IN CONCERT
What: Current Swell with Carmanah
Where: Royal Theatre
When: Saturday, Nov. 9, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $46.50-$57 from the Royal McPherson box office (250-386-6121) or
After 17 years together, members of Current Swell had developed a non-verbal shorthand to communicate. Conversations didn鈥檛 need to happen for ideas to be expressed in the popular Victoria rock act.
鈥淎fter touring together for months on end, you can look at someone and they know what you are saying on stage,鈥� said singer-guitarist Scott Stanton. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easygoing.鈥�
But things have changed in recent months. Marcus Manhas has replaced longtime drummer Chris Petersen, while singer-guitarist Dave Lang, the band鈥檚 co-founder and co-songwriter, has stepped away from touring due to the recent birth of twin daughters (Evan Miller has been added to the lineup in Lang鈥檚 absence).
Stanton and bassist Louis Sadava are currently the only original members on tour with the group, which also added Phil Hamelin (keys and trumpet) and Dave St. Jean (trombone) to the lineup for its string of 19 dates in Canada and the U.S.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something special about having new guys in the band,鈥� Stanton said.
鈥淭hey breathe a little bit of life into it. They are young guys, and they are stoked. We鈥檝e been doing this a long time and we鈥檝e played most of the venues on this tour many times. To see these guys having fun, it鈥檚 a reminder of why we do this.鈥�
Stanton said the new unit, set to play the Royal Theatre on Saturday night, didn鈥檛 find a proper groove until four shows into the tour. 鈥淎s much practising as you can do, there鈥檚 no substitute for playing the same set every night and working on what you did wrong from the night before.鈥�
The band is touring in support of its seventh album, Buffalo, which was released on Oct. 16, so a portion of the set will be new to everyone on stage and in the audience, Stanton said. Any kinks should be smoothed out by the time the tour wraps on Dec. 7 in Washington, D.C. 鈥� especially if Stanton can get his new bandmates to be a little tougher on him.
鈥淓van and Marcus don鈥檛 talk to me the way they need to yet,鈥� Stanton said with a laugh. 鈥淚f I screw up, I need them to tell me. But they are the new guys and they don鈥檛 feel 100 per cent comfortable yet. We鈥檙e all trying to put on the best show and we can only do that if we are all equal. But that will come from being around each other a lot.鈥�
Current Swell recorded Buffalo in Brentwood Bay with producer Colin Stewart, who has worked with everyone from the New Pornographers and Dan Mangan to Black Mountain. The set (with Lang as a full-time member) was a wholly different experience from the sessions that produced 2017鈥檚 When to Talk and When to Listen, which they recorded in Nashville with Grammy Award-winning producer Jacquire King.
That record felt like it was made for other people, Stanton said, whereas Buffalo is a record for Current Swell and its longtime fans. 鈥淲hen we made the record with Jacquire, we weren鈥檛 listening back to it as a whole. Every song sounded like it wanted to be on the radio, and that put me off a little bit. That鈥檚 not who we are at all. With this album, we鈥檇 record three songs, go home, and listen to those songs before asking: 鈥榃hat else does the album need?鈥� 鈥�
Stewart and Current Swell spent more than a year making the record. Much of that time was spent finessing the finer details, Stanton said, which wasn鈥檛 possible when they were working with a producer of King鈥檚 stature due to cost.
鈥淚 would not change what we got to do with Jacquire for anything in the world. We learned so much. But we wanted to sleep in our beds every night, rather than living in Nashville for a month. And I鈥檇 do it again in a second.鈥�
