By Cam LindsayThe Darcys could teach a thing or two about perseverance. Only days after finishing their second full-length album, their singer quit the band for good. Most bands in their position would have either crumbled, but the Toronto-based foursome chose to give it their all in a newly pared-down line-up. That album, which was recorded with Murray Lightburn of the Dears, was remixed and remastered with guitarist Jason Couse now on re-recorded vocals. Expected in the first half of 2010, the band unveiled the self-titled effort this past November via their new label Arts & Crafts. Eager to just get it out there for people to hear, the Darcys chose the infrequent yet crowd-pleasing strategy of giving away the album as a free download (visit their website and see: www.thedarcys.ca). And though the release of a new, long-gestating album, one that nearly didn't even see a release, would be enough for any band to just want to get behind and tour, the Darcys now find themselves in the position of promoting their second album in two months. On January 24, they released their interpretation of Steely Dan's classic, multimillion-selling, 1977 album, Aja. Say what? Exclaim! caught up with drummer Wes Marskell to discuss why an up-and-coming young band would try and do the Dan, the difficult process behind finally getting their second album out, and how they came up with idea of obliterating the CN Tower.
What made you decide to cover the Dan's Aja? For almost a year, the idea of covering Aja existed solely to redirect conversation. I conceived of the idea as a way to deflect questions about the release of our self-titled album and the loss of our singer. I had no intension of actually delivering the album. In the summer of 2010 there was a turning point: I realized that we had run our mouths so much that if we didn't put this idea into practice it would seem as if we had two failed records. It was only then that I realized how difficult covering Aja was going to be.
It's a meticulously crafted album by an assortment of ridiculously talented musicians. No offense, but did it seem like a daunting task? The process was very humbling. We approached the record with a great deal of respect and knew churning out literal covers would be an embarrassment to our band. The idea of destroying the sterility and perfection of a Steely Dan record stemmed from that reality that we were unable to imitate the originals in their true form. With our self-titled record in limbo, we were in a very bad place. Aja become an outlet for our professional frustration and a device to take our mind off the implosion of the band. I have always viewed Aja as an art project more so than an album. I wanted to subvert Steely Dan's clinical attention to detail and make breezy pop songs angular and dark. We had no chance against the mastery of the '77 version, so the idea was always to claim Aja for our own.
What would you say was the biggest challenge? There was a lot of self-imposed pressure put on this record. The band felt like we had to complete something to avoid being total failures. Jason was burdened with the weight of the project and a few weeks in you could already tell how exhausting it was going to be for him. Aja consumed us, and our frustrations would often erupt into vicious arguments about direction and concept. Musically, Aja is untouchable. But we knew that going in. The real problem was not the creative process, but the reality of destroying both of our fathers' favourite record. Aja is important to a lot of people and we realized that nothing we could make would compare to the original. What we really didn't want was the project to be perceived as a tribute, as ironic or funny, and most of all, disrespectful. This is a record we grew up on and a record we love ― we had no idea how to do it justice.
Does it matter that your version is almost five minutes longer? Were you aware of that? Part of our agenda with Aja was to create an atmosphere that dissociates the listener from the original work. Many of the songs begin and end with ambient, instrumental sections that do very little to reflect the Steely Dan originals. We were hoping that when the chord structures and vocal melodies from the original appear in our interpretation they will be considered relative to our noisescapes, not the '77 version. We wanted to investigate previously unrealized and alternative presentations of these songs. This is not to say that we thought we could create something better than the Dan's. We wanted to illuminate the beauty at the core of this record and re-contextualize the melodies as they might have been conceived 35 years later.
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