The Besnard Lakes find the right mix

A piece of equipment gave Montreal's The Besnard Lakes newfound inspiration while recording their new album Are the Roaring Night. Their mixing board is rumoured to have recorded portions of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti.

Photograph by: Chris Gergley, Jagjaguwar

Some musicians get excited by a new instrument. For The Besnard Lakes, it was the console they put their instruments through that gave renewed inspiration to their third album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night.

"It's a 1968 Neve," said Jace Lasek, sitting in his Breakglass Studios with partner Olga Goreas, pointing to the massive mixing board behind him - a board with history.

"It's rumoured to have recorded portions of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti. It was shipped to L.A. in 1980 and modified. In 1995, it was shipped to New York. It was decommissioned five years ago.

"We bought it in 2007 and shipped it here. We had to bring it in through the window. It's so old; the technology was not that advanced. It sounds amazing, but it's really easy to fix. It's usually a solder joint that's come loose or a wire that's come off. We can usually do it ourselves instead of paying a technician $100 an hour."

The Besnard Lakes are more Brian Wilson than Led Zep. The Montreal psych-rock act (filled out by drummer Kevin Laing and guitarist Richard White) is known for its lush-yet-sinister soundscapes, swelling with waves of tripped-out emotion.

Singer-guitarist Lasek is owner and operator of Breakglass Studios, a converted industrial loft space where he records his group's releases, as well as albums by other local luminaries.

Wolf Parade, Stars and Land Of Talk have come through recently - some drawn by Lasek's keen ear, others by the Neve.

"I was quite skeptical," Lasek said, of the board's mythical sound-enhancing abilities. "I come from a punk-rock background. I always figured I'll make a record with the tools I have and it will still sound amazing.

"But there's a massive difference. It's really quite substantial. . . . It's forced me to change my mixing sound overall. I'm getting closer to what I want records to sound like. It does add glue to your tracks. It helps bring the whole mix together. It grabs sounds and puts a stamp on it. It softens things."

Are the Roaring Night (as Goreas abbreviates the album title, during our conversation) is the Besnard Lakes's brightest, most moving work. Layers of alternately swirling, grinding and twanging guitars merge with celestial harmonies, hypnotic synths, steady-thumping bass and driving drums to create a dreamy rock album with a spirit of sonic adventure.

That spirit is inherent to the band's creative process, Lasek explained: "We never rehearse. We always come in with a bunch of ideas and let the studio build it. We build a section of a song - build it all up, then put it away, do something else and come back to it.

"We love creating different textures. A chorus might be recorded on a Thursday, and the verse will be recorded the next Monday, so things sound different. Psychologically, there's a shift happening. It's fun watching songs come together."

Lasek records everything, creating an interactive environment between the band and the studio.

"I like hearing results right away on the speakers," he said. "I like to sit back and get a real grasp of what a song is doing."

Songs take on a life of their own with The Besnard Lakes. Mood becomes more important than melody - though there are subtle melodies, and rockin' riffs. Dynamics reign supreme as the band moves through grooves, building and dismantling themes with a combination of patience and determination.

Reverb-drenched vocals become but another part of the mix, soaring over often murky instrumentation.

"I tend toward the overall dynamic," said Goreas who, on top of her bass and vocal duties, co-wrote and co-produced the new album with Lasek. "I like to have something really bust out at you, then be able to go back to a quieter passage. I'm always going, 'Does it feel right to have this part to the song here? Does it hit harder? Does it jump out?'

"I like to have a song be very menacing one second, then soft and pretty the next."

"Our favourite music is really dense," Lasek said. "We love big old orchestral pop. The density of Brian Wilson, Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine - all this stuff where, at certain points in the mix, it's about density.

"I love building up a storm of sound. It's just become part of our thing. We're in the studio, we have the time to do it. It's almost by default that we have the opportunity to keep piling crap on top of crap - why not?"

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