Although there is no tour planned in the immediate future, rock-pop band MarketForces has more than enough songs for a great set list.
The Edmonton-based band is releasing its third album with some surprising new stuff on Thursday, Sept. 22 at the Mercury Room.
Opportunity Costs, released on the heels of Love and Other Conspiracy Theories (2014) and Now (2011), is a six-track about the times we live in and the challenges people face.
The album’s original songs explore individuals’ constant emotional and economic struggles, where nothing is free and every turn on life’s journey reveals a fine line between success and catastrophe.
“It’s (opportunity costs) a marketing or financial term to offset the loss of potential gain from other alternative sources,” explains bassist Jeff Schmidt, a Sturgeon County acreage owner.
Schmidt was referring to a blip causing some agitation shortly after their second album was released. Lead vocalist Andrew White retired from the band in Nov. 2014 and singer-songwriter John Tidswell (Neo A4) volunteered to fill in.
Although the original MarketForces was a five-some, after White’s departure it never brought in a fifth player.
In some ways Opportunity Costs is a coming-of-age story recorded by the combined weight of the band’s core members: Schmidt, Tidswell, drummer Don Horak and lead female vocalist Dionne Danyk.
Unlike previous albums, the band invited peers to fill the hole left by White. Opportunity Costs features lead vocal performances from gifted singers across the Canadian landscape including Matt Robertson, Mallory Gage, Mike Braniff and Ric Johnston.
“We’ve been carrying on with what we do with what we have and it works. Here we are without a lead singer from the last two albums and we’re making the best of a situation by bringing in friends,” Schmidt says.
For instance, Gage takes on Think I’m Lost, a relationship song with a thick layering of vocals.
“Mallory has a super strong voice. She has an Adele-like quality to her voice and we pushed her to do a more aggressive take.”
Johnson, who lives in Vancouver, effectively used the Internet as a vehicle for recording and transmitting The Boat.
“We sent him the song and he recorded it in his own studio and sent the files back. We popped it into the tracks and he sang as a duet with Dionne.”
And then there’s Bells, where Schmidt picked up his guitar one evening and popped a clever riff. He demoed it for the band.
“John liked it and jumped on it and within a couple days he had the lyrics.”
Carry Us Away is a song about lost relationships Tidswell wrote years ago when his marriage broke up. After reworking the feel and groove, the stripped down piece delivers a haunting quality as Danyk sings “harmony like a ghost in the background.”
The upcoming album release reunites MarketForces with its featured vocalists except Johnston who was unable to make the trip from the West Coast.
Robertson opens the evening with a 30-minute pop acoustic set followed by the album launch that brings together much-anticipated new songs and some familiar older material.
Schmidt closes by saying, “What I’m looking forward to is having different people come up and sing different songs with us. It adds variety for the audience.”
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The Mercury Room is located at 10575 – 114 St. Cover charge is $10 at door.
