GO GRAHAM ROCKINGHAM
Basement Revolver releases their debut album “Heavy Eyes” and will headline Supercrawl’s Mohawk Stage
The quiet chill of Chrisy Hurn’s voice provides an alluring contrast to the fuzzed-up electric guitar she delivers at the helm of Hamilton’s Basement Revolver.
When combined with Brandon Munro’s hypnotic drumming and Nimal Agalawatte’s overlay of bass and synthesizer, the resulting concoction is an otherworldly musical potion best described as dream-pop.
It’s a sound that has earned Basement Revolver an international following since the release of the trio’s first six-song EP in 2016. It’s a following that is sure to grow with the release of Basement Revolver’s debut album “Heavy Eyes” Aug. 24 on Hamilton’s Sonic Unyon Records.
The band is also headlining Supercrawl’s Mohawk Stage (Wilson Street at James Street North) on Friday, Sept. 14, at 11:15 p.m. There will also be a pre-show album release party the same night at 8 p.m. at Mills Hardware, 95 King St. E.
Basement Revolver is a distinctly Hamilton band, but — like the Arkells — its three members are transplants, coming to the city as students and then deciding to stay.
Agalawatte was born in England and raised in Oak Ridges, north of Richmond Hill. He moved to Hamilton to study jazz at Mohawk College, which is where he met drummer Munro, who is originally from Peterborough.
Hurn, the lead singer and songwriter of the group, is originally from Newmarket. She came to Hamilton to study psychology and art at Ancaster’s Redeemer University. Hurn knew how to play violin and joined a couple of Redeemer folk groups, winning a couple of campus battle of the bands.
After two years, Hurn moved downtown into a small basement apartment near Bold and Hess streets, preferring the long bus ride to her Ancaster classes than continuing in the restricted atmosphere of the Christian school dorms.
“I moved downtown and decided to not leave Hamilton because I love it,” Hurn, 26, says over coffee at a James North café. “It’s very different from where I grew up. I was very bored in the suburbs. I fell in love with the grungy side of Hamilton. It felt a little dangerous to live downtown. And it made my parents uncomfortable, which I loved.”
Hurn had grown up with Agalawatte, both families attending the same church in the Newmarket area. When Agalawatte came to Hamilton the two renewed their friendship, working on new music together in Hurn’s basement apartment.
By this time, Hurn had picked up an electric guitar and began experimenting with effects pedals. Agalawatte recruited classmate Munro as drummer and the trio moved to a practice space at Mohawk to fill out their sound.
One day, Hurn noticed the label “Rawhide Revolver” on a line of vintage clothing her friend Nabi (lead singer for the band Ellevator) was selling. She joined the word “revolver” with “basement apartment and the group had a name — Basement Revolver. She insists it had nothing to do with guns.
The band’s first gig was at the now defunct Baltimore House on King William Street where they met veteran local musician/producer Adam Bentley, formerly of the band The Rest and Allegories. He liked what he heard and offered to help.
“I was absolutely floored by the songs,” Bentley says. “I let Chrisy know that she was onto something special.”
Shortly before Basement Revolver’s second gig, a slot in the 2016 Supercrawl, Hurn wrote a song called “Johnny” about concerns she was having over a doomed relationship.
The band went into Tape studio in downtown Hamilton, owned by Bentley and Jordan Mitchell (also a former member of The Rest and current co-owner/executive chef at CIMA Restaurant on Locke Street). They came with “Johnny” and a handful of other original tracks.
The result was the group’s first self-titled EP. Bentley helped the group with promoting the music on streaming sites and “Johnny” quickly became an online underground hit.
In the United Kingdom, Thomas Woodward, the head of a small boutique label called Fear of Missing Out, reached out to the band.
“Thomas sent us an email as soon as he heard ‘Johnny’ and said ‘I’d love to work with you,’” Hurn says. “Then he made us an offer and we’ve been together ever since.”
The band released a second EP “Agatha,” again recorded with Bentley and Mitchell as producers, with a followup to “Johnny” called “Johnny Part 2.”
“‘Johnny’ wasn’t written during the relationship and ‘Johnny Part 2’ is after we broke up,” Hurn explains. “We’re still friends. I think we wanted different things out of the relationship and we weren’t great at communicating.”
Hurn’s songs can be deeply introspective, filled with the self-doubt and insecurities that seem to permeate through a highly educated generation facing an uncertain future.
At times, however, her lyrics can be lost amid Basement Revolver’s textured combination of synthesizer, bass, drums and guitar.
“That makes me happy, some things are so personal,” Hurn says. “When I listen to music, I sometimes don’t hear lyrics at all. It’s more the feeling of the song. Lyrics play an important role but when I’m writing music, I want it to be more about what the song feels like than what the song is saying.
“Every song that I’ve written is probably too personal. So if someone doesn’t get it, I’m not going to be super upset.”
The band was playing regular gigs and getting rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, but still didn’t have a North American label or a full-length album.
The band found both in its adopted home of Hamilton.
Bentley and Mitchell recorded a few more Basement Revolver songs — including the current singles “Baby” and “Dancing” — and combined them with the best tracks from the two EPs, including both “Johnny” songs” to come up with the full length album “Heavy Eyes.”
Hurn provided the album art of a young girl covering her eyes. It’s a mixed media/collage she had created for the annual “Battle of the Brushes” benefit for RE-create Outreach Art Studio on James Street North. The whole thing was completed in 30 minutes.
Bentley is friends with Tim Potocic and Mark Milne, owners of Hamilton’s Sonic Unyon Records and two of the key players in Supercrawl. He had been keeping them up-to-date about Basement Revolver’s progress.
When Bentley presented Sonic Unyon with the album, the Hamilton label offered the band a deal that includes management.
“They’re still signed with Fear of Missing Out in the U.K, but we’ve got the record for basically the rest of the world,” Potocic says.
“We’re going to take it step by step, build them in Canada, build them in the U.S. and do some European touring.”
The touring has already started. In May, Basement Revolver played some showcases in England, then New York and Montreal.
Hurn says she’s looking forward to more.
“Nothing makes me feel so happy or so alive as when I’m performing,” she says. “It’s the best feeling. It’s all very romantic to me, going on tour and doing shows. It’s probably going to suck at some point, but right now I love it.”