Interview with Devin “Darty” Purdy
In Calgary, few musicians could be called stoner or psychedelic rock legends. Devin Purdy is approaching that status. His band Chron Goblin made contact with the scene over 10 years ago with the debut album One Million From the Top, followed by strong follow up albums which cemented their place in the Canadian stoner rock record books. Then, Purdy set his Orange amps to cosmic with this group Gone Cosmic, who came with peace with their 2019 debut Sideways in Time.
Now, Musing is the latest project from Purdy – an instrumental, introspective affair that sounds familiar, yet alien in its approach. The debut album Somewhen (due to be released November 3, 2023 via Grand Hand Records) was written during a lockdown and contains personalized Easter eggs found in the music, the album cover and even the t-shirts produced. Still, like the best instrumental bands, you don’t need to know all of the details to enjoy the ride. Regardless, Purdy reveals some here as we speak about the album.
It’s fair to say you’re a prolific songwriter at this point in your career – having composed for Chron Goblin, Gone Cosmic and Musing. How did the concept for Musing come about and how did you approach the songwriting?
The concept came from a combination of a couple factors – the first being this burning desire to create multi layered guitar driven songs that were not bound to a traditional song structure based around vocal melodies or hooks – but rather songs with the intent of the listener to get lost in the music. The other factor being in a very unique life situation in which the combination of a pandemic lockdown and a physical injury left me with ample time to focus on this massive undertaking. I was also very interested in picking up the bass guitar, synthesizer and recording tools for the first time and this was a great opportunity and challenge to see what I could do completely on my own as a musician and songwriter. The approach to the songwriting would typically start with creating a melody on either the guitar, bass or then synthesizer and then to continue to experiment with various complementary layers and parts over top. This was the opposite approach to all of my songwriting to date as I’ve always been in a band in which individual members contribute their own parts and we bounce ideas off of each other to land on something we all enjoy, whereas here countless hours were spent finding the perfect combination of ideas that I found portrayed the mood I wanted to create with the song.
For Musing, you went the instrumental route, which in my opinion always evokes a more universal appeal (no language barriers stopping people who speak different languages from understanding the musical concepts). What is your take on instrumental expression?
Personally I’m a massive fan of instrumental music and have been drawn to this my entire life. I wanted every note, every chord, every transition to be created with intention in hopes to provoke an emotional response from the listener. There’s something about instrumental music that can create a strong connection between a listener and an artist. It’s not always about being the most technically proficient but rather playing those few notes that will generate that deeper emotional response and feeling. Sometimes less is really more, and instead of playing as fast and technical as possible I was thinking more about ‘how am I feeling and what can I play that would make a listener feel the same way?’
Somewhen has some ties to your personal life, with your son’s heartbeat being the first thing heard on the album. Doing this ties the album to your life in quite an intimate way – years down the road, you will no doubt let your son hear the album. Are you anticipating the event?
Building on how unique an opportunity this was – during the writing of this album my partner and I were expecting the birth of her first child. In the final stages of recording, we were able to bring my partner into the studio and record my son’s heartbeat in utero which turned out to be the exact beats per minute as the song “Who Awoke” so we added it to the start of the track which opens the album. Once he is of the age to understand I think it’ll be a really cool and bonding opportunity to show him the song and explain to him how special it was to me to put his in-utero heartbeat in the track and capture that exact moment in time forever.
Somewhen was written during one of the final lockdowns. I think that the lockdowns did benefit a lot of creative processes, including mine. It was surely a curse, but also a blessing. Without it, would you have written this in the same way?
I suspect that without the lockdown this album and concept would’ve never happened. I’m typically quite active with my other musical projects and because of this forced slow down I had this unique opportunity to focus inwards and try something new which I am forever grateful for. With that time and space allowed for endless hours of experimentation to dig deep into what I felt were the most fitting and expressive notes, chords, layers, progressions and every element and detail in the songs in order to express through music how I was feeling at that time. That said, now that I have gone through this experience, I look forward to being able to continue this project with future recordings and performances.
What is the story with the album cover?
The album cover features the train station at the rural town that I grew up in called Rivers, Manitoba. I’ve always liked the vibe and aesthetics of the Canadian prairies, likely from growing up in small town Manitoba, and I thought it would be an interesting way to tie this album to my roots. The artist Geneva Haley creates magical art in this realm and her ability to capture certain time periods of that train station were perfect for the vibe I was trying to capture. The back of the album cover features an old rusted out car in the middle of a park near my current home tying the overall concept of past to present and capturing this moment in time for the album.
What is the significance of the grain elevator design on your t-shirts?
Similar to the train station it comes down to my love for the prairies. The prairies produce some of the nicest people around who have such friendly attitudes and are always up for a good time. Winters are long and as a result there’s always great music and musicians coming from there as what’s more fun to do inside during the cold winter than play music. It is also symbolic of what touring is like to me because in Canada it’s a long stretch from the Rockies to the Canadian shield and you’ll see lots of grain elevators while you stare out the window of the van.
The band made its debut during the Electric Highway festival in Calgary. From what I saw, it was a success for you. How did you gauge it?
Part of this experience that has been such a trip and so much fun is getting together some friends to perform the songs live. I’m lucky to have such talented friends who are down for the cause that are able to recreate the songs in a live environment. That particular gig was the perfect entry to playing the songs live and I really felt we locked into a groove as a band and with the audience as the simultaneous head banging filled the room.
You are preparing a music video for one of the songs. What can you tell me about it?
We made a music video for the single “Fight to Forever” which is loosely inspired by the retro sci-fi book titled the same. We shot the music video at the futuristic looking building Contemporary Calgary which architecturally lends itself to the science fiction–based story. While visually abstract, the narrative for the video is a man’s psychedelic journey to the edge of the universe.
The final song, “Ghosts of Extinct Constellations” brings an exotic flair – not being pinpointed to a region, but as the title suggests, somewhere out there. Did you have this in mind from a writing perspective – to create sounds that are familiar but not native to earth?
While I don’t quite wear a tinfoil hat, I have always been fascinated with many of life’s greatest mysteries including space, our universe, and the possibility of life beyond earth. Also while writing this album, I wanted to completely flip my writing process and for this song I began writing using only synthesizers to create a vibe and sound vs my typical process of guitars first. There is one particular synthesizer sound that I came across that gives off this eerie ‘deep in the depths of space’ vibe that I immediately loved. Once that sci-fi spacey vibe was in place I continued to expand around those parts and created what I consider one of my favorites and most unique songs on the album.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who helped me out during this journey making my idea a reality: Kirill Telichev, Brett Whittingham, Joleen Toner, Rob & Kaitlin, Sean Edwards, and Andy Cassidy.https://musing.bandcamp.com/album/somewhen
