Caribou keen to bring tour to prairies
Band’s success surprises even Dan Snaith
Caribou With: Egyptrixx When: Wednesday at 9 p.m. Where: Union Hall, 6240 99th St. Tickets: $33.75 through Ticketmaster
He has a PhD in mathematics, but there’s no way Dan Snaith could have calculated the success of his band Caribou.
The Polaris Prize-winning musician has been caught in a whirlwind since the passionate response to his 2010 album Swim. With Caribou’s newest album Our Love, his schedule has only intensified.
“I thought that was the craziest it was ever going to get, but it has just been amplified this time around,” he said in an interview from his home in London, England. “It’s kind of sinking in how amazing everything is. But that’s been happening for the last few years, trying to absorb it. This is my dream.”
Here, the Canadian musician talks about his life and work in a few key words. World tour: Since releasing Our Love, Snaith and his band have travelled extensively. The tour has stopped in Australia, Asia, Western Europe and the U.S., and that in just six weeks. Snaith is still a bit astonished by the success. “We sold out the Sydney Opera House, which is something I never thought I’d say,” he said. Daughter: Snaith has a threeyear-old daughter, which means tour stints are shorter and home time is devoted to parenting, not unwinding. “It’s a different kind of demand on my time, to play some imaginary game she’s dreamed up where we’re both pirates or whatever.”
Occasionally, his daughter accompanies him to shows, including a recent one in Thailand, which was attended by a bona fide princess. “I don’t have much time for royalty or those kinds of things, but you can imagine for a three-year-old girl seeing a Thai princess at the show, she was just losing her marbles.” Parenting: Even though he lives an unusual life, Snaith aims for normalcy as a parent. “I hope that she doesn’t turn into a spoiled backstage brat,” he said with a laugh. Western Canada: It’s been a long time since Caribou did a western Canadian tour, but Snaith knew it was a must this time around. “The record labels will be clamouring for us to play in New York, London and Tokyo, but I’m like ‘We are definitely doing a prairies tour; there’s no questions about that.’” Connection: Snaith has said his goal with Our Love was to create a connection with the audience.
“I couldn’t help but imagine playing Can’t Do Without You at a big open-air summer festival or in front of a big crowd of people and having them sing along,” he said. “It’s just exceeded all of my expectations, that song and all of the tracks on the new record. It’s so much fun to play live.” Technology: Technology is a key component of Caribou’s music, but that doesn’t mean it’s soulless on stage.
Snaith is joined at concerts by Ryan Smith, Brad Weber and John Schmersal. They play traditional instruments but also use synthesizers.
“People think of technology as a kind of limitation or a crutch when you’re performing live, that it locks you into a grid or has some kind of robotic factor that takes away from the musicality of the experience. But my experience is that it’s exactly the opposite, it enhances what we can do, allows us to do things that are much more dramatic and different than we would be able to do otherwise.” Jekyll and Hyde: Performing and creating give Snaith a chance to show off two sides of his personality.
“There’s the introvert, control-freak studio side of my personality and then there’s the much more extrovert, sociable, collaborative side of my personality that gets indulged in the process of playing live.” Writing: “I haven’t made a note of music at all since finishing Our Love, which for me is kind of an alarming feeling.” He has a pentup desire to make music, but he won’t be able to indulge it until tour wraps up.