Vancouver indie band on a quick path to success
Calpurnia’s recognition kick-started by its TV star frontman
Eight days after releasing its debut EP Scout, Vancouver indie rock quartet Calpurnia headlined a sold-out show at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. That’s what the world of buzz can do for a band.
Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard is on lead vocals and guitar, so this group began its race to recognition well in front of the June 15 EP release date.
But take Wolfhard out of the mix — for the sake of argument — and the fact remains that there is a lot more to this project than its Netflix tie-in.
Wolfhard, Ayla Tesler-Mabe (vocals, guitar), Jack Anderson (bass, keyboard) and Malcolm Craig (drums), range from ages 15 to 17. Their sixsong EP was recorded by Cadien James of the Chicago rock band Twin Peaks, again a bonus that came out of a connection Wolfhard made on set. But the band’s mix of Weezer, Pixies and classic ’60s rock is very much of its own devising. Just check out the wacky animated video for Wasting Time that was released on Nov. 19. It’s a complete blast, right down to the screeching solo.
Over a few weeks away from home, the group laid down some songs — such as the drawling Louie and its first single, the loping, raw riff ride titled City Boy. The video for this slacker statement on making music was shot during those sessions. The truth is, all the members appear to be right comfortable on camera.
Accolades in publications ranging from Billboard to the NME fuelled sales leading to stand alone gigs everywhere from L.A. to New York and closer to home in Seattle. Back home in Canada, the group faced some less raving reviews. Toronto Now noted “... Scout sounds like Calpurnia haven’t done their homework, or at least, not enough of it.” Dang those young kids for actually being their ages and not having seen/done it all yet.
At just 15 years old, Wolfhard
is what’s known as a hot property in the entertainment industry.
Not only is he cast as Mike Wheeler in the Netflix hit series Stranger Things, but he also played Richie Tozier in the 2017 reboot of Stephen King’s It. And watch for him turning up as Pugsley Addams’ voice in the 2019 reboot of The Addams Family that is presently in production.
Perhaps if Calpurnia hailed from the centre of the universe, it would have an easier ride. Toronto can claim (and did) some involvement in the quartet’s existence. Wolfhard and percussionist Craig met on the set of Ontario punky pop band PUP’s Guilt Trip video. One can’t help but wonder how many of the songs two million-plus views owe their existence to the celebrity cast. By comparison, Calpurnia’s City Boy is past three million views and counting.
Calpurnia embarked on its first international tour in December, hitting the UK and Europe. On the phone from Manchester during a sound check break, members discussed what it’s like to go from basement jams at Tesler-Mabe’s to concerts crammed with fans in under two years’ time, and how you keep on top of your schoolwork. As to where they go to school, it’s a bit of a cagey game for the four to never name their campus.
Craig is the cagiest, as his only comment in the interview was to agree that he isn’t the talkative one. It appears that their stage characters already are starting to emerge.
“Luckily, as long as we keep on top of our schoolwork, give them lots of advance notice and be the good and studious teens that we are, it’s all been very easy getting permission to be away,” Anderson said. “As to where we all go, we like to play a game of guess the school to keep it a mystery.”
A more interesting mystery is how a 17-year-old bassist can be so naturally flowing and funky. The reason is credited to his father playing the same 25-song-or-so compilation tape of Motown greats in his car for ages, and Anderson soaking it all in.
Tesler-Mabe, already singled out universally as a shredding guitarist, drops some slide playing on the Scout single Louie, which has received comparisons to Exile on Main Street-era Rolling Stones. Her vocal work on the album’s best song — the closer Waves — showcase an instrumentalist who has done her homework. All members went to Rock Camp and cite it as essential.
“It kind of meant everything at the time, because we all loved music so much,” TeslerMabe said. “I was playing with Jack and someone else at the time, but hadn’t really met anyone else who was as into music as I was until going there and meeting all of these people who were. It’s pretty inspiring when you’re starting out.”
She credits the slide influences on Louie to a youth spent listening to her parents’ classic rock records and putting her own spin on it. The lead in the song was one of many random acts in the studio.
“We were listening back to the end of Louie in the studio with Cadien and Colin (Croome of Twin Peaks) and they suggested we do something at the end of the song and I just went for it,” she said. “A lot of the process was organic expression on our instruments.”
“We’re not setting out with specific goals,” Anderson said.
But how does a band of players all under 20 manage to have more Velvet Underground in its sound than postgrunge garbage? Calpurnia covers Where Is My Mind by the Pixies and El Scorcho by Weezer in its concerts, as well as Twin Peaks’ Wanted You — important to the band as it was the first cover the group every posted to YouTube under its own name — but you almost think they could drop a Beatles or a Stones song in the set, too.
“All those bands from that ’60s and ’70s era are much more interesting to us, I think, because the artists are more unique and being themselves,” Wolfhard said. “There are some really great artists out there now too, sure, but everything sort of becomes like a fad. If you were a punk and everyone’s parents hated you, now that music is mainstream on the radio — and the same with skateboarding and so on.”
“They weren’t really emulating anyone, and if you trace back the best music it so often traces back to the same people,” Tesler-Mabe said. “As Finn was saying, these artists were doing something so influential and unique that they just keep being important.”
Could a concept album be in the making next?
“It really depends, because we’re all writing music for the second album that is kind of half-baked at the moment but all shows that we are a lot more experienced this time around with a distinctive sound emerging, for sure,” Wolfhard said. Those halfbaked songs should find their way into the oven sometime in 2019.