Life experience leads to more serious record

It isn’t often that a band can emulate the sounds of familiar influences while managing to create its own distinct style. However, Victoria’s Current Swell does it with ease, taking its music to a whole new level through the recent release of the album A Long Time Ago.

The band, originally co-founded in St. Albert, has successfully broken free from its surf-rock genre, proving that it isn’t all fun and games for these young musicians.

“We recorded 25 songs and narrowed it down to the ones that would make the most cohesive album, you know, instead of the usual blues, rock, reggae mixture,” explained Scott Stanton, the band’s lead guitarist, lap slide player and vocalist.

“We really wanted a serious and meaningful album, more mature if that’s the right word to use,” he said. “And that’s the direction we stuck with. All these songs on the album are meaningful to us either personally or as a band.”

It’s evident that the band is exploring its roots through its folky rock, prairie-styled sound that could only come from being born and raised in Alberta.

Stanton and Dave Lang, who performs on vocals, guitar, banjo and harmonica, first met during high school. Lang attended Paul Kane while Stanton went to St. Albert Catholic High.

After making the move to Victoria, the two began playing together, eventually picking up their former bassist Louis Sadava and shortly after discovering their drummer Chris Peterson. Aaron “Ghosty” Write then took over as the bassist, completing the formation of the band.

After four full-length albums, the band has managed to establish a loyal fan-base throughout Canada and even as far away as Brazil.

“We have a crazy fan-base in Brazil and we don’t even know how it happened,” Stanton laughed. “We’ve had a lot of emails coming in from these fans about when we’re coming to play, so we’ll see. It would be nice, a working vacation.”

The true brilliance of this record lies in the band’s ability to find consistency and versatility through earnest songwriting, strong soulful vocals from both Stanton and Lang, layered instrumentation and harmonious melodies. The album centres around the people and the stories that have inspired the band.

The most notable and heart-wrenching song on the album, Brad’s Song, has a strong personal connection to the band members, as it’s dedicated to their close friend Brad Shuttleworth who passed away recently. This beautifully written and touching tune truly captures the intricate musicianship of Current Swell.

“Brad’s Song wasn’t a question about whether or not it would be on this album. It had to be. He changed our lives for the better,” Stanton said.

Stanton and Shuttleworth met in St. Albert, but they weren’t close friends until they moved in together with Lang in Victoria.

“We had a gentleman’s club, as we called it, which was basically five reclining sofas where we talked about music and life — we all became great friends. Then we all went travelling together which is where Brad had his accident, resulting in him becoming a paraplegic. Eventually he passed away from complications after a very long and painful struggle,” Stanton said with a voice tinged with sadness.

After the funeral, all the band members ventured out on a surfing trip to Shuttleworth’s favourite surfing spot in Tofino where they spread his ashes in the ocean. Lang dedicated his song in celebration of Shuttleworth’s life.

“The reaction we’re getting from this song is insane. It’s amazing how quiet it gets. You can hear a pin drop,” Stanton said. “And then people will start singing back. It’s a really cool experience.”

The band’s new album may be more serious than its previous work, but the goal of having energetic live shows remains the same.

“It’s great seeing friends and family come out, as well as new faces. We seem to have a pretty hard-partying fan base so they expect a lot of energy from us in return,” Stanton said.

The band is looking forward to playing a hometown show at The Pawn Shop this Friday.

“Edmonton has never disappointed us,” Stanton said. “They’ve always been very supportive of our music, especially the St. Albert fans. We’ve had tours where it was one bad show after another, then we’d come to Edmonton and the fans would remind us why we do it. It’s people like this that keep us going.”

With a full-fledged North American tour underway, Current Swell is sitting back and seeing where their album takes them before making plans for the future.

“It’s always been baby steps with our band. It’s not a jump to the top, you know?” Stanton said.

“Right now we just have to sit and wait, push this record and see where it takes us before we decide what comes next.”