The Benefit of the Free Man stops in this Thursday to Pressed Cafe during their two week long tour to eastern Canada. The band plays Kingston tonight, and finishes up in Halifax April 26th. This is the first tour for the band, which will be playing a mixture of their first self-titled EP The Benefit of the Free Man as well as some new music that they have put together since their EP’s creation last year. Frontman Lee Piazza describes their music as “Chamber Folk”, a distinction he immediately pokes holes in.
“We’ve really been grappling with classifying ourselves as ‘Chamber Folk’. We find it sort of hard to categorize ourselves.” Piazza says, “Especially the ‘folk’ part. Folk is a very vague word. People can find all different sorts of meanings for that.” Folk music can be applied to a wide range of music and is often coupled with another genre. The bands use of the term ‘Chamber Folk’ is likely in reference to their use of violins, cello and smooth calming sound.
It’s clear why the band has issues pigeon holing themselves into one genre. Their music may be made with instruments typical to folk or chamber music, but their sound is fresh and relaxing and almost has an indie rock side to it. Piazza points out their newest video for their songs Harbord and Swept is the best representation of their music. The video, shot by Mitch Fillion, has a deep and haunting quality about it. Shot in Toronto on the set of ‘Lost Girl’, the decor coupled with the music entraps you almost instantly for both of the songs.
The bands performance would be perfect for a low key evening, and Piazza gave a bit of insight into how their performances typically go. “We’ll be playing a lot of songs from the record. We’re writing a lot more as a band now, so the video is a good indicator of what our performances are like.” Piazza says, “People ask us what to expect at a concert with us. At times our goal is to have the crowd completely hushed, at other times we can have them singing with us. There’s songs you can dance to, so despite us calling ourselves a chamber folk band, it really has a bunch of different elements to it.” Their music can be found on their Bandcamp site where it can be digitally purchased, or the band will be selling CDs.
“What we’ve been doing is selling CDs but no one really wants CDs anymore,” Piazza says, “What we did is we made a poster with all of the lyrics. I used to sit in my room and listen and read along in the book, look at the artwork. So what we have now is a poster with artwork and hand written lyrics on it with the download code as well.” This innovative way of providing their music to their fans is in reaction to the failing uses for CDs and download cards. Piazza points out that people often buy CDs for the purpose of putting the music on their computer, and eventually become cluttered with the CDs they have no use for. This way the fans still get a well rounded experience listening to the music, and are able to read along with the lyrics.
Watch the new video for Harbord and Swept:
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/87481926[/vimeo]
The Benefit of the Free Man plays Pressed Cafe (750 Gladstone Ave) this Thursday April 17th. Vedal Pearl and Caitlin Dolan open. Tickets are $7, show starts at 8pm. For more information on the band, check out their Facebook page.
