Ottawa will be welcoming back some of its own talent as Snowday brings their new music to Mugshots this Saturday. The electronic act is made up of Cam Sloan and Chad Skinner.
The duo’s debut album, As We Travel, is a collection of meditative, instrumental tracks that was released today (November 25). Their chilled out sound has earned them comparisons to electronic artists such as Bonobo and Tycho.
Snowday’s singles “Walk Along These Rocks With Me” and “The Seventh String” are both available to hear on their SoundCloud page.
Looking forward to their upcoming Ottawa show this weekend, Sloan and Skinner took the time to chat on the phone with Apartment613 about their new album and how far they’ve come working together.
Although they’re currently based in Toronto, the two friends met and started making music together while they were in high school in Ottawa. Electronic music wasn’t their first passion.
“When we started making our own beats, we were making hip hop music, but we started to slowly fall in love with making the music more than writing lyrics and rapping,” said Skinner. “So we kinda just transitioned into instrumental music, and naturally it had a chill feel.”
Putting their new album together was a back-and-forth working progress, they explained. “A lot of the stuff on this [album] was like, one of us would start and maybe the other would come in and… just provide input and do a bit of inspiration over it, and then take over a bit and go back and forth,” said Sloan. “Sometimes just one person makes [a track] and sometimes it’s collaborating.”
“I think only one or two tracks were started together,” said Skinner. “The rest we started on our own and then started collaborating once there was a base track.”
They were excited to work with a variety of sounds for the album. “It’s mostly instrumental, but we feature two different vocalists, and they seem to have a really different feel,” said Sloan. “Someone was saying one of the tracks is kinda R&B, there’s a jazz vocalist Sammy Jackson who kinda gave a jazzy feel to it. All the instrumental stuff is pretty chill. It’s kinda what comes out of us naturally, we don’t really force it. It just happens.”
Their show this Saturday will feature a range of guest performers and collaborators, making it an entirely new experience for anyone who’s seen Snowday perform before.
“We’ve switched things up a bit with the addition of Kaleigh Watts to join us on a track (“A Quiet Winter“) and a violinist [Jessie Lyon] joining as well,” said Sloan.
“We’re coming with Loopsy Dazy, a band from Toronto. We’re really excited about their sound, they’re an organic electronic instrumental group, and they just kinda improvise tracks. They’re bringing a drummer as well [Brad Weber], the drummer in Pick a Piper and Caribou, an exciting group.
“We’re also playing with local group Modern Dinosaurs, they’re a duo from Ottawa we started listening to. They’re really post-rock instrumental, really emotional, and we’re really excited to play with them.”
It’s always a nice return for Snowday to play in Ottawa, where everything started for the two of them.
“It’s basically where we grew up,” said Sloan. “Like Chad came as a teen and I grew up [in Ottawa] so just going back home you see a lot of old friends, and we’ll actually be playing onstage with a lot of friends of ours.”
“We played a show last month in Ottawa as well, it was awesome, a good turn out, a lot of support,” said Skinner. “It’s awesome to be home and see a lot of familiar faces.”
We’re giving away a pair of tickets to see Snowday on Saturday. To enter, just send an email with “Snowday” in the subject header to apartment613@gmail.com by noon on Friday Nov 28. A winner will be selected by random draw.
Snowday plays Mugshots (75 Nicholas St) on Saturday, November 29, 2014, at 8pm. Tickets are $10 and available online in advance.
