It had a really cool energy though, which is more important than a perfectly recorded track.” When Lind speaks about the track, he is quick to establish the band’s priorities: “It’s a scrappy song, and the guitar track at the end was totally improvised, but in a way we want it to feel like it could very easily go wrong at any time. If Freak Heat Waves have created a dystopian soundscape, then Lind is the Dalek bearing down on you in a dimly lit hallway. In “Dig A Hole” he sounds like some sort of demented, all-seeing robot. Other times his voice takes on a sickly nature, like someone speaking from a hospital bed. Perhaps the best example of Freak Heat Waves’ decision-making process on Bonnie’s State Of Mind is the song “Dig A Hole.” As in most of the songs, Steven Lind’s vocals prove that “monotone” doesn’t necessarily mean “emotionless.” Sometimes he sounds like a sort of lethargic prophet telling people off. He basically told us to bring a record to him and he would make it happen.” “Ryan was always supportive of anything we wanted to do. The band also credits their label, Vancouver’s own Hockey Dad Records, with a flexibility and openness that you would never see on something bigger and less directly connected to local music. Every song can and should be a mind wipe of the last song.” We didn’t just want to record a live set and have one uniform sound. “It’s very inspired by mixtapes and the idea of a mixtape. “It’s almost like a compilation album,” says Lind. There isn’t a hometown for these songs - this lack of unity is something intentional. Although the band hails from Victoria, the record was done on Pender Island, in Medicine Hat, in Montreal, and elsewhere. Recording locations were equally as inconsistent. I think we had 36 pieces of music to choose from when we started tracklisting.” “We spent months sending different tracklists back and forth. “We seem to really like demos,” laughs Di Ninno, referring to almost a year’s worth of test songs being altered, scrapped, or just lost in the ether. In speaking to Freak Heat Waves it also becomes evident that the experimental process is almost as important to them as the final product itself. Whatever it takes to get the sound we hear in our heads, that’s what we want to do.” “Actually, we talked once about how amazing it would be to do a whole record where we don’t play anything. “We’re not really pinned down to our positions in the band.” says Di Ninno.
Each member is heavily involved in production, and each member is prone to switch instruments and do something different at any time. Consisting of guitarist/vocalist Steven Lind, drummer Thomas Di Ninno, and bassist James Twiddy, it is a band with a constantly shifting structure. This was the first point of conversation when we all met in a Kitsilano apartment to talk about the band’s new record, Bonnie’s State Of Mind.įreak Heat Waves is loosely defined as a trio.
It’s easy to characterize Freak Heat Waves as ‘70s influenced retro-futurism and be done with it but when the retro-futuristic sound fits so seamlessly with the tangible world we live in, it makes me wonder if Freak Heat Waves is more grounded in reality than they let on. The fact that I couldn’t differentiate between the song and the vehicle I was in has stuck with me. For a brief moment Freak Heat Waves and the BC Transit robot were performing a duet. About halfway through the album, an interesting thing happened: a female vocal jumped in, saying something that sounded vaguely like “Cambie Street.” It took me a second to realize that it wasn’t the song, but the automated voice of the bus.
Desperately trying to shake my reputation as a lover of docile songwriters who use forest metaphors, I was listening closely for something I could understand in a record labeled as a “strange and sexy look into an alien nightclub.” Post-punk had not been my forte in the past, but I had a stubborn determination to understand it. The first time I listened to Freak Heat Waves, I was on a mostly empty transit bus.
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