St. John’s artistry shines through
Clinton St. John celebrates the release of his new album and book with a show tonight at Central United Church at 7 p.m.
“If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”
It’s a phrase that was uttered proudly by the North American worker once, as we built this society into one of workmanship, progressiveness and candoery.
Now? More like: “Meh. That works. Ish. You gonna finish those fries?”
Perhaps that’s why Storied Hearts and the Three Assimilations, the new book and CD from Calgary’s Clinton St. John, is all the more impressive, all the more stunning a creation. Two-plus years in the making, the gorgeous package is the stuff of pride, the product of true artistry, and a labour and giver of love that makes it worthwhile, even if just for the man behind it.
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” says St. John, propped in a booth in a 17th Avenue eatery. “I had no idea it would actually take this long to actually get it finished. It’s still nice to think it’s actually done. . . . Sometimes along the way it felt like it was going to be this never-ending thing. This thing is out there now.”
It is. And tonight, the former songwriter behind longtime local faves The Cape May and Pale Air Singers will make it official with a show at Central United Church.
Looking back on where it began, where he began, makes it all the more satisfying for St. John, considering it grew from a place where he wasn’t even sure he still wanted to continue creating.
“Ultimately it was a way to reinvigorate my process of writing songs and making art,” he says. “I’ve been working away at (music) for a long time, and I burned out, I hit the wall, and didn’t want to do it for awhile. And this was a way to make it more interesting for myself, personally.”
Funny, then, that he calls the time and work that went into the independently released effort a “tedious process.”
But perhaps it’s easier to understand when you see it, hear it, are privy to the story behind it and, more importantly, are able to experience, or rather become engrossed in the result — in all of its sensory pleasures.
It began, initially, with St. John wanting to get back to his pas-
This was a way to make it more interesting CLINTON ST. JOHN
sions, which included painting, which he’d made the decision to neglect in favour of music almost two decades ago.
But, after the demise of wonderful roots pop act The Cape May, and after he chose to go it solo, he figured he could pick up the other again, eventually taking the baby step of doing the cover for his debut record in 2007, Black Forest Levitation.
That opened things up for him again, and gave way to the concept of Storied Hearts, which is as amazing as the result.
“Basically I had this song and I illustrated ever line in the song and then each drawing got its own song after the fact,” he says, noting he’d work eight-hour stretches for weeks, pencil sketching each illustration, before then taking even longer to write a song, writing pages of lyrical ideas, while staring at the art as it sat on his music stand for inspiration.
He came up with sounds and layers that suited the images, building them into huge sonic creations before slowly reducing them and peeling sounds away.
He then set about recording them with the help of some friends from the music scene, including Foon Yap and Arran Fisher, who helped create the moody, attic atmospherics to go with the intimate, ghostly chamber pop.
Then, well, then came the hard part, which was whittling down the number of songs and illustrations, which, considering the time and energy expended, meant making some difficult decisions, even with regards to that initial song that began the journey.
“That song is not on the album even though it was the catalyst for the whole project,” he says. “And that was just a strict musical decision . . . for people who love a good album from start to finish, that was more important to me.”
And while it is an incredible concise and cohesive work of art — both visually and musically they work in concert for one, dark, dreamy, surreal experience — there is no real actual narrative to Storied Hearts, although there are recurring elements, including the use of hearts and clusters of men, animals and creatures fused together to form one nightmarish entity.
“There’s this heart-shaped meteor that’s passing through the night sky and it has an effect on some groups of people,” St. John says, noting he wrote other songs and some short stories, to find, in his mind, some more apparent links and to tie everything together in a more conceptual way.
“I don’t know if I’ve just seen one too many David Lynch movies or something, I don’t know. But there’s just something about this notion of different personalities somehow becoming one character or creature. It’s kind of fascinating to me. I love paranormal, UFOS, unusual stories — all that kind of stuff. I don’t know if there’s something to describe that all kinds of different weird s..t.” How about “weird s..t?” He laughs. “Yeah, weird s..t. I like weird s..t.”
And Storied Hearts and the Three Assimilations is just that. Weird. Wonderful. And art worth the effort. MBELL@CALGARYHERALD.COM
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