Although the TD Vancouver Jazz Festival has wrapped for the year, the Vancouver Coastal Jazz Society is not resting on its laurels. Coming to Frankie’s Jazz Club for one night only is Quinn Bachand, a 21-year-old phenom out of Victoria, and his ensemble, Brishen.
The “bringer of the storm” is in town July 20 to celebrate the release of Brishen’s latest album Blue Verdun. We caught up with Bachand on the eve of his cross-Canada tour to see how the festival season is shaping up for the Western Canadian Music Awards’ Jazz Artist of the Year nominee.
Westender: How has the reception been to Blue Verdun so far?
Quinn Bachand: It has been good. It is very different from the last record. I started this band when I was 16, and it was pretty gypsy/jazz influenced. I didn’t record any of the original album and have become pretty interested in production and engineering since. Blue Verdun was fun to do for that reason and allowed me to draw from different places.
Considering that you play several instruments, how much of Blue Verdun did you record personally?
I recorded the whole album myself while I was living in Verdun, Que., a suburb of Montreal. … I had a couple of ideas in mind and a vision of how I wanted the record to sound. I built it up from the rhythm section and recorded it all in my apartment.
You mentioned you went into the project with a couple of influences in mind; who or what were they, if you don't mind sharing?
I was studying lap steel guitar at [Boston's] Berklee [College of Music] and found myself getting into old traditional Hawaiian music. There is a connection between the early Hawaiian and Western swing music, as well as gypsy/jazz. All of those swing genres have a vibe and similarity, I find. Regarding songwriting inspirations, I am inspired by Brenda Lee and Bobby Vinton. I am really into the country/pop jazz/pop artists from the early ’50s. I admire the production from the early ’60s. A lot of recording aspects changed between the ’50s and ’60s. Obviously, I love the Beach Boys.Pet Sounds is amazing.
Are you inspired by Brian Wilson, as the (often credited) first person to use the studio as another instrument?
I think that is cool, yeah. I try and do that with the wall of sound thing that Wilson does. I do a similar thing when I am layering things on Pro Tools, I run everything on tape after. I will either record straight onto tape or I bounce it out onto a cassette if I want to get a nice “tapey” string sound. This album does not showcase that “tapey” quality as much. I love to EQ up the highs and run it up a cassette player and then pop it back in. When you are doing the wall of sound thing, you can play it on the machine as loud as you want and achieve a similar thing as Wilson.
How long have you been at Berklee?
I have been at Berklee for three years, and I have taken a semester off. I was teaching at a camp in California and was in the redwoods and out of service for about a week. By the time I left the redwoods, I had all of these emails from Berklee saying that I had to “check-in” or else they were going to drop my classes. I was unable to retrieve those courses, so I took the semester off and I recorded the album [Blue Verdun].
Everything is good with Berklee now. I didn't lose [my] scholarship and I have another year-and-a-half remaining.
How did your ensemble, Brishen, all come together? You seem to have members from all over North America.
Yeah, this band is different from the original. When the Brishen started, all of us were out of Victoria and we had the same players every time. All the other members had a home life and I was by far the youngest person in the group. I was able to steal away the original rhythm guitar player, Reuben Wier. Reuben lives in Victoria but is from the Queen Charlotte Islands. On this tour, I am going to have a drummer from Victoria, Matt Pease. Matt is the son of one of the most badass swing clarinet players, who would play in military bands back in the day. Our bassist is from Toronto, whom I met a few years ago; Alan [Mackie] is a great folk bass player who is really into weird and modern experimental jazz. The same [interest in taking chances musically] applies to the saxophonist Peyton [Pleninger], who lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Where did you find this crew?
I met Peyton at Berklee; he was also on a full scholarship. Peyton received a paid invite to the Berklee New School of Jazz, which was more his cup of tea. That opportunity moved Peyton to New York. I met Alan touring with Jaron Freeman Fox, a fiddle player. The other guys are from Victoria, and I have known them for a while now. With Reuben, we are into a lot of the same stuff. Reuben is a bit older than me, but we seem to bond over the same music and have a passion for trying to revive it in a way that is new and not watered down or cliche.
Where do you get that old-school mentality?
Just from listening to those old genres so much. Obviously, I didn't grow up in the time when the music I am currently influenced by was first released, so I feel as though I have a different outlook on it than most people. People my age see the older genres in a different light. The production aspect of the music is interesting to me. I fell in love with the western swing vibe when I was nine, before I even played the guitar. I have always loved it.
How did you come about listening to vintage sounds from the ’50s, or swing music at such a young age? Did your parents expose you to it?
It was not my parents. There is a guy in Victoria named Ian Johnston who is a guitar and ukulele player that turned me onto the Hawaiian stuff. He is an older guy and gave me hundreds of recordings of Bob Wills when I was a kid. That exposure was my starting point and I just branched out from there.
How about the Celtic influence?
Being from BC, there is a Canadian fiddling tradition that I was exposed to when I was young but I didn't want to be part of it. I thought it was lame. Nowadays, however, I am starting to discover that the Canadian fiddling style is the coolest fiddling style ever. I love Irish music, I have studied Irish music. One of my main gigs, since I was young, was playing with Cape Breton fiddlers and Irish fiddlers doing the accompaniment thing. Rediscovering the Canadian fiddling tradition has been exciting. The album does not have a lot of that fiddling vibe [but] we get into it [when we play] live. … Nobody seems to know about it [outside of Canada]. Recreating it live, I feel like I am promoting the playing style. The East Coast is very Celtic influenced but the rest of Canada has an old-time fiddle style that I play with the Jeremy Kittel Band. He’s an American fiddle player. We are often playing these festivals and it has become a real trend to play old-time American music. We will be out at jams late at night, and everyone will be playing old-time tunes, and I'll feel out of place. Some of my friends from Victoria will come out and they will be playing old-time American classics as well. I'll call a Canadian song, and nobody will know it. That [lack of knowledge] is kind of sad to me.
Any surprises for the tour?
This tour is going to be non-stop for a month straight. We have the Frankie's gig, of course. We are very excited about that show. I believe that show we will be a five-piece band and by that time we will have played a number of shows, so we will be ready to go. We should be tight; it will be exciting.
• Vancouver Coastal Jazz presents Quinn Bachand’s Brishen at Frankie’s Jazz Club Thursday, July 20. Click here for tickets.
We're giving away copies of Quinn Bachand's Brishen's latest album, Blue Verdun, on Facebook. Click here to enter!
