CARIBOUREFLECTING ON MORTALITY WITH LOVE AND OPTIMISMIt happens to nearly everyone at somepoint in life. We reach a certain ageor something takes place that grabshold of our world and rattles it so hardwe feel it in the depths of our soul.Relatively ordinary life events, likebirth and death, can cause these seismicchanges within. Whatever the catalyst, itencourages a different perspective andwe begin to reassess the meaning ofeverything around us.This shift has been happening to DanSnaith, the London-based, Ontario-borncomposer and musician, over the lastfive years. One of the most significantcontributors was the shocking suddendeath of a loved one not much olderthan Snaith that ricocheted through hisextended family. Then, both of his parentsexperienced health crises that they,fortunately, overcame. But tragedy, and thethreat of more, prompted a stark awarenessof mortality.“I feel like I've been very lucky in my life,”says Snaith, over Skype from the basementstudio of his home in London, England.“I’ve been, just by good fortune, insulatedfrom those things. Or maybe, my parentsprovided me with a very stable life. But I'm41 years old. None of us are going to beimmune from those circumstances forever.”Alongside those personal challenges,there have been happy moments thathave impacted Snaith just as dramatically,such as the birth of his second child—whoarrived in the back of a car, no less. Thispast Christmas was profound, too: It wasthe first Snaith and his wife hosted at theirhouse. “It was the kind of holiday that Ipictured from my childhood,” Snaith smiles.“[And] it’s shifted from being about going tosee my parents to my children's experienceand building those memories for them.”These formative moments—Snaith’s lifeexperiences—often inform the contentof his music. His last release underthe Caribou moniker, 2014’s GrammynominatedOur Love, played with bothaustere and bright arrangements todelicately reflect on the intricate emotionsthat accompany new fatherhood, as wellas complexities existing in his personalrelationships with family and friends.It makes sense that a contemplationon the asymmetry between the gradualway we age, grow, our perceptions ofthe person that we are becoming, andthe unanticipated thwack of somethingcompletely reshaping that outlook wouldfollow on Caribou’s latest effort.Snaith’s new album, Suddenly, is aptlynamed. His record labels (Merge in NorthAmerica and City Slang in Europe) were“The kinds of things that are resonatingin my life right now are maybe not what a21-year-old expects to hear in the musicthat they're listening to...”hesitant at first, concerned that themore obvious subject matter might notappeal to the listeners who championedthe subtleties of Our Love. But for it tothematically be about anything else wouldhave been an evasion. It was unavoidable.“The kinds of things that are resonatingin my life right now are maybe not what a21-year-old expects to hear in the musicthat they're listening to,” Snaith muses. “Idon't know. I feel like there was a real senseof purpose [on this album]. My music hasalways documented, to some degree, my lifeand where it's at, but much more so with this.”Snaith sourced from over 900 song ideasfor Suddenly. A mind-boggling number, butnot so much when considering he makesmusic every single day. It is a ritual as muchas it is his creative process, and, as such,the tracks intrinsically reflect his thoughtsand, inevitably, his truth. “I never listen tothem as an album together until the album'sdone.”“And that’s always an eerie experience tome, because I listen to [the songs] and I'mlike, ’It fits together. It's somehow a story.It's somehow a narrative,’ which is what Iwant. But I don't have the foresight to beable to put that together while I'm workingon it. It happens, somehow, by accident,except that it's not by accident. I think that'spart of the thrill for me—there's this kindof chase, even after 20 years or more ofmaking music.”Similar to, and a deeper exploration thanits predecessor, Suddenly is anchored inthe complex concept of love. And duringa cultural moment so defined by urgent,polarizing politics, it almost feels like abrave thing to investigate. Snaith is far fromimmune to it all. “I had this idea of progress,that we would learn more and, as we learnmore as a society, society progresses andgets better,” he deliberates. “And that'sbeen shaken by all sorts of things.”The #MeToo movement is certainly oneof them. And something that hit close tohome when two industry acquaintanceswere accused of sexual assault. “You meetsomebody and you think, ‘This is somebodywho has, it seems, the same values asme. They talk about progressive issuesin a progressive way,’” Snaith says. “Andit undermined this assumption that I had.They seem nice and you think, ‘Well, theyprobably are nice.’ And it made me realize,‘No, that's not reliable.’ You can't trust that.“In the same way that those major lifechanges just shifted the lens on everything,the world all of a sudden looks different afteryou hear some kind of cataclysmic news.”That is why, for Snaith, ruminating on loveis requisite. It is a reflection of his underlyingoptimism—a natural inclination that isevident in the way he responds to the rockyterrain of life (and the world at large) in thegentle electronic textures of his work.A significant influence on Suddenly’sempathetic sonic approach was BeverlyGlenn-Copeland, particularly the ambientmusician’s glimmering 1986 albumKeyboard Fantasies. “It's something thatyou listen to and it's a big hug that makesyou feel like things are okay—but not in afacile way,” Snaith enthuses. “His music issomething that really engages with difficultyand challenges.”“Cloud Song” is the most obviouslyGlenn-Copeland inspired, with its warm,rippling synthesizers. But the dreaminess isvery much present throughout, whether inshimmers underneath drum-driven beats,like on“Home,”which alsosamples soulsinger GloriaBarnes; or as adelicate ramblethat unexpectedlyhurtles towardsscreaming guitar, asit does on “You andI.” Together, it makesfor a nuanced, intimate,and meditative listen thatcoats the soul in familiarityand then turns it intounanticipated shapes.As someone who pays carefulattention to details, Snaith thinksoften—and deeply— about thecomplicated state of our currentreality. Its knots are something he,being somewhat of an idealist, isunsure he has entirely untangled withinhimself. But then, there is the music.It helps make sense of things andit allows him to engage in the mostpowerful way he can.“I’ve always felt that it was a failingof my music to relate to the politicaldynamics in our world,” Snaith adds.“And I thought: ‘Why am I not making analbum explicitly about climate changeor explicitly about unfortunate politicalcircumstances?’Then I talked to somebody who isvery wise in my life and often gives megood advice, a photographer friend ofmine named Jason Evans, who doesthe covers for all of my records. Andhe was like, ‘To make music that aimsto unite’—and hopefully not in a kind ofvacuous way, hopefully in a way that'ssomewhat meaningful—‘is actually apolitical statement.’ I think a kind ofopen-armed embrace is the closestthing that I can come to reaching out topeople in that way.” STARBy YASMINE SHEMESH12 BEATROUTE MARCH 2020
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