Karpinka Brothers stay upbeat
Years ago, Aaron Karpinka waited for a call to pick up a date for a Timber Timbre concert. She never rang. He fell asleep waiting and woke up at 1 a.m., hours after the concert had ended. The next day he found out she had gone on a date with someone else instead. It was a low moment for the Saskatoon musician, but while working on a new album with his brother Shawn, that bad experience came full circle. In Howard Bilerman’s studio in Montreal, Aaron looked across the room and saw Mathieu Charbonneau, a member of the very same band whose concert he was stood up for, Timber Timbre.
“You just never know who you’ll cross paths with,” he said. “If you go through it and your heart is open you never know where you’ll end up.”
The Karpinka Brothers released Talk is Cheap, their fourth studio release, in September. It’s the first time the Saskatoon band travelled out of province to work with a producer, a choice that started when they visited Joel Plaskett at his studio in Nova Scotia.
Plaskett was interested, but busy, so they then approached another Canadian musician Basia Bulat, who they had played alongside at the Regina Folk Festival.
“We were going to try to get Basia to produce it and bribe her maybe with some coffee and pastries around Montreal to sing on the record and then eventually just replace all my vocals with hers and then we’d be superstars,” Aaron said.
Sadly, Bulat was also busy but she recommended contacting Bilerman, who produced her first two albums and is a former member of Arcade Fire. They emailed him and he responded yes within the hour. The Karpinkas travelled to Montreal to record Talk is Cheap.
“It was a total leap of faith but I had a feeling we were in good hands,” Shawn said.
Bilerman’s got an impressive Rolodex of guest musicians at his disposal. Talk is Cheap includes performances by Charbonneau, Jamie Thompson (Unicorns/Islands), Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Joel Kerr (Sarah Slean) and backing vocals by Krista Muir.
“I think he’s really effective at matching musicians, personality and style-wise,” said Aaron.
Shawn said the best part of the experience was making new friends. The Karpinkas and Bilerman bonded over nerdy things like Star Trek. They also visited him at his home for a movie night, where they watched 24-Hour Party People, a docudrama about the Manchester music scene in the 1980s.
The movie covers the origins of New Order. Arcade Fire opened for New Order in Spain. Tim Kingsbury from Arcade Fire was also at Bilerman’s that night. Shawn was suddenly very aware of the company he was keeping. “I was like ‘Ah, I have your poster framed on my bedroom wall.’”
Talk Is Cheap covers a wide range of themes, from fitting back into life after returning from a twomonth tour, to Saskatoon landmarks like the Broadway Bridge. Unsurprisingly, it’s an upbeat record in keeping with the Karpinka Brothers’ reputation for kindness and optimism.
The Karpinkas’ positive outlook is widely known. They both admit it’s easy to be jaded or negative, especially in the music business, but they believe in the power of a good attitude.
“I would never want to put more stock or importance into what we do. I don’t like to think about myself too much,” Aaron said. “But we can all stand for something positive in our own little world and that will affect the people around us.”
The band’s kindness is wellestablished in Saskatoon. The Karpinkas regularly perform at Parkridge. In fact, they recently celebrated their 30th show at the care home. It was a big celebration with a banner, cakes and residents wearing fake beards to mimic those sported by the musicians.
Now that positivity is spreading across the country as the band tours. When they set up at show at the Ironwood in Calgary, the booker was moved by how nice the Karpinkas were.
“He books 430 shows a year and he said and he gave us a good slot. He said he wouldn’t normally do that for a completely unknown band to him but we were just so enthusiastic in our emails. We were just trying to be ourselves instead of playing it cool,” said Shawn. “He was so blown away he was moved to tears.”
It’s perhaps a sad reflection of the world today that simple human kindness is so hard to find, but the Karpinkas are happy to keep waving that banner in hopes more people will join.
The Karpinka Brothers’ hometown release show is at the Roxy Theatre, a special venue for the group. In addition to hosting the Oscars broadcast twice at the theatre, Shawn was married there in 2014. The brothers will be joined on stage by drummer Dean Summach, bass player Malcolm White, violinist Anna Becolay and Lenore Maier (whose band The Garrys opens the show).