Brass Camel
The Canadian progressive funk band wants to put colour and fun back into modern music
“In a world of monochrome, we want to be that bright red Alpha Romeo.”
For a long time, Daniel Sveinson felt like his band would never find a keyboardist. Then fate intervened.
“Finding somebody who can paint with broad strokes and tear it up with the fine brush, was really important,” the guitarist/vocalist explains. “Then, on New Year’s Eve heading into 2023, we’re at a local studio and I'm playing [Genesis’] 'Firth Of Fifth' on keyboards and this guy I've never met starts ripping it on the bass. Like, ‘Damn, okay.’
“Then I go to grab a beer, and I hear somebody tearing it up on the drums. Who's the drummer? It's the same guy. An hour later, he’s shredding on the guitar and a couple of nights after that, we’ve got some shows coming up, and I'm not sure what we're going to do about keyboards. A friend goes, ‘Why don't you talk to talk to Aubrey [Ellefson]…’ the guy from the party. It turned out that was his main instrument.”
He was an instant fit, and the band, imbued by the spirit of classic rock bands – they hold Rush and Yes in equal regard as Led Zeppelin, 10cc, and Parliament – they hit the road. Two albums and four tours of their native Canada later, and the quintet’s vintage prog funk sound had taken on its own form. They’re just as prone to 12-minute suites as they are to funk’ roll bangers. 'Brass Camel', their third album, sees the band evolving once more.
“The new record is a lot more of a lot more,” Sveinson relays. “It was largely informed by going out and playing 150 shows across the country a couple times, and then writing. It was all fresh material, and it covers a lot more ground.
“I read a statistic this morning that 85% of vehicles sold over the last year were silver, white or black. In a world of monochrome, we want to be that bright red Alpha Romeo that goes speeding past you when you’re stuck in a traffic jam.
“There'll be prog fans out there saying, ‘Well, this one doesn't have a 12-minute suite like the last one,’” he accepts. “But I’d counter with saying that when this album is proggy, it's more proggy. When it's funky, it's funkier; there are probably more lyrics on this album than the first two combined. This is the first album that really sounds like Brass Camel.”
Recorded at the Rush-approved Chalet Studios in Claremont, Ontario with Crown Lands' Kevin Comeau as friend-cum-producer, and veteran engineer Terry Brown's mix helping capture the band's live, balls-to-the-wall tenacity, they hope it's the record that will see them break out of Canada’s borders.
“We wanted the album to sound like we recorded it,” Sveinson says. “We're not the Beach Boys yet. So if there's a vocal harmony that's got a little bit of flutter, that's what people will hear. If you peel away my skin, or Robert Fripp’s, you're gonna get blood, not oil or circuits, so why the fuck would we want to sound like robots? Let the humanity breathe.”
- Phil Weller
PROG FILE
LINE-UP: Daniel Sveinson (guitar, vocals), Curtis Arsenault (bass, vocals), Aubrey Ellefson (keyboards, vocals), Dylan Lammie (guitar), Wyatt Gilson (drums)
SOUNDS LIKE: A natural, heartfelt, and funk-flecked amalgamation of Rush, Queen and Led Zeppelin tied together with signature sass and tasteful virtuosity.
CURRENT RELEASE: 'Brass Camel' releases April 15th and is self-released
WEBSITE: https://www.brasscamel.ca/ HOME | Brass Camel