Drummer drives intense, fresh beat
Explosive, psychedelic new album showcases drummer's wide range
Kenton Loewen hit his snare so hard at a recent concert at All-City Athletics in Vancouver that the skin ruptured.
But anyone familiar with the heavy Juno-nominated duo with guitarist Gord Grdina wasn't surprised by this level of intensity. Driving the beat behind everyone from rockers Mother Mother and Dan Mangan + Blacksmith to jazz units such as KneeJerk, Loewen always brings animal intensity to his playing. But this improvising basher is equally at home performing quieter, intimate folk-tinged singer/songwriter sounds as guitarist and frontman for past projects such as the Crackling. With the release of his new solo album Petrol Matches Boom on B.C.'s busy indie label and production imprint Drip Audio, the different elements of his distinct musical personality are combined.
From the eerily lit image of his disembodied face floating in a criss-crossed, starry night sky to the nine new songs, the album is an explosive listen. Loewen says the sounds reflect the setting he and producer/violinist Jesse Zubot created for the recording sessions.
“It's safe to say that Jesse and I were not entirely sober at times during this particular creation and things got pretty psychedelic,” said Loewen. “It was created during the pandemic and the title reflects a very real need to move beyond that chaos and madness, to end that portion of my life and move on. It also is an homage to my previous band, the Crackling, which refer to the sound of fire.”
The reason for not releasing Petrol Matches Boom as the Crackling was that the sessions were the first time Loewen worked on original material without a steady band. The lineup of contributors to the new record explains its considerable sonic variety.
Among the musicians who dropped parts into the recording are legendary Tom Waits sideman Marc Ribot on guitar, Björk musical director Matt Robertson on synths, B.C. jazz great Tony Wilson on guitar, bassist Darren Parris, backup singers Marin Patenaude and Coho Cayenne, along with strings from Zubot. Loewen added lead vocals, guitar, organ, percussion and drums.
The idea of the album had been floating in the creative ether for a number of years.
“I pitched Jesse the idea of making a record, backstage at a Sheryl Crow concert at a festival we were playing with Dan Mangan years ago, and the idea never faded because of our busy schedules,” said Loewen. “We had just started into it when the world shut down and the calls started coming in about all the cancellations and suddenly found ourselves living together as `bubble people' and made a record. The other musicians all provided their parts either in studio, if possible, or remotely due to pandemic restrictions.”
From Ribot's screaming lead solos on the opener Circles to the hushed and haunting vocal harmonies in the folky Sleep, each participant leaves their distinctive stamp on the final mixes. Aside from Loewen's warm and emotional baritone, the other consistent presence on the recording is Robertson's synthesizer. Loewen admits he was stunned by the veteran U.K. musician's contributions.
“Like any musician who isn't in the top one per cent, I have another fallback to make a living and that is I'm an electrician, and Matt was someone I'd done work for,” he said. “When I asked him if he would be interested in being on the recording, he did what I would do and told me to send over some samples and he would get back to me. His response three days later was to send me the entire record back with all of his stuff done, absolutely incredible. I'm still amazed at that level of talent.”
From the midtempo shuffle indie rock vibe of Rickety As Hell to the moody waltz of Toeing the Line, Loewen pours himself into the material. Each track seems to share an accompanying mood, with a kind of conceptual consistency from start to finish. It's as if Petrol Matches Boom could have been packaged as a concept album documenting a journey from chaos to the calming final notes of Talk About it Yet.
Pink Floyd could be a fair comparison, although one that Loewen admits caught him by surprise.
“That comparison is strange, but others have made it,” he said.
“Jesse and I were just trying to capture things like being literally out of your mind at 4 a.m. while working and so on. But then you listen back, and it's completely true, but completely unintentional. Everything that happened on this project happened organically, right down to this being the first time I played drums on my own record.”
Loewen says that approach resulted in a final creation that reflects the near-telepathic communication between him and Zubot, who he has known and made music with for over 25 years, as well as turning a page on past projects. Petrol Matches Boom is the product of the two stuck in Zubot's Deep Bay Bunker studios for months.
Obviously, it will be a challenge to recreate the experience live.
“I've been on the road constantly every year from 24 to 44 and everything I'd done previously was with a mind towards touring the music,” said Loewen.
“I'm of several minds regarding this album as I have no working band and I don't have intention or feel the need to work with it in that way right now. The priority is to put this music out, and if a fire catches then I can reconsider.”
Given that the established professional drummer has 10 other projects that are recording, performing or both adds to the challenges in presenting Petrol Matches Boom live any time soon.
We had just started into it when the world shut down ... suddenly found ourselves living together as `bubble people' and made a record.