On Wednesday eve, Ottawa’s Bosveld will combine with Evening Hymns and Julie Dorion and the Wooden Stars to create a savory folk buffet sure to gratify a wide range of tastes. Grab your musical fork, your musical spoon, your musical toothpick, your musical… can-opener? Bosveld explains.
Sandro Marcon: Describe the kind of restaurant that would have “Bosveld” on its menu as its feature dish?
Bosveld: There’s this diner-style restaurant chain that’s big in South Africa called Wimpy’s. Terrible food, but conceivably they would have a Bosveld platter on the menu. A can of pork and beans, pan-fried pasta, and a handful of lentils. Bike tour fuel.
S: Your mixed tape “Catalysts” sounds a bit like a tri-straddle of hypnotic dreams, nature’s rustling, and electronic suturing. Can you tell us a bit about the process that goes into making these soundscapes?
B: Catalysts mixtape came out of the ideas and demos we made during the process of recording our upcoming LP. We felt the need to put something together, to show people and to have something tangible for our friends and fans to get a hold of. There’s bits of piano ideas Jeremy recorded, guitar loops from Théan, and a collection of demos and field recordings which we pieced together in a continuous stream of consciousness.
S: Can you describe a piece of electronic music technology that you use and what it does sonically? How did you come about using this piece of music technology?
B: We use a computer program called Ableton Live, which allows us to process acoustic sounds and manipulate them in real time. That means we can take our acoustic instruments, loop them live, and apply various effects to create musical textures.
S: If I understand correctly, you just went on a bike tour through Ontario. What was the impetus behind that? Why not just a drive a car? Did you worry about rain? How far were you biking each day?
B: While working in a bicycle shop a few years ago, Théan came across a magazine article about an American bluegrass cellist named Ben Sollee, who biked with his gear across a couple of states. The band’s interest in sustainability, and a desire to connect with communities and people across the province, as well as a love of cycling, led us to seriously plan for a large-scale tour. Kunstadt Sports helped make it possible. Of course rain is a factor which we considered, we put our valuable gear in drybags to keep it safe and just kept biking! Luckily though, we had amazing weather and somehow managed to avoid biking in any torrential downpours. We biked anywhere from 60-100km a day; that translated into 4-10 hours.
S: Any memorable moments to relate from the road regarding food, wildlife, nature or romance?
B: Memorable moments? A lot of canned beans. We found it fitting considering they’re the musical fruit.
S: Ha ha… So, how many people are going to play as “Bosveld” at St. Albans Church? Who are they?
B: For the Arboretum show, Bosveld will be in quartet form. That means Théan on guitar and vocals, Jeremy on saxophone, Phillipe Charbonneau on bass, and Pascal OfLaki on drums.
S: You’ll be sharing the stage at Arboretum with Julia Dorian & The Wooden Stars and Evening Hymns. How familiar are you with these acts? How do you see your tunes jiving with theirs?
B: Spectral Dusk (Evening Hymns’ 2012 release) in particular occupies a pretty special place in our hearts, so seeing Evening Hymns is thrilling. We haven’t yet seen Julie Doiron and The Wooden Stars live, but they’re wonderful musicians, and we’re really looking forward to seeing them play and showing them our tunes!
S: Have a great set, lads. All the best.
B: Thanks so much!
