Most days, when Halifax alt-pop artist Rich Aucoin isn’t touring, the two-time JUNO nominee is tinkering with sounds in his basement apartment and—as he puts it in a phone call with The Coast—“staring off at the wall.” It’s been a good formula for the 40-year-old producer: The routine helped him win a pair of ECMA and Music Nova Scotia awards for his albums Synthetic: Season One and Season Two. But sometimes (often, even) change is good. And in the making of Aucoin’s latest record, the third installment in a quadruple-album that promises “more synths than any album in history,” the Haligonian saw a whole lot of change. He’s recently returned from Antarctica, where he spent two weeks aboard a ship while putting together the rough outline of what will become Synthetic: Season Three.
“It was quite a fun new point of view,” Aucoin says, “that made me think, maybe I could repeat this process in the future and take my laptop to another spot for a kind of two-week period of figuring out what the record is going to be.”
Not that the Halifax-raised Aucoin isn’t accustomed to life off the beaten path: He once toured across Canada by bicycle to raise money for Childhood Cancer Canada and blogged about it for The Coast. But two weeks at the bottom of the world? That was “surreal,” Aucoin tells The Coast. The invitation came from friend and sea-kayaking guide Scott McCormack, who co-runs Cape LaHave Adventures.
“I think just the sheer scale of this very untouched, uninhabitable, powerful land… it’s almost the closest thing to being in space,” Aucoin says. “You leave the safety of the ship for a bit, and then you’re like, ‘Okay, that was nice. Let’s go back on this thing that is the only way we can live.’”
Aucoin’s third installment in his Synthetic series will be a more collaborative one than the first two editions. He invited listeners and musicians alike to send in synth sounds and arrangements that he’ll weave into his final composition—sounds that he worked with from his ship’s cabin in Antarctica.
“It really led to a nice kind of artist’s residency,” he says. “I’ve never done the Banff one—I’d like to someday—but this is kind of the closest thing: Just going off and being somewhere remote and in a routine, getting five to nine hours a day, working on the songs.”
The process worked: Aucoin left for Antarctica from Ushuaia, Argentina, with what he describes as “just a bunch of scraps of ideas… and now, there’s a listenable record.” He hasn’t announced a release date.
Aucoin lands second career JUNO nod for “Electronic Recording of the Year”
What made the trip all the more special for Aucoin? He found out on the return leg to Ushuaia that he’d been nominated for a JUNO for Synthetic: Season Two. The Haligonian is up against artists Bambii, Harrison, Kid Koala and Tim Hecker for “Electronic Recording of the Year.”
Aucoin calls the group a “stacked heavyweight category,” adding that he’s “really honoured” to receive the nomination. And unlike last year, he’s ready for the ceremony on Mar. 24, 2024:
“Last year, I didn’t think I was gonna get nominated and booked two shows that same weekend—so I flew in for my showcase, but missed every other event, because I was playing in Yellowknife and SXSW the day before and after [the awards]. This time, I wasn’t expecting to get nominated, but I at least kept my schedule clear.”
