Montreal electro-rock band Suuns is currently wrapping up its nationwide tour with Land of Talk.
The Eagle had the opportunity to chat with two members of Suuns at the Rock and Roll Hotel about the tour and their recently released album, “Zeroes QC.”
Before beginning to work on the album, Suuns spent three years shaping their sound and “getting to know each other musically,” according to vocalist and guitarist Ben Shemie. It shows in the album. When listening to “Zeroes QC,” one immediately notices the strength of the relationships between the band members. They bring nothing superfluous to their songs, instead relying on the intriguing dynamic that forms from the various layers built to drive the performances.
In the song “Arena,” they slowly let elements build on top of each other, easing the listener into a tension-filled, trance-like state.
The band shines when they take a single riff of rhythmic pattern, draw it out and let it morph into a totally different song. In “Armed For Peace,” they allow the tension of the robotic electro-beat to build to an unnerving level before letting it explode into guitar-driven Zeppelin-esque rock.
“We get a lot of energy from these really simple ideas,” Shemie said. “It’s a sort of germination thing.”
Enhancing that idea, Suuns is not afraid of using constructive dissonance to add depth to some simple dance-hall tracks. At times during the performance, Shemie would use his guitar to create a drone of feedback and scratching that underpinned the more melodic progressions.
Being on tour for six months has allowed the band to really develop its live performances, evident in the creative ways the band members engage with one another, according to bassist and keyboardist Max Henry. Throughout the show, every band member experimented with the songs and with each other in incredibly engaging ways, sometimes pushing the boundaries of what the ear can handle but always stopping short of chaos. Shemie stressed that this sort of experimentation “is a really important part of the creative process but can manifest itself in more or less conspicuous ways.”
However, just as the process of “germination” produces incredibly stimulating songs when it succeeds, the songs may leave the listener feeling let down if it fails. In the performance of “Gaze,” for example, all the parts were there to create a moving tune but they weren’t put together in quite the right way, throwing off the entire song.
Nevertheless, one gets an overall impression that the members of Suuns have an acute self-awareness that allows them to create a sort of intensity on stage that very few bands manage to find. Something in the mixture between the band’s charisma and down-to-earth attitude allows them to find a very unique and authentic sound.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
