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When longtime West Coast rock act 54-40 decided two-and-a-half years ago they were going to buckle down and write songs for their new album Northern Soul, their goal was to compose 100 of them.
“We were discussing all the things that we have done and haven’t done, and what’s left to do,” singer/guitarist Neil Osborne says from a roadside stop in Northern Ontario. “And somehow we came up with the idea that we still had a good 100 songs left in us. So we were like, ‘Yeah, let’s just do that.’”
They wound up a few dozen songs short of 100, but Osborne says 54-40 — who perform Saturday at The Music Hall in Toronto — made the most of the three dozen tracks they did finish.
Osborne says the album, which he produced with guitarist/band mate Dave Genn, isn’t quite as cheerful as 2005’s Yes To Everything.
“If you say yes to everything, then you say yes to some shadowy sides of things,” he says. “And this record I think does bring out some of those shadow sides that you have to learn to accept.”
The recording locale only added to that darkness — a former funeral parlour on Vancouver’s East side, the city’s “hardcore area where all the meth-heads and crackheads are,” according to Osborne.
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“We rented that place for just over a month and set up camp and, basically, tried to and came up with ideas for songs — and recorded them right there, on the spot,” he says. “We brought in a bunch of studio stuff just to get a little closer to the heart of Vancouver.”
That moodier, or murkier, side to the band is heard in several songs such as The Chant, which kicks things off, or on the title track, a song Osborne sings with help from his daughter Coral.
The song Northern Soul was one of those quickies that Osborne says took about 20 minutes to write.
“The title track is an emotional response by me, about whenever I read or hear about another Canadian kid being killed in Afghanistan, particularly when you see the funeral with the parents,” Osborne says. “I’m a pacifist. I don’t think any mother should sacrifice a son for an overseas war. I just don’t think that’s right. I’m a firm believer in bringing those troops home.”
Osborne also says the band got more input this time from Genn, formerly of the Matthew Good Band who made his 54-40 debut on Yes Is Everything.
“Once we determined that he could fit in, we were like, ‘What have you got? What can you do?’” Osborne says. “So he really helped a lot, especially with me writing the bridges, or helping the choruses. He certainly did all of the guitar work to make it fun and interesting.”
54-40 are currently touring Canada, playing two sets a night in various theatres and ballrooms from coast to coast. Osborne says they’re mixing up the set each night. They are bringing along Tom Hooper, formerly of The Grapes Of Wrath, to round out the band’s sound.
On this tour 54-40 are traveling in a tour bus, something they haven’t done in a while, and something a lot of bands wouldn’t miss taking.
“Oh yeah, I’m looking at it standing outside — the submarine, the Petri dish” Osborne says, joking. “We’re used to doing fly-ins, but this bus is going all the way to Halifax, and then we’re flying to St. John’s.”
Coming concert dates:
Barrie (Nov. 20)
Toronto (Nov. 22)
Oshawa (Nov. 23)
Belleville (Nov. 24)
Montreal (Nov. 25)
jason.macneil@sunmedia.ca