It may have been bands like Montreal’s Arcade Fire and Toronto’s Broken Social Scene that kicked the door wide open on a global level for Canadian indie rock, but it’s bands like Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes that are proving our brightest is yet to shine.
Headed up by husband and wife duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas and rounded out by drummer/vocalist Kevin Laing and guitarist/vocalist Richard White, The Besnard Lakes’ third record, The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, is easily their most glimmering moment. Nineties-era indie-rock jangle and fuzz intertwines with soaring ’70s psychedelic sounds, progressive-rock prowess, a punk-rock sense of urgency, a rich tapestry of dense and daring instrumentation with more than enough hairpin turns to snap the neck of predictable pabulum pop.
The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse, their second release, had already garnered a heap of praise on an international level, resulting in a Polaris Prize nomination last year and well-received performances at the highly touted SXSW festival, so the pressure was definitely on to follow up on its success. “Maybe I felt a little bit of pressure when we first went in to make this record,” says Goreas, “but after a couple of days I felt safe in my skin again. It was such a great pleasure making this record and it sparked off a bit of a creative renaissance for me. I think feeling that you can better yourself is part of the creative process.”
Although the band is known for a searing live show, it’s actually hunkered down in the studio where they feel most comfortable. Considering Lasek is a part owner of one of Montreal’s favorite recording spots, Breakglass Studios, the band is able to utilize unconventional studio techniques and use them as a writing tool. “We usually have ideas that we bring in and record and then build the song around it,” says Goreas. “I think our spontaneity comes in the form that we don’t really have any pre-production, and once we hit ‘record’ we basically hit the ground running. We like experimentation and to work outside of convention and only later reassess what we have and mold it into a classic song structure.”