SEPTEMBER 2008 - VIEW MAGAZINE - FEATURE

Since the summer of 2006, Toronto’s Bruce Peninsula has been evolving and ballooning into a formidable musical force, and the Canadian indie rock scene has been quick to take notice. Upon formation, Misha Bower and Matt Cully decided to start playing songs that they’d discovered, and become enamored with, from the Library of Congress’s Archive of Folk Songs, which was exhaustively compiled by noted musicologist, Alan Lomax, during the first half of the 20th century.

After only two shows as a duo, the lineup quickly snowballed, picking up more enthused musicians who also happened to be friends, eventually becoming a grand musical beast with almost a dozen heads!

“This band is just a mash of people who met in Toronto,” as explained by Neil Haverty, one of two BP members to originally come out of Hamilton, “The relationships usually weren't musical first. We
worked together or we had mutual acquaintances and became friends. When Bruce Peninsula was starting to come together, we were very mindful of who would sound good in the band, but we were lucky because we were tight with lots of talented people.”

The collective musical resume of Bruce Peninsula is just too extensive to cover thoroughly on this page, but every member has plenty going individually that warrants some mention. Before Bruce Peninsula came to be, Misha Bower was primarily a playwright and dramatic performer, and Matt Cully was a busy DJ and promoter all over Toronto. In fact, BP is the first actual gigging band for both founding members. Neil Haverty has performed with various groups, and as a solo artist, throughout the decade. Drummer Steve McKay, who also hails from Hamilton, is an incredibly sought–after backing musician for various artists, a solo artist with releases under his belt and a production assistant in TO. Bassist Andrew Barker is a jazz–fluent guitar teacher/performer who composes on his own as well. Vocalist Katie Stelmanis is a recording artist whose own record was released by Blocks Recording Club earlier this year. Vocalist Casey Mecija spends her non–BP time fronting another current Toronto indie–fave, Ohbijou. Kari Peddle is cutting her ‘post–high school band’ musical teeth as a vocalist in BP. Vocalist Daniela Gesundheit makes her own music as ‘Snowblink’. Percussionist, Leon Taheny is a successful recording engineer and a member of the post Death From Above 1979 project, Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains. Percussionist Maya Postepski studied percussion at the U of T and also plays in Katie’s band.

Got all that? Great.

Let’s get back to what they do together, as Bruce Peninsula. The music harnesses the spirit of the great blues, folk and gospel singers from long ago, all the while injecting some more modern post–rock intricacies into their own songs as well as the re–interpretations that they’ve produced.

On most of their tunes, Misha and Neil lead the other vocalists in a call and response mode as the band stomps, drums and strums alongside the glorious choir. “Ultimately,” as Haverty is quick to point out, “we'd like to make it impossible to identify any single one of us as the lead singer. On the record, Misha sings ‘Weave Myself A Dress’ and ‘Drinking All Day’ and I sing a lot of the other leads but, for example, Katie sings a lead at the end of ‘2nd 4th’ World War’, Isla and Matt sing together in the middle of ‘Shutters’ and Katie and Misha sing together at the start of ‘Shanty Song.’ Going forward, the lead singer line will definitely not be so clear–cut.”

Bruce Peninsula is a musical vehicle in which every member has the opportunity to take the wheel. It’s a policy that the band doesn’t take lightly, and it’s because of this collaborative democracy and multi–faceted musical chemistry that Bruce Peninsula has already developed a highly recognizable sound of their very own. Having so many vocalists working together within the group is certainly one of the key factors to their unique style.

“It was definitely a conscious decision to focus on the singing,” assures Haverty, “We're all suckers for good harmonies. Even if this band didn't exist, we'd still sing in chorus when we got drunk at parties and we'd still generally be drawn to vocal–heavy music. Bruce Peninsula was always going to be full of voices. That was clear from day one.”

“Singing draws people in,” adds Cully, “No matter how far a composer wants to push the human voice to its limits it will somehow always resist complete abstraction. We can't help but recognize our own voice when we hear someone singing, it always seems to echo as a ghostly dimension to our listening. I feel like this innate attraction to vocal music will always somehow align it with the spiritual. And seeking the spiritual will always occupy us even in our current climate of despair.”

One can only imagine how convoluted the songwriting process must be with so many talented people in one group. “The idea for a song,” as Cully explains, “is usually brought forward by an individual, or developed closely in a small group, usually no more than three. So far Neil, Misha and I have usually been the instigators at this level. This is increasingly changing and our process is opening up to include a larger core of writers. We have a good mixture of trained, semi–trained and untrained musicians within the group that can offer a unique mix of perspectives on developing songs. A song will take many shapes before it develops into a solid, repeatable entity. It takes a while before everyone feels as though they've contributed to some aspect of the whole.”

The band are just putting the finishing touches on their debut full length, A Mountain is a Mouth, and despite an indie label bidding war for their recording, they’ve decided to give it a go on their own by self–releasing it this January. As Cully declares, “We are very happy to be releasing this record ourselves, though admittedly we're a little daunted by the task. We really feel that new possibilities for distributing music independently are constantly opening up and we are excited to learn all we can about cutting–edge approaches.” Haverty supports their decision to go D.I.Y like a proud and loving parent, “It came down to one thing. Why, after so long, coddling this baby of ours, would we sell it off? We don't have to bring in strangers; we have enough ‘staff' in the band and willing friends to help give it a proper release. So we've decided to keep it close to us. It's on us to keep it all under control but in the end, we just didn't want to let her go.”

Be sure to get to the Casbah early enough to catch a live sneak preview of A Mountain is a Mouth when Bruce Peninsula warm, if not burn, the crowd up for Apostle of Hustle.