Posts Tagged ‘Liam O’Neill’

SUUNS – ” Fiction ” EP

Posted: October 29, 2020 in MUSIC
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For over a decade, Montreal’s Suuns have been formulating a mixture of krautrock, jazz, post-punk, and noise rock, resulting in atmospheric and enthralling compositions. But after releasing and touring 2018’s Felt, founding member Max Henry departed the group in order to pursue a scholastic path, setting off a series of massive changes. The rest of the group—singer Ben Shemie, drummer Liam O’Neill, and guitarist Joseph Yarmush—underwent an experimental metamorphosis, performing with various pals to see who could fill Henry’s place.

“We would try new stuff out as it’s coming in on tour, or during shows, to test out some things,” Shemie explains, calling from Paris. “That was much more difficult because we were trying different people out to play. That made the whole process a lot more arduous in terms of having to learn all this material that the three of us knew so well, and then try to teach it to new people,” O’Neill, calling from the other side of the Atlantic in Montreal, chimes in. “At this point we’d been working so long together, it’s second nature in a way. It’s a place where you can navigate the creative process. It’s not a thing you can ever teach. You have to experience that.”

For a band whose live shows are integral to their process and development of ideas, a global pandemic forced them to rework a release schedule that had become somewhat routine over the past decade. “In the history of our band, and for most working bands, you’re on this hamster wheel the whole time,” O’Neill says. “You’re working and doing that endless cycle of recording and touring and then recording again.” After finding keyboard replacement Mathieu Charbonneau, Suuns were preparing to release and tour their fifth album this year, which COVID halted; the hamster wheel broke.

In lieu of Felt’s follow-up, they’ve released two live albums to commemorate the departure of Henry, and a remix album of their breakthrough 2013 single “2020.” Their latest offering to tide us over until next year’s full-length is a six-track EP, composed of some older reworked tracks and a few newer songs that didn’t make the forthcoming album. It’s their most diverse collection yet, with bits of ambient noise, bouncing hip-hop inflections, and bursts of processional drums. We chatted about how Fiction creatively energized the band and made them rethink their process. 

Suuns off ‘Fiction EP’ out on Joyful Noise Recordings (World) & Secret City Records (Canada).

SUUNS – Felt “

Posted: January 11, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Montreal band Suuns are pleased to announce their new album, “Felt”, coming out on March 2nd through Secretly Canadian. Singer/guitarist Ben Shemie says, “This record is definitely looser than our last one [2016’s Hold/Still]. It’s not as clinical. There’s more swagger.” You can hear this freedom flowing through the 11 tracks on Felt. It’s both a continuation and rebirth, the Montreal quartet returning to beloved local facility Breakglass Studios (where they cut their first two albums [Zeroes QC and Images Du Futur] with Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes) but this time recording themselves at their own pace, over five fertile sessions spanning several months. A simultaneous stretching out and honing in, mixed to audiophile perfection by St. Vincent producer John Congleton (helmer of Hold/Still), who flew up especially from Dallas to deploy his award-winning skills in situ.

The album’s lead single “Watch You, Watch Me” debuts today  in the form of a Ruff Murphy-directed video. The song showcases an organic/synthetic rush that builds and builds atop drummer Liam O’Neill‘s elevatory rhythm. O’Neill exclaims, “It was different and exciting. In the past, there was a more concerted effort on my part to drum in a controlled and genre-specific way. Self-consciously approaching things stylistically. Us doing it ourselves, that process was like a very receptive, limitless workshop to just try out ideas.”

Suuns are hugely proud of their roots in Canada’s most socialist province, whilst not sounding quite like anything else the city has produced. Quebecois natives Shemie and Joseph Yarmush founded the group just over a decade ago, the latter having moved to Montreal from a nearby village. The only member not to be formally schooled in jazz, guitarist Yarmush studied photography and utilized his visual training to help realize Shemie’s novel concept for the eye-catching album artwork.

“I was at a barbecue last summer and there were balloons everywhere,” recalls the singer. “I like this idea of pressure, resistance, and pushing against something just before it brakes. And there is something strangely subversive about a finger pushing into a balloon. It seemed to fit the vibe of the record we were making. We made plaster casts of our hands, going for a non-denominational statue vibe. Joe came up with the colour scheme, the sickly green background, and shot the whole cover in an hour.”

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It’s a suitably outre image for Felt, which breaks with Suuns’ earlier darkness for a more optimistic ambience. The record’s playful atmosphere is echoed by its double meaning title. “Some people might think of the material,” muses Shemie. “I like that that could be misconstrued. Also it’s to have felt and not to feel a little introspective, but that feeling’s in the past.”