GRAND CANYONS
Categories: Interviews, Music
I was recently lucky enough to be able to send through some questions to Canyons who simultaneously signed to Modular and released the ‘Fire Eyes’ EP on DFA, to get the low down on this enigma and what’s happening in the near future.
Hatch: Your Myspace is quite the puzzle can you give our readers the rundown on who you guys are and how Canyons came about?
Canyons: Canyons came about after we started our little record label ‘Hole In The Sky’. We didn’t have a distributor so we sent out cds (to distributors) with a bunch of our tracks with made up names as the artists so it looked like we had more bands and more going on with the label other than just us. Canyons was one of those names, we liked it and decided to run with it.
Hatch: I read that your album will be released in early 2010, could you give us the low down on what’s happening with it are there any guests on board, which seems to be the why things are done these days a.l.a MSTRKRFT, Simian Mobile Disco
Canyons: The record will be out closer to mid 2010, but we’re going to release a 12″ on Modular before the year’s out. We’re recording every day which is great. We’ve got a pretty clear idea of what we’re trying to achieve musically which really helps. We want the album to be a heard as one thing as apposed to 10 tracks put together and called an album because it makes up 60 minutes of music.
Yeah, there will be some friends and guests on it for sure. Tame Impala were hanging out drinking beers today which was fun.
Hatch: Where do you guys find new inspiration for your music?
Canyons: We’re really interested in sounds and the feeling that is created by a particular sound. Trying to get different sounds out of our studio and our equipment generally takes us somewhere new. A lot of our tracks come about by a very simple sound looping that creates a mood that we think is curious or exciting or whatever and go from there.
We’re really inspired by great lyrics and song structure right now so we’re trying to create a combination of sonically interesting music that is still influenced by traditional songwriting, which is a new way of working for us and definitely inspiring. In terms of types of music that we’re influenced by it spans anything from soul, house, psych, folk, disco and various other bits and pieces.
Hatch: The internet is an ever changing landscape that has evolved rapidly in the past 10 years with the creation of media outlets such as blogs, forums, etc, which allow you to move information more freely, in the case of the music industry do you think this change has been a good one?
Canyons: For sure, myspace was a huge help for us when we started HITS. Good blogs and forums are great in the sense that like-minded people from where ever are communicating around whatever is new as well as what may have been forgotten, which means it has become an amazing way to find out about new (and old) music and also keep people interested in music that would otherwise be sitting in record collectors record collections and not being heard.
What we’re not into is when some blogs who masquerade as being these purveyors of the “current” by posting up new tracks (that they’ve ripped from myspace) with no review or information on the artist just to get traffic on their page and ultimately money from third party advertising. But overall the upside to it all far outweighs the downs and the hacks doing it for the wrong reasons are always exposed in the end.
Hatch: When your not creating what can you guys be found doing? bowling? fishing? any relaxing things in between.
Canyons: Swimming, going to the mountains, riding bikes, kayaking, deep sea fishing, bungee jumping, anything that’s outdoors really and buying the odd record here and there.
Hatch: Finally who would you like to jump out of a plane with dead or alive?
Canyons: Keanu Reeves in point break (RIP Patrick Swayze)
Hatch
