LIFESTYLES
Nothing Contrived about band's revival
Getting the band back together isn't so easy when your members are scattered across the country. But with everyone coming home for the holidays, the Nova Scotia indie rock stalwart Contrived decided to give Halifax fans an early Christmas present.
The group plays a rare show on Friday at the Seahorse Tavern, with Diamondtown (members of Husband & Knife and Eric's Trip) and betweenset tunes spun by Contrived's good pal Brian Borcherdt (Burnt Black, Holy F***), but its rarity could decrease down the road as its far-flung members gravitate back toward the East Coast.
20 YEARS
Next year marks the band's 20th anniversary, since founding members Michael MacNeil, Mike Bigelow and Loel Campbell formed the group as high school students in Stellarton. Eventually, Bigelow's and Campbell's fellow Wintersleep members Tim D'Eon and Jon Samuel were added to the fold, and over the years Contrived ran on parallel tracks to its brother band, which has most of the same members but with Yarmouth's Paul Murphy on vocals and a distinct approach to sound and subject matter.
The group's last release was the 2008 album Blank, Blank, Blank, which still carries a considerable sonic punch over a decade later, but after touring with that record the band took a back seat to Wintersleep's ongoing recording and global touring, and the fact that most of the members had moved away to Montreal and Quebec City.
There were sporadic Contrived shows at home and at Sappyfest, with a poignant reunion last January in Stellarton after Campbell's father Joel passed away.
“We kind of got back together for my father's celebration of life in January, because that was one of his wishes, for us to play at his party,” he recalls over a coffee at the Isleville Street studio where rehearsals for Friday's show are taking place.
“We also did some Wintersleep stuff, but he liked Contrived too, especially our cover of Everybody Wants to Rule the World. But everybody being together, playing those songs, that was the first time we'd done it since 2011.”
BACK TOGETHER
Samuel remained in Halifax, but with Wintersleep's Murphy moving back a year ago and Campbell spending more time here, it's only a matter of time before most of the members are back in the Maritimes fold.
“I'm in the process of moving back here, I just need to find a place,” says D'Eon, grimacing at Campbell's suggestion that Halifax will be more expensive than Quebec City.
Neither member can say what the future holds in store for Contrived — Friday's Seahorse Tavern show came about with the gentle prodding of friend and venue manager Jeff Pineau — as MacNeil is currently involved with fellow Pictou County musicians in the band Moon Logic. But Campbell says there's no reason why there couldn't be some sort of followup to Blank, Blank, Blank in the not-too-distant future.
“We haven't worked on anything new for Contrived, but everyone's up for seeing what we can do,” he says. “We have a few ideas kicking around that haven't landed in the Wintersleep realm of things, which seem very Contrived-like, so we're sharing stuff via email and passing material around.
“We don't have time to really work on anything new right now, but if everybody's around enough for it, there's no reason not to work on new stuff . ... It all starts with just jamming with buds.”
WINTERSLEEP AWAKENS
It also happens that the parallel tracks of Contrived and Wintersleep are converging at the same time, as the show by the former is happening at the same time that the latter is in the early stages of coming out of hibernation.
It's a lot easier now that Wintersleep frontman Murphy has relocated back to Halifax, and over the holidays they're touching base and beginning the process for creating a follow-up to this spring's contemplative release In the Land Of.
“It's all new stuff, we're just tossing out ideas, jamming in the room and feeling things out. We're recording it all, and trying to follow the thread of what's getting us excited,” says Campbell.
“We weren't even going to come in this week,” adds D'Eon, “but things were going really good and we thought, ‘Let's just keep 'er going!'”
HOLIDAY COMEDY
This time of year can be something of an emotional pressure cooker, which makes it perfect timing for Canadian Comedy Award-winning comic Chris Locke to open the valve a bit with a two-show stand on Friday at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax.
Performing at 7 and 9:30 p.m. with guest Nick Martinello, Locke's self-described “crazy brand of loose-meets-tight stand-up comedy” comes at you from all angles, with a unique sense of timing and gargantuan levels of self-deprecation that set him apart from his peers.
You've probably seen him on Mr. D or Baroness Von Sketch Show, or heard him on CBC Radio's The Debaters, but give his original material a shot on his albums The World Is Embarrassing and Demons Are Eating My Head (or many, many YouTube clips) and opt for some comic relief from holiday stress.
For more info, visit the event page for Chris Locke at the Bus Stop Theatre on Facebook; tickets are available from www. tickethalifax.com.