“I love that music and art can become anything you want. They’re a window into your mind. I can put things in motion? I can turn a squid into a bearded Zeus head? It’s just endless what you can do.”
So said Chad VanGaalen in an interview with exclaim.ca and this Canadian singer-songwriter will be coming to Galway to play the Róisín Dubh on Saturday November 29 at 9pm.
VanGaalen was born in Calgary, the largest city in Alberta, Canada. The city is nestled among foothills and high plains, in an area east of the Canadian Rockies. Calgary is also home to Todd McFarlane, creator of the Spawn comics, and fellow musicians Tegan and Sara.
VanGaalen’s own musical roots date back to the beginning of this decade, when he was a busker on the streets of Calgary. His first releases were independent releases - mostly home-made CDs with hand-drawn art.
As well as being a songwriter, VanGaalen is also an accomplished animator and illustrator whose music is informed by his appreciation of visual arts.
He began to come to wider attention with the release of Infiniheart (2004 ) - made in his bedroom/makeshift studio - on Canadian independent label Flemish Eye. It was picked up in 2005 by Sub Pop and was re-released with a bonus six-song EP entitled Green Beans.
In 2006 VanGaalen’s second album, Skelliconnection, was released comprising new songs, tracks previously released on earlier independent recordings, and exclusive artwork and videos made by the artist. The album sold well reaching No 31 and staying in the charts for 19 weeks.
Both these albums found VanGaalen in eclectic mode, using synthesisers, guitars, and even handmade instruments.
“Pretty early on, I realised that anything makes sound, and there’s a huge history of people building their own instruments.” he told altmusic.about.com “In the modern world, all the stuff we’re throwing out has value...I was at college at the time, so I’d sift through the waste-bins, find scrap wood and metal, and randomly put things together...Then, follow that through to teaching yourself how to play it, how to use it, and then recording a composition using that instrument. It was such a great lesson in sound, for me.”
This year VanGaalen released Soft Airplane, which demonstrated his ever maturing and evolving style with stripped-down acoustic ballads, driving rockers, dance-pop, and more folk inspired songs using accordions, xylophones, and vocal harmonies. Thematically the album focused on death, dreams, certainty, and hope.
“Soft Airplane sounds the way I think a record should sound,” he told exclaim.ca “It is a lot more representative of how I work when I don’t have time restraints. I could just re-record and re-record until I was happy, which is ultimately how things should be. You shouldn’t be settling for mediocre because in my mind mediocre is even worse than just bad.”
Keeping the DIY ethic going VanGaalen recorded the album on an old tape machine and a JVC ghetto blaster in his basement. It’s a central part of his musical philosophy. It’s also what encouraged him to take up music in his late teens.
“When you hear a Smashing Pumpkins album - or any high, glossy, overproduced record - it seems impossible to imagine yourself doing that,” he told altmusic.about.com “But with a Sebadoh record - that’s more ragged, unpolished - it seems so accessible. You hear it and think: I think I could do that. So, soon after that, I taught myself how to play guitar, and I started recording on two ghetto blasters, ping-ponging back and forth, multi-tracking that way.”
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago.
