NOVEMBER 2007 - OTTAWA XPRESS - FEATURE

There's something extremely special about two voices connecting in the right way. If you don't think so, then imagine all music was a bad night of karaoke at Shanghai. We need perfect harmonies in our music, and when a band can harness them, like New Pornographers or Arcade Fire, the results are stunning. Likewise, Toronto's Bruce Peninsula is all about seeking the spiritual in the harmonies of its many singers. Taking a page from Canada's recent bigger-is-better approach to bands, the lineup includes 11 musicians. "The reason we got more people involved in the first place was because we knew we wanted a lot of singing," Neil Haverty clarifies. "The specific starting point came when Matt [Cully] proposed we do an old chain gang song called Rosie for our second show. The song called for a big group of singers, so we taught it to a bunch of our friends in the parking lot behind the club and performed it 20 minutes later. That turned out really well, and when we heard it, the idea of an 11-member band started to make sense."

To put it simply, Bruce Peninsula is looking for something unique and lasting. As Matt Cully notes, "We really want to avoid the trappings of rock, indie rock, or whatever the dominant style is in this month's [music] magazines. Having a large group takes the pressure off the individual and allows us to experiment with all sorts of subtleties and to explore sonic territories that require more than a few hands."

Indeed, what better place is there for a choir to sing in than a church?

"We've managed to get some really magnificent natural reverb and wide-open sounds," Haverty explains about recording in a church for their upcoming debut album. "Some of those recordings have choirs that are 30 or 40 people strong, and every one of them is singing their heart out. There's something about a big group of people singing that's inherently moving, no matter what kind of song they're singing, and we know we want to channel some of that." Though the album won't be out until next year, you can still check out live recordings of upcoming songs at www.myspace.com/brucepeninsula . See them now so you can brag about it later.