Landlocked Desert Sessions
Calgary Alt-Folk Ensemble Ship Shape Subrock the Boat
We’ve
all thought about which albums we’d bring along with us to a desert
island, but Calgary artist Arran Fisher, guitarist of the now-defunct
rock band The Summerlad, unleashed his own musical leanings on a
self-imposed exile in the Persian Gulf.
“It
was one of those things,” says the singer-songwriter on the formation
of his new alt-folk-tinged quintet, Ship Shape. “I was living in Qatar
off and on for a period of two years. Being out there you’re basically
listening to one of two things: either you get the frilliest American
pop, or you get Arabic pop, mainly out of Egypt. That’s the kind of
stuff you run into on a daily basis.”
Finding
himself immersed in an environment that offered little in terms of
musical repast, Fisher was able to focus on his own latent creativity.
In the process, he discovered his oasis of solitude to be an unexpected
wellspring of natural artistic inspiration.
“I
decided that maybe I should make good use of my time and start a regime
of songwriting. I took it seriously, like a job, writing almost every
weekday. It became an exercise in output. I didn’t have the idea to form
a band when I got back; the point of the exercise was to write without
critiquing. Out of that period came the 37 songs which I wrote and
recorded as demos in Qatar and brought back to Canada with me.”
The
next logical course of action was to assemble a group of players
capable of bringing his solo desert sessions to life. Fisher enjoyed
witnessing the band’s development as he brought on bassist Joel Tobman,
drummer Scott Moffat, former Summerlad guitarist Sean Grier and lap
steel player Brent Crosson. According to the persuasive bandleader, he
convinced Crosson to put a steel guitar across his knees for the first
time, with glowing results.
“Usually
you find the band and then come up with the sound and the material, but
this time it worked the other way around,” Fisher says. “I had to ask
myself, ‘Who can come at this project with the right attitude?’ I knew
that a collective-sound would evolve out of the right mix of
personalities. One practice, we went down to the basement to work on the
‘Ballad of Rikyu and Hideyoshi.’ To my surprise we killed it in half an
hour. I thought, ‘This is perfect.’ I didn’t have to say anything.”
The band’s forthcoming full-length debut, Please Ask Before Stealing,
will be released via Acoustikitty, a production company Fisher founded
six years ago. The experience he gained writing, performing and mapping
out recordings for The Summerlad and other projects allowed him to craft
a highly listenable album.
“Please Ask Before Stealing
deals with some pretty strange topics. We touch on western music and
other thematic elements that lend a certain drama and tension to the
content, like a Sergio Leone soundtrack. As with The Summerlad’s
songbook, we have a lot of atmosphere and texture; some of our songs
have an almost dirgey quality to them. They’re a little dark, but not
beyond hope. There’s always a ray of sunshine in there; plenty of heart
and love to bring balance to our world.”
Another
way in which Fisher brings serenity and focus to his life is through
his practise of the Japanese martial art Aikido. An acolyte of Zen
Buddhism, he incorporates seated meditation exercises into his musical
discipline, with ear-pleasing results. Blending mediation, music and
martial arts, Arran has tapped into a self-perpetuating continuum of
creativity and reflection. Initially spurred into action by temporary
geographic isolation, he has found a path to smooth sailing in the midst
of a heaving cultural tempest.
Dedicated
to the memory of his departed mentor, Yasuhisa Inaba Shihan, Ship
Shape’s LP release is more than an anthology of tunes written while
overseas. For Fisher, it’s a passport to a homecoming of divine
proportions.
Christine Leonard-Cripps
Originally published December 6, 2012 in FFWD Magazine
