(Photo courtesy of www.davidmyles.com)

While he wasn’t out to write a concept album, when it came time for David Myles to name his third album, he took a look at the songs on the record and noticed a bit of a theme.

“There’s a lot of songs with that theme – putting something at stake to get something back,” the Fredericton native says. “Whether it’s with love and relationships or something else.”

So, he named the disc On The Line.

“It’s also about the artistic pursuit of having to put yourself on the line in front of people,” the friendly, easy-going singer-songwriter says.

Lyrically, Myles is one who isn’t difficult to figure out. He rarely writes fictional stories. He says he admires Bob Marley as a lyricist because he wrote clear ideas and thoughts. Myles tries to do the same.

“They’re close,” he says of his lyrics. “Things I definitely know, whether they happened to me or people close to me. They’re my own thoughts, they’re not even story songs.”

Myles’ third disc, the follow-up to Things Have Changed (2006), is an 11-song disc featuring some of the best players the East Coast has to offer, from Matt Mays to Hot Toddy’s Tom Easley to Old Man Luedecke and Garrett Mason.

He’s been hard at work on the album for several months. Myles says it’s when he is working on the album that he is most nervous about the project, not when it’s released and available for fans and critics to analyze it.

“It’s out now, so it’s kind of a waste of my energy to worry about it. But of course, I want people to like it.”

Myles says his energies are so focused on making an album exactly what he wants that it’s difficult for him to write new music or think about much else than the upcoming release.

“The nicest part (of releasing an album) is it opens a flood-gate of creative energy. I’m writing all kinds of things now and thinking about new ideas, the next project, which sounds kind of ridiculous.”

On The Line was released nationwide on May 6. While Myles is generally regarded as a folk singer, On The Line includes moody jazz, upbeat country and even a mellow rocker. He says the world-class players who he tapped to perform on the album helped shape its sound.

“This project was probably the first time I (thought about players as I was writing),” he says.

Myles knew he wanted Tom Easley to play bass and Geoff Arsenault to play drums on the disc, so he was able to shape some of his ideas based on what he knew to be their talents.

Other songs changed during production. After writing album opener “I Don’t Want To Know,” Myles thought of making it a bit of a rocker while he was recording it. Matt Mays happened to be in the recording studio at the same time he was, so Myles asked him to perform on the track.

“I wanted to make it a rock song, which is really different for me. Matt was perfect for the song, he knows that (sound),” he says. “I usually write a song and then think about who is going to take it to the next level.”

Myles, who lives in Halifax now, was luckily unscathed by the floods that overtook much of the Fredericton area a month ago. His parents live right on the St. John River – “It’d be hard to imagine how they couldn’t be affected, knowing where they live” – but somehow their home wasn’t hurt either.

“Their house is basically an island right now, but somehow there’s no water in their basement. They were away when it happened, so I was just watching it on TV really hoping they wouldn’t be affected.”

He’ll be heading home a few times this summer on tour. Myles’ summer touring will take him around the Maritimes and into Ontario. On The Line may see a European release, so he’ll likely end up touring overseas at some point.

“Busy in the summer, busy in the fall,” he says. “I’m just really focusing on putting on really good shows.”

Since taking on a manager and more of a support team around him, Myles has been able to focus more on the creative end of things than the business side of music.

While he learned a lot in his years of working independently, he says he is enjoying the time and freedom he has now to write music and practice.

“Plus, it’s nice having someone to speak on your behalf, to brag you up and hype you. I’m not very good at that.”

For more on David Myles, see here.

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(Nathan M. Boone photo)

When I first saw the Tom Fun Orchestra, it was at an East Coast Music Awards after-party in 2007. A friend recommended we check them out, and so we did. I’d never heard the band before, so I didn’t know what to expect.

What I saw was a ballroom full of people dancing to sounds created by about 10 people on stage – a raucous mix of rock, folk, swing, traditional sounds – a melting pot of noise that you couldn’t help but dance, tap your toes or at least raise your glass to.

The fun was infectious as was evident by the smiles throughout the room, the biggest of which were worn on the faces of the nine or 10 musicians on stage playing guitar, bass, banjo, fiddle and a handful of other instruments.

It was electric and quite obvious at the time that this Cape Breton band was something special.

At the centre of it all was the ringleader in the middle, decked out in a white suit, curly mop of hair bouncing to the songs as his gravelly voice spit out lyrics over top of the music.

It was a great initiation to a great band.

Fast forward a year or so and the band has released its debut album, You Will Land With A Thud (Company House), and it is about to embark on a tour of Scotland and Ireland.

Ringleader Ian MacDougall (aka Tom Fun) spoke to East Coast Noise recently about the band, the difficulties of traveling with a nine-piece band and how he doesn’t like the Celtic reference people keep making when referring to the Orchestra’s sound.

“We get comparisons to Celtic music,” he says over the phone from the Company House offices in Sydney, N.S. “I don’t feel there’s anything Celtic at all.”

He says the label is frustrating at times because it pigeon-holes the band in a genre it doesn’t necessarily fit in.
“It’s people who mean really well” that are saying it, he explains. “As much as the reviewer means really well, it doesn’t do us any favours.”

The Tom Fun Orchestra formed three years ago, sort of by accident. The ECMAs were taking place in MacDougall’s stomping grounds of Sydney, and he submitted a “crappy quality recording” of some tunes he’d recording in his living room to see if he could land a showcase.

He succeeded in landing the showcase, but the trouble was he didn’t have a band.

“It took me two days to form a band,” he says with a laugh. He grabbed nine or 10 of his musician friends, taught them the songs quickly and they were off to the races.

“It was mostly to put on a spectacle,” he says of the decision to go with a 10-piece group. “It shouldn’t have worked.”
But it did. Reaction to the band was immediate, and it was positive.

“It was surprising at first,” MacDougall admits. “It was totally unrehearsed, so I’m sure it was entertaining in some fashion,” he jokes.

The band’s name was really a joke, one MacDougall admits he’d take back if he could, but “we’re stuck with it now.”

On the band’s debut album, the Orchestra consists 11 members: MacDougall, Morgan Currie, Hinson Calabrese, Alicia Penney, Shane O’Handley, Zach MacLean, Dave Mahalik, Victor Tomiczek, Devon Strang, Albert Lionais and Lachie MacDonald.

On the group’s Myspace page however, only 10 members are listed. The band’s official website says there are nine members. So you can figure out how many people are actually in the group next time you see them perform.

MacDougall says nine members are traveling on the current tour, which is part of the reason the band is hitting towns overseas instead of spreading their name across Canada first.

“It’s easier for us where there’s nine of us traveling. We can drive an hour between gigs instead of 10 hours between gigs,” he says.

He says it takes a lot of patience, planning and co-operation for the large group to travel together.

“We’re compatible with each other, but not with anyone else on the planet,” he laughs.

The band will continue to put most of its energies into overseas tours for now.

“It seems to make sense for us. And if I can get some quality travel in, why not?”

Check out the Tom Fun Orchestra here.

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