July Talk creating buzz in music biz
Canadian band has knack for quirky conversations
One of Canada’s exciting new bands is July Talk, and the songs on its selftitled debut are quirky conversations between Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay — an enchanting, often sinister interplay between his deep gargles and her squeaky coos.
“You loved me like a doctor /Horse don’t run with a broken leg,” he growls on Paper Girl, which almost sounds like a three-legged pony trying to tap dance to skeletal percussion, garage-rock riffs and skippy organ melodies.
“And if you want money in your coffee /If you want secrets in your tea /Keep your paper heart away from me,” she replies like a naughty angel.
Some Ottawa fans will get a chance to hear for themselves when the band performs a sold-out show at Ritual Nightclub Monday night.
Edmonton native Dreimanis admits he wasn’t always comfortable with his pipes.
“My voice dropped in a weekend,” he says. “I showed up at school and my voice was just really low and I was embarrassed about it.
“Then I discovered all these singers — Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Tom Waits — all these guys just lived it. They just brought so much pride to it. They made it their identity.
“At the time, I was going through an intense musical phase — I hadn’t played piano since I was a kid and I just sat down and learned all my favourite songs by ear.
“Then, I played for years in backing bands and I didn’t really do much singing — except at the afterparties. I was the guy who would sit down at the piano and play every Nick Cave song or every Tom Waits song.
“When I got up the courage to start my own band, I knew there wasn’t a place for a band with only that type of singer, which probably informed the decision to have conversational songs.”
Guitarist Ian Docherty is also an integral part of July Talk’s bluesy, woozy indie-rock conversation — adding scritches, buzzing drones and one-string strums to songs like Paper Girl, Guns + Ammunition, and Brother.
“Ian is one of the best guitarists in Toronto and somehow, we nabbed him,” says Dreimanis.
“The biggest thing we said to him, right off the bat, was: ‘You’ve got to be so weird, like come up with sounds that sound the least like a guitar.’ We try to avoid playing any chords ever, like it’s just mostly one string on each instrument, to make it very dynamic.”
Same goes for July Talk’s live shows, thanks to Fay’s unpredictability onstage.
For one gig, she had friends pour fake blood on her. For another, she walked onstage with balloons and mouse ears.
Even TV performances aren’t sacred — during a recent appearance on Breakfast Television Toronto, she kicked a pumpkin across the floor.
“If you can react to the space you’re in, rather than just regurgitate the same show every night, it allows for the relationship between band members to really evolve in front of the audience,” says Dreimanis.
“The only times we played the same show twice, we all looked at each other afterward and regretted it. We felt really gross.”
Their shows, coupled with their offbeat tunes, are helping July Talk enjoy more than a May-December fling with fans.
Their latest single, Guns + Ammunition, is getting airplay at various radio stations across the country, including Sonic 102.9 FM.
Their debut, released last fall on Sleepless Records, was reissued in October — with four new tunes and distribution/marketing help from the country’s largest label, Universal Music.
The band also recently recorded a session for NPR, U.S. public radio, prior to the start of their sevenweek, 29-city tour of Canada.
Dreimanis says July Talk will start writing their second album in January, holed up in the Ottawa Valley village of Burnstown.
With so much on the go, the accidental musician doesn’t have much time to commit to filmmaking, his original dream — but he does shoot the occasional music video with July Talk’s bassist Josh Warburton.
Their output as Vulture Culture Films features clips for Born Ruffians, Cancer Bats, Monster Truck, Diamond Rings and, of course, their own band, including a 360-degree music video of the musicians performing in a studio for Guns + Ammunition.
“I thought that (July Talk) would be a really cool outlet for creativity,” says Dreimanis. “I noticed that as I was getting further into the film work, I needed another outlet.
“So the reaction we’re getting as a band has been great and we all feel really lucky.”