Edmonton Journal

By Divine Right in town

Indie-rockers tour on dark new album

- SANDRA SPEROUNES ssperounes@ edmontonjo­urnal.com Twitter.com/Sperounes

PREVIEW By Divine Right With: J. Eygenraam When: Wednesday at 9 p.m. Where: Wunderbar, 8120 101st St. Tickets: $10 at the door

“I’m too high maintenanc­e,” Jose Contreras chuckles as he stands in line at a Subway in Somewheres­ville, Ont. As the singer/guitarist fields questions on his cellphone, he tries to order a sub, what might be the first of many fast-food meals on By Divine Right’s umpteenth tour of Canada.

“I’m going to go tuna,” he says. “On honey oat. Yeah, I’m giving you a small window into my mind. I’ll go for extra cheese. Onions and lettuce. Maybe a couple hot peppers ... and just a little too much of that chipotle sauce.”

High maintenanc­e, eh? Maybe not so much with food. Music, yes. Contreras, the guiding light behind By Divine Right, is a benevolent task master — he prefers “conductor” — in the studio. With his indie-rock band’s ninth release, Organized Accidents, he led his latest bandmates — bassist Alysha Haugen (Sheezer) and drummer Geordie Dynes (The Mark Inside) — through months of endless song-shaping sessions in a forest near Toronto. They’re now in a van, touring west to Vancouver and then east to Moncton, N.B.

“I’m easy to get along with and I’ve created scenarios for myself so that I can do what I want without bothering too many people and then they give a lot back,” says Contreras, 43, in between bites of his tuna sub in BDR’s van.

“I certainly pushed everyone to the limit, not by screaming ‘Do it again!’ but by the mere fact that I was driven. I worked non-stop the last couple of months. I was living in my studio, even though my house is on the same piece of land.

“I’m way more hyper than anyone else — I will work (all night) till 1 p.m. tomorrow and I’ve rarely met anyone who can do that for more than a couple of weeks with me. There was one night in the studio when I was talking to Geordie and I turned around and he was asleep. Then I tried talking to Lysh and she was asleep.”

Which might partly explain the number of former By Divine Right members. Over the last 20 years, Contreras has worked with more than 20 musicians — including before-they-were-big Leslie Feist, Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene) and Brian Borcherdt. You could also say Contreras has a particular­ly keen nose for ambitious musicians and he likes to serve as a launching pad for their careers.

While respected by musicians across Canada, By Divine Right has never enjoyed much commercial or critical success. The band only received its first Juno nomination — Package Design of the Year — for 2009’s Mutant Message, which was BDR’s first album after a fiveyear hiatus for Contreras. He wasn’t slacking off, but producing albums for the likes of The Meligrove Band and his wife Lily Frost, not to mention playing dad to their son Meesha and daughter Paloma.

Organized Accidents, a hazy, ’90s-flavoured indierock album with sprigs of piano, comes four years after Mutant Message and explores sonic and emotional degrees of isolation and loneliness, exacerbate­d by BDR’s forest studio. “Nobody knows that you want to float away,” Contreras sings on Silver Thread, a lethargic number.

For as dark as the album can be, Organized Accidents ends on a positive note, We F’n’R, a woozy, end-of-the-night pat on the back.

While he cherishes his country abode, Contreras and his family are moving back to Toronto at the end of the summer. It’s time to return to the hustle and bustle of the city, where he can jam with bandmates and explore new artistic inspiratio­ns with greater ease.

He thinks his next album, which might be titled Onomatopoe­ia, could feel lighter — and more collaborat­ive (or low maintenanc­e) — in spirit.

“I would rather hang out with people for six months and then make my record in one month, rather than be in isolation for nine months while I make something up,” he says. “And I’d rather have someone show up, knowing what they want to do rather than ‘I have a bunch of ideas, let’s work for a year and chisel a record out if it.’ I don’t have the brain space for that anymore.

“I want to get it on, right now — and move on to the next thing.”

 ?? JONATHAN ABROSIMOFF/ BEN SROKOSZ ?? Toronto indie-rockers By Divine Right, featuring Alysha Haugen, left, Jose Contreras and Geordie Dynes
JONATHAN ABROSIMOFF/ BEN SROKOSZ Toronto indie-rockers By Divine Right, featuring Alysha Haugen, left, Jose Contreras and Geordie Dynes

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