. You couldn’t really jam.” This lead to
moving away from sample based composition,
and the development of a new rig that suited their
performance sensibilities. She continues, “It turned
into this game of how do we like to play? Khaela
likes to play differently than I like to play. We each
started developing, through analog electronic
equipment (and some digital) into a way we could
be more playful and have a good time and we
started writing that way.”
This new set up changed not only the sound,
but the feeling of the record. Maricich describes
it: “The way I feel about it is that it’s really tender.
Really tender and vulnerable. It’s interesting,
releasing this record and having people say “wow
20
Photo by Daniel Rampulla
it doesn’t have a lot of beats” or “It’s not really
a dance record.” What they’ve played live has
brought on a bit of a mixed reaction. People have
pretty set expectations about bands they like.
Maricich doesn’t feel beholden to the expectations,
enjoying the freedom that the new manner of
performing brings, as well as an understanding that
the world is a lot different than it was when they
were recording their last record. It’s only natural
for the music to have changed as well. “And it was
really cool because we were like a ship on the rocky
ocean just doing the thing we’re doing. We’re going
to sail through your expectations because this is
a thing that feels super alive to us right now. The
world feels pretty different than it did the last time
we made a record. It’s less bouncy and jubilant. It
feels like maybe we’re just going to grab onto our
feeling and hold on really tight and just follow our
most tender urge. It’s time to be really present and
tender.”
The clash of expectations and reality has the
potential to be off-putting, but it also brings with
it the possibility of something greater. As Maricich
recalls, “we played a show in Detroit and this girl
came up and said ‘I thought I wasn’t going to feel it
as much, that it would be too different but it gave
me more feels it gave me all of the feels.’ That’s the
best complement.” While The Blow’s Vancouver
show might not be what you expect, it will
definitely be something special and tender.
The Blow perform October 27 at the Fox Cabaret
(Vancouver).
The hypnotic grooves and bombastic beats
of New York based Canadian singer Tei Shi
are showcased on her debut full-length Crawl
Space, what she calls a vessel for her emotions
and fears expressed through warm melodies
and a liquid-smooth voice.
“Crawl Space is the closing of a chapter and
the beginning of something new in my life,”
says Valerie Teicher in a phone call from her
Chinatown apartment in Manhattan. The
album came out in April, and has received
rave reviews.
The Colombian-born, Vancouver raised
writer/producer claimed some fame after
self-producing and self-releasing two EPs,
showcasing her charming yet minimal
approach to electronic bedroom-pop,
layering her vocals over experimental, popinfused
beats.
“The journey of my experiences after
having jumped into all of this made me feel
like I wanted my first album to push both
personal boundaries and re-introduce myself
musically,” she says. “A crawl space seemed
like this metaphorical space where I could
hide to work through fears and anxieties.”
She explained that in the two-year process
of writing and producing Crawl Space, her life
went through many changes.
“I was dealing with a lot of the eternal
conflicts and pressures you feel when you are
starting to put together something you love
— something that is very precious to you,”
she says.
“When I was really working on the bulk of
the album and finishing it, I was experiencing
the end of many important relationships in
my life as well.”
This forced her to reexamine things.
“I re-inserted this period of my life and
revisited my childhood life. I looked at things
now the way I would have as a kid,” she says.
“I wanted to rediscover the roots of why I
loved singing and performing. There was a
lot of tying back a lot of my current emotions
as I tried to stay true to that young part of
myself.”
Crawl Space is a mature, fleshed out, 15
song musical effort that pushes far beyond
what Teicher released in the past, moving
beyond the bedroom and into a studio.
“I was able to bring many musicians in,
so there’s a different role you have to play
where you have to guide the process but
also let things unfold in their own way,” she
concludes.
Tei Shi performs October 11 at Sugar Nightclub
(Victoria) and October 12 at the Biltmore
Cabaret (Vancouver).
Photo by JJ Media
Colombian-born and Vancouver raised, Tei Shi comes into her own on Crawl Space.
October 2017