WATCH / SHARE “GROUND FLOOR” HERE
BUY / STREAM “GROUND FLOOR” HERE
SUMMER FESTIVAL DATES CONTINUE JULY 11 - FULL DATES BELOW
SKINNY DYCK’S LATEST LP, EASYGOING, OUT NOW VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS
BUY / STREAM EASYGOING HERE
Photo Credit : Heather Saitz // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
This summer, Skinny Dyck - the playful performing artistic alias of Western Canadian artist Ryan Dyck, is heading out for a run of festival dates in Western Canada. Following on the heels of his latest album, Easygoing – which was recently nominated for The Western Canadian Music Award’s Recording of the Year – the celebrated songwriter is sharing the new single, “Ground Floor”.
On the track, Dyck says: “What are the custody rules around shared dogs? Do the courts usually favour the primary caregiver or is a 50/50 arrangement more conventional? I get wanting to hold on to your hound but it's gotta be inconvenient. This one isn't for me, I'm generally scared of dogs, I know a guy though! It was a really fun and smooth two-day recording session. The ‘studio’ windows were open and we invited in the street, in the same way the ‘Ground Floor’ guy leaves the screen door unlatched to make his world feel bigger.”
WATCH / SHARE “GROUND FLOOR” HERE
BUY / STREAM “GROUND FLOOR” HERE
MORE ABOUT EASYGOING
Recorded in basements and ad-hoc studio environments by Skinny and his co-producer Aladean Kheroufi, the album's diverse textures are well-balanced by twangy guitars and steel alongside less expected elements like synth hooks and congas. There is a pleasing straightforwardness to the music of Skinny Dyck. His voice is clean and clear (and usually nestled in a bed of lush reverb), the songs are held together with spacious instrumentation and smart, tasty hooks (including Dyck's signature pedal steel work), and the band is right on the money, everything in its right place and not a note wasted. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as Kheroufi (a multi-faceted musician and songwriter in his own right) applied some of the old school, minimalist recording techniques he picked up while interning at Daptone Records years ago, and he has been at the core of Skinny's live band (alongside drummer Clayton Smith) for the last handful of years. So when Dyck and Kheroufi (along with main album drummer Cameron O'Neill) hit the basement to lay down these songs, it was as easy as slipping into a pair of old jeans. And that sprightly, jazz-inflected lead guitar work comes courtesy of Winnipeg's Austin Parachoniak, who helped bring a whiff of Merle Haggard's '80s band to the mix.
WATCH / SHARE “OUT OF CONTROL” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “LESS STRESS” HERE
Easygoing had its finishing touches applied by the prime candidate for the role, celebrated mix engineer Mark Nevers, whose credit list is a veritable who's who of fresh, forward thinking songwriters and bands that exist in the between-genre sphere. Artists such as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Silver Jews, Calexico, Andrew Bird, Bill Callahan, and Lambchop have benefited from Nevers' touch, a blend of his trusted ears and vintage analog gear. As a mixer who began working in the traditional Country & Western scenes and slowly gravitated to the more expansive world of indie music, Nevers was a fitting choice for the job.
WATCH / SHARE “CAN’T CHANGE THE COLOUR OF YOUR EYES” HERE
And this notion of “country but not” courses through Easygoing in a pretty tangible way, its success partially measured by how unnoticeable it is. Take “Nosedive” for example – what might be one of the album's more traditional “boots kickin' up dust” kind of song features a deeply psychedelic spoken word outro, with enigmatic vocals bubbling through a thick web of analog delay; it's truly a unique blend of approaches – and it works. Elsewhere, things continue to pair nicely, with conga drums undercutting sparkling lead guitar and the occasional synth flourish, and “Lean In” features a delicious bass line that sounds as if it was plucked straight from a vintage James Jamerson-played Motown track. The combination of the band's cool chug and Dyck's classic songwriting moves on title track “Easygoing” recall the endless-horizon feel of classic War on Drugs, another band who've managed to successfully infuse the familiar with a jolt of something new.
BUY / STREAM EASYGOING HERE
SKINNY DYCK ON TOUR
Jul 11 - Vancouver, BC - Good Stank Stampede
Jul 12 - Duncan, BC - 39 Days Of July
Jul 13 - Hornby Island, BC - Fossil Beach Farm
Jul 27 - Calgary, AB - Calgary Folk Music
Aug 2-4 - Canmore, AB - Canmore Folk Festival
