Ryan Bourne | Interview | New Album, ‘Plant City’
Ryan Bourne’s latest album, ‘Plant City’ is a thematically rich collection of lush, psych-laden songcraft co-produced by Chad VanGaalen and Chris Dadge (Alvvays, Lab Coast).
Bourne is a very busy musician active in several projects and collaborations projects including Hair Control, Chad VanGaalen and the Bleach Wipes, Ghostkeeper, and Sleepkit. The songs on the ‘Plant City’ span over a decade and represent a very rich musical background of the artist.
“A kind of enchanting futurism, slightly utopian, slightly dystopian”
You have a brand new album out. How much preparation went into recording ‘Plant City’?
Ryan Bourne: Well, the songs on ‘Plant City’ span over a decade in terms of when they were conceived. Some go back almost as far as the ‘Supermodern World of Beauty’ recording sessions, while others are much more recent, with chord progressions, lyrics and arrangements still being worked out during the initial stages of recording ‘Plant City’.
In the summer of 2019, I sent a collection of tracks (recorded over the years on everything from voice memo to 4-track tape machine) to my friend Chris Dadge, who is a producer, studio drummer for Alvvays and a bunch of Calgary bands, a fellow member of the Chad VanGaalen’s live band, and founder of Calgary-based free improv music series Bug Incision. Together, we decided to focus on the approximately 10 or so tracks that felt the strongest and potentially most cohesive. I then played these for Chad (VanGaalen) and the three of us sat with the songs for a few weeks to let them percolate before digging into recording in the fall of 2019.
It feels like it’s a concept album, would you like to elaborate.
Yeah, it’s interesting, I mean the songs span a considerable timeline, and although there was no deliberate intention of creating a concept album, it undeniably has the feel of one. I think the title ‘Plant City’ evokes a kind of enchanting futurism, slightly utopian, slightly dystopian, like a peaceful post apocalyptic setting the music kind of sits inside – and the beautiful cover by Austin-based artist Jaime Zuverza certainly lends to this sensibility. But yeah the songs themselves seem strangely synergistic and cohesive I think, while traversing an array of genres… I’m not sure how this happened. One thing: as a child I listened obsessively to Harry Nillson’s ‘The Point!’ and I think this sense of story – even in terms of melodic and harmonic through lines – impressed itself on me and otherwise kind of subconsciously or intuitively finds its way into my stuff.
Where was the album recorded and what can you tell us about the gear you used?
Many of the tracks originated as rough sketches recorded on my Tascam 246 (cassette 4 track), while I resided at the Art Castle, a 1930s house that had been transformed in the ‘70s with a castle-like facade, complete with turret. We expanded and developed these tracks at Dadge’s Childstone Studio, where we also recorded bed tracks for several other songs on his Tascam 388 reel to reel.
Throughout the process, we kept a few lower-fi things I’d done on a laptop where the performances felt right, sometimes re-amping elements or sometimes (as in the case of ‘Pink Light’) – just adding the right verb to place it in a sonic space that served it. Most of the vocals were recorded at VanGaalen’s Yoko Eno studio, along with alot of other “candy” – synth, percussion, background vocals – even crunching dried cucamelon leaves for percussion layer on one track.
As for the instrumentation, I took on most of the instruments, excluding drums, which Chris expertly handled, along with contributing to guitar, keys, vocals, and percussion. Chad lent his keen sense of melody to a handful of synth lines, as well as some backing vocals and flute. I reached out to a few other talented friends for violin, hurdy-gurdy, additional drums and flute, bowed saw, and saxophone.
“Lo to mid fi sixties rock-and-roll vibes, psychedelic and baroque pop sensibilities”
How would you compare it to your previous releases, like for instance ‘Supermodern World Of Beauty’ which was released in 2010. I would appreciate it if you could include your discography and add some commentary about the other releases as it’s a bit confusing browsing through Discogs and Bandcamp.
To me ‘Plant City’ is an obvious evolution of what we were exploring with ‘Supermodern World of Beauty’. It sits in a similar sonic realm – lo to mid fi sixties rock-and-roll vibes, psychedelic and baroque pop sensibilities, a few field recordings and musique concrete nods woven in. But I do feel there is a confidence and perhaps even a sophistication to ‘Plant City’ that’s informed by over a decade performing and recording as a session musician and collaborator, and the sharing of inspiration and influences that go along with that. For this reason, I kept my own name associated with it, and I frame it as an intentional follow-up to ‘Supermodern World of Beauty’.
Discography:
May 2010 – Ryan Bourne ‘Supermodern World of Beauty’ (composer, author)
October 2012 – Extra Happy Ghost ‘Hippie Depression’ – 7” (collaborator)
June 2013 – Holgans – ‘The Night Garden’ (composer, author)
October 2013 – Devonian Gardens ‘Solar Shifting’ (co-author, co-composer)
February 2014 – Sleepkit ‘Supermoon Sessions’ (co-author, co-composer)
April 7, 2016 – Holgans ‘Holgans Are Dead’ (composer, author)
May 6, 2016 – Sleepkit ‘Champion Weekend’ (co-author, co-composer)
March 2017 – Ghostkeeper ‘Sheer Blouse Buffalo Knocks’ (collaborator)
May 2022 – Ghostkeeper ‘Multidimensional Culture’ (collaborator)
May 2023 – Ryan Bourne ‘Plant City’ (composer, author)
How did you originally get involved with music? Tell us about your upbringing and early influences?
I was raised in a middle-class suburban household, where music played a central role due to my parents’ singing backgrounds. Their meeting in a vocal group during the late sixties laid the foundation for my early exposure to music. As a child, I was enrolled in piano lessons, and in junior high, I picked up the trombone as part of the school band. Around the age of 15, a growing fascination with music led me to the guitar. I took private lessons and learned my favorite songs by ear, initially diving into blues legends like Muddy Waters and then getting into all the 60s and 70s classic rock stuff – Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Neil Young, David Bowie, and of course The Beatles. Within the family, I found a musical compatriot in my brother, a great piano player even in his early teens. Together, we would jam and eventually join forces in various bands. Then it was the Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique,’ Nirvana, BDP, Sonic Youth, The Cure, The Smiths, REM, and other contemporary stuff at that time – and VU [The Velvet Underground] was a revelation. As I mentioned, Nilsson’s ‘The Point!’ left an indelible mark during my early childhood, captivating me with its narration and exceptional arrangements… In high school I started jamming with a friend who was taking up bass and before long we were playing parties and high school events, which rolled into a total obsession, sneaking into clubs and seeing our first shows, and jamming every chance we got. In my late teens I started obsessively checking music out of the public library and got into Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman, Indian classical and other international music (bossa, reggae and afrobeat, et cetera), and with my aforementioned pal discovering Mingus and Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew’ and ‘On The Corner,’ and Coltrane – all of which was like walking into another dimension of richness and colour and spiritual depth. A little later it was GBV [Guided by Voices], Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’/’Smiley Smile,’ Iggy Pop’s ‘The Idiot’ (which I’ve been rocking a ton again the past few weeks – the Bowie/Visconti production is so wonderfully weird – so singular.)
You were a member of bands like Sleepkit, Chad Van Gaalen & the Bleach Wipes, Ghostkeeper, Holgans, Devonian Gardens, LEAKED and Extra Happy Ghost!!! Please get into details how that began and share some words about your involvement with those bands.
As indicated in my discography, after releasing ‘Supermodern World of Beauty’ I embarked on about a decade as a collaborator and session musician, beginning with Devonian Gardens in 2011. I’d just finished making ‘Supermodern’ with Jay Crocker (JOYFULTALK), and he wanted me to come and meet this psych band he was recording called Deadhorse (proto-Devonian Gardens), so we went over and listened to some stuff and it was great – heavy, deep, weird, wonderful. About a week later, I ran into the band leader Danny Vescarelli who was bemoaning the departure of their bass player, and I remember saying “well I just bought a bass, I could fill in until you find someone else.” Little did I know that little utterance would set the stage for over a decade of collaboration and session work with Devonian Gardens, Ghostkeeper, Labcoast, Chad VanGaalen and the other acts you mention.
Holgans was a multidisciplinary experimental folk project, a concept-band crafted with my then-partner, with songs that had evolved tangentially from ‘Supermodern World of Beauty’. Sleepkit, on the other hand, is a post-disco collaboration with fellow Jeff Lynne enthusiast and Devonian Gardens bandmate Marie Sulkowski. We’re actually sitting on a new record, ‘Camp Emotion,’ which hopefully will come out later this year.
In 2013 I became a full time member of Ghostkeeper, contributing as a multiinstrumentalist, and collaborating on arrangements and production, resulting in the recording of two albums together. A longstanding friendship of over 20 years with Matt Swann led to my involvement with his Extra Happy Ghost!!! project on keys and providing psychedelic textures for a couple of fun tours and 7”.
In 2016, alongside Dadge, I was invited to join Chad VanGaalen’s backing band, and together we’ve embarked on a number of international tours under the moniker The Bleach Wipes, which has been a blast, and the chemistry in that group certainly lent itself well to the ‘Plant City’ production collab.
Do you often play live?
I play live with a 5-piece of stellar Calgary-based musicians/artists, as “Ryan Bourne & the Plant City Band”. Pedal steel, vintage synths (including theravox), sax, flute, guitar, bass, drumkit, and triggered samples. The band is fantastic. I feel really lucky. Chris Dadge, who co-produced, is on drums and vocals, and helped me figure out how the hell we were going to pull this off live. There’s a bit of musical chairs in the show, but it works well, and we’ve been getting a great response.
What are some future plans?
I want to tour the record with this band, it’s on fire right now, and I want people to hear it. I’m an independent musician, I don’t currently have a label or a booking agent so there’s that challenge – and it’s a crazy time to tour politically and financially – but we’ll make it happen. I’m currently finishing up the debut record for Hair Control, my “existential workout” performance art project with my partner, artist Rebecca Reid: hypnagogic pop, synth-wave, experimental dance rock and post-disco stuff with projections, props, and choreographed live show. It’s really fun. I think we’ll call the record “New Garbage”. And I’m super excited to be pulling together demos and voice memos and ideas that will become the next Ryan Bourne record, which I’ll likely do with the Dadge/VanGaalen/Bourne ‘power trio’ again.
How important is improvisation for you?
Improvisation doesn’t factor into this project a whole lot because of how structured the compositions are, but we do open things up here and there throughout the live set, and because most of the band (and both co-producers) are seasoned improvisers, it’s been pretty comfy to do so. I feel it’s an essential expression for me as a musician, and I feel like I get my improv kicks both in Chad’s band, with a portion of each set being a free improv jam, and in Ghostkeeper, which now dedicates a portion of studio time to improvisation – we just let the tape roll and go. So I get to improvise more with other projects, though I could see it factoring into my own work more over time, doing an album with compositions derived out of the band jamming or something like that. It’s definitely something I want to explore more.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
I’m a massive fan of Tim Presley’s White Fence – ‘I Have To Feed Larry’s Hawk’ is one of my all time favourite records. I’m also a huge Broadcast fan and have had the reissue of ‘Mother Is The Milky Way’ on rotation since it dropped in 2022 – can’t get enough of that uncanny, deeply tuneful sonic collage, RIP Trish Keenan, what a voice, a force of nature. I’m loving Skinny Dyck’s 2022 EP ‘Palace Waiting’ – lyrical, hook laden, beautifully executed 70’s country vibes. Another recent obsession has been ‘Morricone Segreto’ – fantastic comp of lesser known “dark-tinged” gems by the maestro, put out by the great Italian label Cam Sugar. We actually cover one track – ‘René la Canne’ – in the Plant City Band.
Thank you. Last word is yours.
Pleasure rapping about ‘Plant City’ and my musical journey with you. Thanks for your interest. Hmm last word… One of my intentions with ‘Plant City’ was to share something beautiful that not only reflects my life and time but provides a lush, enveloping space to drop out of the stress, the acceleration and the saturation of these very uncertain times. So that’s my hope anyway… Excited to share the record – and the Plant City Band – as far and wide as possible. Appreciate the questions Klemen – thank you!
Klemen Breznikar
Headline photo: Rebecca Reid
Ryan Bourne Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp / YouTube
