Royal Canoe Announce New Album, Share Energizing New Single “Butterfalls”
Winnipeg indie rock collective Royal Canoe have officially announced their fifth album Sidelining will be out July 9th via Paper Bag Records. Leading the way is their new single “Butterfalls”, the first bit of new music since their 2020 ice sculpture EP Glacial (Live).
Keeping with their time-signature bending rhythms and multi-drum kit setup, their percussive and captivating melodies make a strong return on “Butterfalls”, this time with an overt ray of hope glistening from within. While the world burns and ships sink beneath you, the track’s anthemic harmonies and lush production fill the space from opposite directions, colliding in the middle to create a reverberating sensation.
As well, “Butterfalls” is also a glimpse of what to expect thematically on Sidelining. Recorded in 2020, the group hit the studio with only one rule: no song-nuggets, lyrical ideas, or demos from before. Everything would be built and completed that day.
“We booked studio time, set up and mic’d all of our gear and then just pressed record and tried to let things happen,” says singer Matt Peters. “This is pretty much the complete opposite approach to how we made our previous three albums, where everything was very planned ahead of time. I think at first it felt like this arbitrary test of limitations that might go disastrously, but then we learned to trust ourselves, and follow the ideas as they came, whether it was a drum part, or a chord progression, or a recorder solo. It was really refreshing to capture these ideas in real-time as we were discovering them, and watch these songs start to materialize.”
Royal Canoe have also shared some liner notes for the record, providing a glimpse into their headspace while recording and being apart of the new found chaos of the world:
You’re having a bit of a year, aren’t you? I mean, that’s kind of a silly question, because we’re all having a bit of a year – this is just a strange time to be alive – but you’re in over your head. Sure, you made the necessary adjustments. You bought a bread making kit. You did yoga twice. You got a Zoom-pro account. And yet, for some reason, that third re-watch of The Wire just isn’t hitting right. Then, all of a sudden, one of those rogue anxiety-waves comes crashing through your brain fog. You realize that you’ve been spinning in a dozen different overlapping whirlpools. Your work feels joyless and irrelevant. Your relationship is complicated. Everyday the world somehow out-clusterfucks itself. You can’t sleep. You look in the mirror and you’re kinda gross. You’re scrolling and scrolling, watching the goddamn Joneses be as busy as ever. Your body aches in weird new ways. And then, suddenly, the existential threats start to pile on, and it’s like, “OK.. I need to take a minute here…” And that’s when you remember that this isn’t your first rodeo. You take a breath and you tell yourself that you can only control the controllables. Maybe be less of a jerk in your relationships. Try exercising. Read a book. You have friends – lean on them. But also support them, and those around you who need it. And take care of yourself, too, because it’s not necessarily going to get any easier. You step outside for a moment. There’s music playing. The air feels kind. You’re sitting on the stoop watching all that sun shining.”
Alongside the new single, the band have kept things simple for the accompanying music video, using video effects and seamless transitions to create a visual representation of the band’s cohesiveness and unity on a sunsetting rooftop in Winnipeg.
