Tony Dekker makes Ontario sound mythical. Both in lyric and
location of the recording process, the Great Lake Swimmers’ latest
effort, Lost Channels, explores the various caverns within the
Thousand Islands region. From historic island castles to old-world
churches, the album charts this mysterious terrain.
“For songwriting, I usually try to get into a really quiet space,”
says the Swimmers’ singer/guitarist Tony Dekker, calling from his
Toronto home. The band will play along with Kate Maki at St. Matthew’s
Church on March 11. “Close to some natural surroundings or out in the
woods in a real quiet mental space is how I usually get the writing
done for the records.
“When I bring the music to the band the songs are basically just in
the form of guitar and voice and we just go from there. We build on
them, arrange them and add instrumentation.”
Great Lake Swimmers discography includes: 2003’s self-titled
release; Bodies and Minds (2005); Hands in Dirty Ground (2006) and 2007’s Ongiara. Lost Channels is the band’s
second album released on Vancouver’s Nettwerk Records.
After hearing the band on CBC’s Vinyl Cafe, photographer and
regional historian Ian Coristine invited Dekker and his fellow paddlers
Erik Arnesen (banjo and electric guitar), Greg Millson (drums), Darcy
Yates (upright and electric bass) and Julie Fader (flute and backing
vocals) to tread within the murky waters and acoustics of the Thousand
Islands region—particularly Dark Island’s Singer Castle, Brockville’s
historic Arts Centre and St. Brendan’s Church.
“It was really great to document the sounds of some of these places.
That’s a really important part of the recording process for me,” says
Dekker. “Not only to have a sense of space, but there is a sense of
history and every one of these places is charged with a certain type of
electricity that you can feel when you go into them.”
Lost Channels draws both on the poetics of the area,
historically referencing the passage of water where many crew members
disappeared during a battle in 1760, and the metaphoric qualities the
language conjures.
“Sorry to go overkill on the Thousand Islands—it is really a
beautiful place,” he says. “I think I’ve driven by it hundreds of times
but never really knew it was there.
“I thought there was a lot to imagine in a title like Lost
Channels. It works on a couple of different levels. It’s a
reference to a lost art, lost arts or ways of doing something.”
The album’s opening track “Everything is Moving So Fast,” alludes to
the pace of society and the loss of traditional ways. Serena Ryder
lends her vocal talents. “Concrete Heart” navigates through city
dwelling while Erin Aurich’s violin solo layers the track with rich
melancholy. “She Comes To Me in Dreams” features poignant percussion,
but it’s the church bells on “Singer Castle Bells” that may remind
listeners of the title track from Tanya Davis’ latest album, “Gorgeous
Morning.” Instead of the local Sunday morning Windsor Street symphony,
Dekker relays the bells of St. Brendan’s Church, perched on a cliff
overlooking the St. Lawrence River.
“I didn’t really have any over-arching concepts or themes when I was
going to write the record. I kind of see it as just another collection
of songs that I was working on,” Dekker says. “That being said, after
finishing the writing cycle and living with the songs for a while and
recording them you get to know there are little things that connect
them all together.”
Dekker may presently hold a postal code in the city, but it’s the
natural world that’s got his heart. Raised on a farm in Wainfleet,
Ontario, Dekker keeps the woods and lake close to his sense of
self.
“It’s the sort of thing that I feel in my bones,” he says. “When I’m
not touring and making music my favourite thing is to get out into the
woods and into some natural solitude. That’s definitely my version of
paradise. I find that a lot of times there is a lot of clashes between
the city and these sort of urban rhythms and natural rhythms. I think
that’s sort of a conflict that propels me forward.”
Great Lake Swimmers w/Kate Maki, Wednesday, March 11
at St. Matthew’s Church, 1479 Barrington, 8pm, $20adv/$25,
1-888-311-9090, ticketpro.ca.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.