It's easy enough to get a bit cynical at the thought of a rock band inciting hysteria at a concert in the twenty-first century. It's not uncommon to assume that, for some bands, the joy of music-making and the thrill of presenting that work on stage is a bit overstated; there have been more than a few bands who have likened the act of stepping on stage to punching a time card at the beginning of a shift in a factory – essentially saying that what touring musicians do is “just another job.” Conversely though, these are also the bands who attempt to cultivate an image of “the artist as an aesthete and different from most of the public at large” that's about as old as the Seventies.
The Elliott BROOD knows bands like that – bands who crutch on a contrived sense of “otherness” – but does not number itself among that legion.
Since forming just less than ten years ago in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Elliott BROOD has done things a little differently than their peers from the ground up, and won a very devoted fan base because of it. Where other bands worry about presenting themselves as rock n' roll giants on stage, Elliott BROOD simply walks out and presents an unusual (two out of three members of the band are seated, one of whom mans the duties of both guitar and bass pedals at the same time) but wildly abstract and compelling image. Where other bands are given to regularly sequestering themselves backstage at a venue before their performance and then quickly vanish to the same location after they've finished their show, singer/guitarist Mark Sasso, guitarist/bassist Casey Laforet and drummer Stephen Pitkin can usually be seen socializing around the room before they play on any given night, and are regularly available to shake hands, sign autographs and chat with concertgoers after the house lights come on; such conduct may surprise some readers but, according to Sasso, it only makes sense to him and the rest of the band. “It might seem a little different, but that's kind of our show, really,” explains Sasso of Elliott BROOD's opinion on how a show should go and how a band should conduct itself. “We view ourselves as entertainers and, the way we look at it, we've invited these people over so we want to try and talk to everybody and get them involved. That's what makes the night for us: getting people involved and getting them to lose their inhibitions a bit and inspire them to participate.
“At the same time and for the same reason, we've always seen hanging around after the shows as a sort of mutual appreciation,” continues the singer. “People are giving up their time to come see us, so the least we can do is be there and interact with them. Without them, we're not there and vice versa right? We enjoy that aspect of it; sometimes it can be hard to do it – especially in bigger venues – but when the room is just small and intimate, I like taking the time to do those things.”
Part of the fun may be interacting with the crowd for the Elliott BROOD but, with the sudden influx of exposure the band has received over the last few years with the releases of Mountain Meadows and (most recently) Days Into Years, Sasso may have to concede that the band's days of being able to hang out with a few fans on the venue floor after the show's over on any given night might be numbered because the band's ascent to another level now seems inevitable. In listening to Days Into Years, it's very easy to see the effect that the successes of 2008's Mountain Meadows and award-winning songs like “Write It All Down For You,” “Fingers And Tongues” and “31 Years” had on focusing the band because, no matter which way Elliott BROOD turns on their newest album, they do so with an infectious confidence which is impossible to miss; on Days Into Years, the band just glides lithely in with “Lindsay” to open the set before enjoying some sleepy, but beautifully melodic alt-country strains in “If I Get Old,” shivering through some shadowy, twilight loneliness with “Hold You” and just exploding with power (calling it just “rock,” just “country,” or even just “alt-country” seems too simplistic). In each case, Elliott BROOD embodies the sensations expressed and holds them close to a listeners face, but easily shifts gears following the end of each song into another. In that way, Days Into Years marks a perfect exposition of a band that has arrived and is truly ready to take on the world and win a lot of hearts with a solid and perfectly unique sound all their own. Such a presentation is fantastic in its own right and Sasso doesn't even try to hide that he is proud to have been a part of it, but those who hear it may be surprised to learn that a tremendous amount of care has been taken to ensure that all of the lush sounds on the record will appear in the band's live shows too. “I don't think we'd put a song on a record if we wouldn't be able to pull it off live,” asserts Sasso with no small amount of confidence. “That has been a big rule for us and we kind of limit the amount of instrumentation that we put into a song to make sure we stick to it; if we can't pull it off – if the core of the song isn't going to sound the same or be a likening to what we've recorded, they we won't do it. We've had that discussion where we set limits on ourselves as far as what we'll put on a record with an eye to how we'd present it on stage. We've sort of made sure we hold ourselves to that by the way we record too – every record we've made, we recorded live off the floor so we know we can pull it off live; we do some overdubs afterward, but we start live off the floor so we'll already know we can do it on stage.”
Even with that said however, it isn't meant to imply that Elliott BROOD recordings are rushed affairs in their making. “Days Into Years was probably about a year and a bit,” recalls Sasso of DIY's recording sessions. “Some songs didn't get finished lyrically until a couple of days before the record was all finished and locked. I know “My Mother's Side” was one which was like that, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that I wasn't really confident with it but Casey was really pushing for it to be on the record. He really wanted to work on it and really wanted to get it done, and that pressure actually helped me finish that song, but there were others too – like “Their Will” – which were still changing lyrically right up until the last minute. Musically, everything was honed pretty quickly, but it was the lyrics that I sort of toyed with constantly; I just wanted to make sure I had the right lyrics to tell the story the right way. The basis and skeleton of each of the songs was there, it was just the way we filled each out – like the harmonies and the lyrics and stuff like that – which took a little longer.”
While Days Into Years was released in Canada on September 27, 2011 [on Paper Bag Records –ed] and Elliott BROOD has already put in some time on tour there to promote it, Americans will get the chance to see what the new hot fuss is about on February 23, 2012 when the band begins a national tour of the United States in Detroit, and then releases the album domestically on February 28. In conversation with Sasso, there's no doubt that the singer is excited to begin the tour because he says he has noticed a certain surge in interest for the band of late, and hopes it carries over into the American market. “Over the last little while, I can't help but feel like the work we've been putting in has really been paying off,” says Sasso with a bit of care as if the singer is somehow worried he'll jinx the run of great shows that the band has been enjoying of late. “Some of the shows are just absolutely epic; the show we played recently at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver is a good example of that, it was insane. I don't know how many shows we've ever done which were comparable to that, but I think it's beginning to grow into that; I think people come to our shows kind of expecting to lose themselves in it now and that's what we like – that's what we want and, the more people talk the more people come to the shows and it just keeps building.”
There's no way to miss the fact that Sasso is excited for the US tour, but the singer is also the first to admit that he has already begun to look beyond it as well, and is already considering future plans. “I don't think I want to leave three years between records like we did between Days Into Years and Mountain Meadows – I think I want to get some more stuff finished – we just have to make sure we have the time set to do it. I mean, because our touring cycles are pretty consistent, a new release every three years has just been the timeline for us out of necessity, but I'm a little more eager now to step it up a bit. Not that I like the idea of recording something and then having it out the following week – I like having the time to sit with some music and let it gestate and editing it and making it proper and not releasing it until we're totally one hundred per cent happy with it – that's for sure, but I definitely want to step it up and get some more music recorded and out there.”
Artist:
www.elliottbrood.ca/
www.myspace.com/elliottbrood
www.facebook.com/ElliottBROOD
www.twitter.com/elliottbrood
Further Reading:
Elliott BROOD – Starlight Social Club – 01/12/12 – [Live]
Tour:
Elliott BROOD's American tour begins on February 23, 2012. For a list of upcoming dates, click here .
Album:
Days Into Years will be released domestically on February 28. 2012 by Paper Bag Records. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
