LoFi Mind’s latest carries on their collaborative tradition
‘It is not about anybody’s ego ... It is about the song’
Ryan Brohman, Craig McNair and Jesse Webber of Kitchener’s musical collective LoFi Mind are sitting in a downtown Kitchener bar having a drink.
“LoFi Mind is an accident — more like a creative musical pileup — that worked out really well,” says McNair.
LoFi Mind, now five years old, has released three albums. But the song “Smoke,” from their latest release, “LoFi Mind II,”
was written a long time ago. “I would have written that song when I was 17,” recalls Brohman.
“That is exactly how LoFi Mind got started. We opened up our songbooks,” he says. “We have all of these songs we have written since we were teenagers and there was no outlet for them. We thought we should go through them — ‘Oh, this one is good and this one is good.’ ”
The LoFi Mind roll call is Brohman, McNair and Webber on guitar and vocals, along with Jack Drysdale Pender on guitars, mandolin and lap steel; Nick Barkley on keys; Jenna Peacock on drums; Wendy Carraro, Danica Guenette and Emily Barkley on vocals; Patrick Duxbury on woodwinds (currently on hiatus); and Ryan Cassidy on horns.
And then there are the other LoFi cast members, including Matthew Lima on upright bass; Adam Buschlen on bass and vocals; Steve Hogg on bass; Darius McKinley on guitar; Ben Rollo
on keys; Scott Galloway on piano; Shane Guse on fiddles and strings; Samson Grey on sax; and Rachel Bruch on harp. The newest additions include Crazy Diamonds sax player Danielle Beck, and trumpet player Greg Dozois of the OCD Horns.
“So, I think officially we are 14 members and unofficially 22,” says McNair.
LoFi Mind’s rich multi-instrumental folk/rock/psychedelia/pop harmonics range from the ’60s realm of Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick and the Partridge Family, to the Americana vibe of the Eagles, Alison Krauss and the clever pop of Elvis Costello with a hint of R&B.
Brohman says the songwriting process for this album was a “little bit of everything.”
“There are songs on there that Craig wrote and I wrote,” he observes. “There is one that Craig, myself and Wendy wrote, ‘Things Aren’t Like They Used To Be (Young, Wild & Free)’ — the catchy Partridge-style opening track for ‘II.’
“‘Without You’ was written by Adam Buschlen and Ian Smith,” says Brohman. “That song is from one of Adam’s solo records from years back.
“Adam was playing with us a lot of the time, so we took that song and flipped it, turned it sideways and upside-down, then changed it around, so that’s what is on the record.”
McNair wrote three songs for “LoFi Mind II,” including the soulful cautionary tale “Wait a Minute” and “Seeing Two,” plus “Poor Maggie (Fallen Down)” — a sequel to his song “No More Tears Tonight.”
“Maggie” and “Tears” deal with the life-lasting effects of child abuse based on stories McNair heard from an old girlfriend who worked in a local women’s shelter. “No More Tears” is about Maggie as a child with “Poor Maggie (Fallen Down)” continuing her downward spiral.
Brohman always envisioned this album as a vinyl release, and the song arrangement is designed to have his lush alt-pop waltz lament “Gone” finish the first side.
“You come off side one and then all of a sudden, boom! You flip it over and it’s ‘8 Legs’ — a different sound!” exclaims McNair.
“That’s how you listen to it — one album side at the time,” adds Brohman. “I made sure that the record would flow 22 minutes on each side.”
“LoFi Mind II” was produced by Darryl Romphf, who used band pal Bob “Blackie” Ferguson’s spacious house as a studio to get an authentic “old-timey sound” from recording the drums mono in Ferguson’s high-ceiling spiral staircase foyer and setting mics in bathrooms to achieve natural reverb.
Mixing and mastering was done by Scott Lake at Toronto’s Subterranean Sounds. Lake used an analog Neve soundboard. “The board that we worked on was built for George Martin — his specs,” explains Brohman. “George Martin, Geoff Emerick and Rupert Neve developed all of these boards. They did a bunch of the Police albums, Wings and America with them.”
The three musicians love the finished product.
“The whole point of putting it out on vinyl (is) so that you are listening to an album that was made specifically to be like things were done back in the day,” states McNair.
“There is a warmth to it. It is a lost art,” adds Webber.
“I don’t understand how we continue to make LoFi Mind work, and it only gets better,” notes McNair, adding that other LoFi members like guitarist Jack Drysdale Pender and drummer Jenna Peacock are also writing songs, which will be part of the band’s next album.
“Ryan sums it up. It is not about 14 musicians in a band,” notes McNair. “It is not about anybody’s ego and it’s not about serving any kind of purpose. It is about the song. All we are really trying to do is create the song the way it wants to be done.”
“The biggest ego in the room should always be the song,” adds Webber.