Balanced Breakfast sent Briar Dutton to Canada to cover the final two nights of Crown Lands’ tour. Opening for July talk on April 10th at National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and April 11th at MTLEUS in Montreal. The Canadian duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist Kevin Comeau, and vocalist/drummer Cody Bowles, launch you into space with their immersive songs. Despite there only being two of them, they bring a dynamic sound that will take you on a musical journey you won’t easily forget.
Crown Lands, who describe their music as “Rush, meets Zeplin, meets Queen” performed songs from their newly released album ‘FEARLESS’ including the eagerly anticipated track ‘Lady Of The Lake’, along with their 18min long musical experience that is ‘Starlifter: Fearless Pt.II’.
Briar/I met with Cody after the show to find out more about what influences their music.
They spoke of artists who inspired the band’s sound, “King Crimson, they’re a big inspiration for Kev and I both, because we like to play with our time signatures a lot, and they are kind of like the masters of that. As well as Yes, because of the cool guitar tones, and melody choices.“. Mentioning also Jeff Buckley, which is evident in their falsetto.
“When we are thinking about writing a song, we look out to the world around us and what is going on. For example, our song ‘Citadel’ talks about the water protectors in Wet’suwet’en, which is unceded land inside of British Colombia. We really wanted to highlight how these people are to be celebrated as heroes. They are some of the last people actually protecting the water for the benefit of all humanity, not just their own land, but all of humanity. And it’s so important, and I feel like, if more people actually cared as much as those people did, then our world would honestly be a better place.”It should be celebrated as something because here in Canada they are represented as just people who are causing problems. They are demonized in the media, but they shouldn’t be.”
The song ‘Mountain’ from their EP ‘Rise Over Run’ talks about the historical colonization of the Americas, and the horrors of that from a historical viewpoint of their perspective. “The line mountain will shine again, it talks about everyone coming together and creating a better future for all people, all indigenous people, all people in general, and people just coming together. And moving forward in a good way.”
Cody is proud of the track ‘Lady Of The Lake’ or ‘Starlifter, saying “Both of those are really fun songs to play, but the most fun for me to play personally is ‘Sun Dance’, because I get to come out from behind the [drum] kit and do my thing.”
Stay tuned for the Crown Land’s headline tour across Canada, expected in the Fall! Until then, stream ‘FEARLESS’ on Spotify, or better still head on over to Crown Lands Shop and get your hands on one of their beautiful vinyl.
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