Hidden Cameras' Joel Gibb Reveals Plans for Folk Album Follow-Up to 'Age'

BY Vish KhannaPublished Feb 20, 2014

Though the Hidden Cameras' latest album Age is still hot off the presses, frontman Joel Gibb says he has almost completed another new Hidden Cameras record that marks a stylistic shift in the band's sound.

"I'm finishing up a rootsy record that I was working on simultaneously with [Age]," Gibb tells Exclaim! over the phone from the Toronto home of producer James Bunton (Ohbijou), who is getting the new album past the finish line. "That's why there hasn't been a new Hidden Cameras record in four years — there were two being created simultaneously."

Gibb doesn't offer any particular rationale for what might have sent him down a folk path here, but he does seem to be feeling reflective and possibly even nostalgic these days.

"Age was more deconstructing the music of my adolescence, the punk or angrier music," he says. "To me, rootsy music is going to have a banjo maybe or an acoustic guitar. Stew Crookes from One Hundred Dollars is playing on about seven or eight songs on pedal steel. There are covers of folk songs and it's really exploring the idea of traditional music."

When asked if he senses a concept for the as-yet-untitled project, Gibb adds, "It's me flirting with the idea of writing traditional lyrics in traditional arrangements. Most of the record has already been mixed by a German. But it's really warm."

Age is out now via Outside/EvilEvil. Listen to this whole interview on the Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna podcast.

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