Calgary band happy to dial it back as Folk Fest heads online
Band planning snappy 30-minute set as part of online show’s stellar lineup
It may seem a strange admission from a band known for its genre-jumping musical excursions and instrumental interplay. But singer and keyboardist Liz Stevens and guitarist Kirill Telichev, the principle songwriters in Calgary’s Copperhead, are OK with the relatively short amount of time they’ve been allotted to perform on Sunday as part of the Calgary Folk Music Festival At Home online program, which kicked off Thursday.
In fact, a snappy 30-minute set seems ideal, says Stevens.
“It’s actually a dream,” she says. “A half-hour set, in my opinion, is just a gift. In the folk-soul realm, we’ve got some heavier, screamer ones and some really low-key ones. We usually, as Kirill says, have like an airplane-taking-off sort of set where we start slow and end with me screaming my head off. It’s nice that we don’t have to do that, we can tone it down a little bit.”
“There are no songs in there you’re not sure about,” adds Telichev.
“We’re going to try to not let me talk too much so we can play some music,” Stevens says with a laugh.
That quip may be a reference to a quick spot the band recorded for local TV earlier this week to preview the CFMF At Home program. Stevens was asked what the Calgary Folk Music Festival meant to her, which sent her off on a heartfelt if rambling soliloquy about the yearly musical love-in at Prince’s Island Park. She fears it may have run a bit long.
But it’s clear the festival has been integral to the development of Copperhead, as it has for so many Calgary outfits over the years. The band has played the festival twice before and helped celebrate its 40th anniversary last year by contributing to Cover Art, a double album that had local acts covering the tunes of wellknown festival alumni.
Copperhead chose Heaven by the Talking Heads, a tribute to David Byrne’s 2001 appearance at the festival, and perhaps also a nod to kd lang’s mesmerizing set in 2011 that included a melodramatic cover of Byrne’s beautiful, world-weary ballad.
Despite the time constraints, Stevens says the band plans to play the song — which features a gorgeous, yearning vocal performance from the singer — as part of their
set Sunday.
Copperhead is one of a few local acts that will be a part of CFMF At Home. They will beam in from Telichev’s Calgary home studio on Sunday as part of a stellar lineup that also includes Angelique Francis, Lucy Dacus, Lightning Dust, Amythyst Kiah and Birds of Chicago.
The band will draw from its 2015 eponymous debut and 2018’s Touch, an assured six-song exploration of ambient rock, folk, electronica and torch songs that took full advantage of Stevens’ expressive contralto.
But that album is two years old, and the band is currently working new material to prep for a third release. The addition of Jamey Lougheed on baritone sax to the lineup has opened even more sonic possibilities for Copperhead, which also includes drummer Kane Bender and bassist Rom Smeltzer. Lougheed joined after the band was deep into recording Touch.
“It’s really exciting to write and go into the process with him in mind rather than adding him at the end,” Telichev says.
“We’re talking about putting more a soul, Motown vibe into the next record,” says Stevens. “Third records are always when you actually hear the band, you actually have a sound developed. So I’m really excited about this new one.”
While being asked to participate in CFMF At Home is certainly an honour, the band suspects it will be a bit of a bittersweet exercise. Even in the years where Copperhead did not perform, the band never missed the festivities as fans.
“As a musician, I think I took for granted what the energy is like playing in front of an audience,” Stevens says.
“We’ve been doing some livestreams and it’s fun to interact, but it’s just not the same. You don’t realize how much energy you are getting from the audience until you are not playing in front of one.”