“It’s the worst process,” he says witha groan. “We just recorded a new record, and we have enough material for asecond record that we’re going to be recording this summer, and all of thosesongs are unnamed. It makes working on them really difficult, having to referto them as the short song, the long song, or the song with that one part. Beingan instrumental band, there’s pressure to put as much meaning into the songtitles as we can, so naming them always turns into us with a notebook pickingfrom hundreds of words. It’s a painful process, and it usually involves a lotof beer and internal arguing.”
Canyons of Static is preparing for abusy few months. In addition to the new records, the band is preparing a split7-inch with their Milwaukeeneighbors Group of the Altos, readying a music video and headlining two nightsat the Borg Ward this weekend. The flurry of activity will precede a shorthiatus: keyboardist Aggie, Severson’s wife, is due to give birth in July, sothe band is getting its affairs in order before some postpartum downtime.
Tentatively titled Wake, the new record “is going to be a bit more ambient than thelast record,” 2008’s The Disappearance,Severson says, “but also a bit more heavy in some spots. It’s a better mixtureof the two, kind of a cross between the ambient stuff Brian Eno did in the’70s, mixed with the crazy, heavy Mogwai-type stuff.”
The group will play the entire newrecord over the course of its two sets this weekend, with Friday’s showdedicated to the band’s more subdued material, and Saturday’s reserved for theband’s heavier side. The co-performers each night also reflect that divide:Friday offers supporting sets from Group of the Altos, Nomia and This SpecificDream, while Saturday’s louder bill features United Sons of Toil, King’s Horsesand Absolutely.
It’s a sign of how strong Milwaukee’s post-rockscene has become that Canyons of Static now has plenty of like-minded bands toplay out with.
“When we first started playing out fouryears ago, the scene was really small and nobody seemed too into it, but nowthere’s all these really great bands coming up,” Severson says. “Group of theAltos seems to be getting really big, and Collections of Colonies of Bees hasalways been there, but they’ve really started playing out live a lot recently.Peter Woods has been doing a ton of projects, just great stuff, and there arebands like This Specific Dream, just these fantastic new bands.
“It’s weird,” Severson adds. “For thelongest time, we used to play shows where all the other bands were singing, andwe were the odd man out. With most of the shows we play now, though, it’s rareif there’s a band with a singer included on the bill.”
