In between recording a new album, animating a full-length sci-fi film and making music videos for him and his fellow artists, it's hard to imagine eccentric Canadian singer-songwriter Chad VanGaalen has much time for any other side-projects. That is, unless you're Dog Day's Seth Smith.
Speaking with Exclaim! about his new album Shrink Dust — out April 29 through Flemish Eye in Canada and via Sub Pop in the U.S. — VanGaalen confirmed the duo's partnership, which was first mentioned in our Where I Play profile of Dog Day's studio last month.
"I think there are 15 tracks. We're trying to keep it minimal," VanGaalen says about the avant-garde noise project. "I think the only mandate is just keep it super weird."
According to VanGaalen, the pair first met through SappyFest creative director Paul Henderson, but it took a few years for the two to get the ball rolling on a project together.
"Every once in a while we'd be like, 'Dude, let's do some drawing stuff together, let's do some music stuff together,'" VanGaalen says, citing the distance between himself and Smith (they live on opposite coasts) as the primary reason behind the delay in the duo's creative partnership.
To remedy the situation, the pair began "casually sending each other tracks through Dropbox," leading to a "no rules" approach to recording.
"Seth's been giving me weird found stuff almost, just weird loops, and I've been sending him modular sort of synth stuff," he says. "I've never done a through-the-mail collaboration before, so it should be interesting."
Although there's no timetable for an official release, VanGaalen expects the duo's recordings should be out by the end of the year, most likely on a limited-edition cassette similar to the tape series VanGaalen released while on tour in 2011.
"That's the nice thing about cassettes," he says. "It doesn't cost anything to put it out yourself."
While you wait for the two-piece's upcoming recordings, catch VanGaalen as he tours across North America on behalf of his upcoming Shrink Dust LP. You can also already stream the entire album now over here in our Music/Video section.
Read our questionnaire with Chad VanGaalen from Exclaim!'s May issue here.
Speaking with Exclaim! about his new album Shrink Dust — out April 29 through Flemish Eye in Canada and via Sub Pop in the U.S. — VanGaalen confirmed the duo's partnership, which was first mentioned in our Where I Play profile of Dog Day's studio last month.
"I think there are 15 tracks. We're trying to keep it minimal," VanGaalen says about the avant-garde noise project. "I think the only mandate is just keep it super weird."
According to VanGaalen, the pair first met through SappyFest creative director Paul Henderson, but it took a few years for the two to get the ball rolling on a project together.
"Every once in a while we'd be like, 'Dude, let's do some drawing stuff together, let's do some music stuff together,'" VanGaalen says, citing the distance between himself and Smith (they live on opposite coasts) as the primary reason behind the delay in the duo's creative partnership.
To remedy the situation, the pair began "casually sending each other tracks through Dropbox," leading to a "no rules" approach to recording.
"Seth's been giving me weird found stuff almost, just weird loops, and I've been sending him modular sort of synth stuff," he says. "I've never done a through-the-mail collaboration before, so it should be interesting."
Although there's no timetable for an official release, VanGaalen expects the duo's recordings should be out by the end of the year, most likely on a limited-edition cassette similar to the tape series VanGaalen released while on tour in 2011.
"That's the nice thing about cassettes," he says. "It doesn't cost anything to put it out yourself."
While you wait for the two-piece's upcoming recordings, catch VanGaalen as he tours across North America on behalf of his upcoming Shrink Dust LP. You can also already stream the entire album now over here in our Music/Video section.
Read our questionnaire with Chad VanGaalen from Exclaim!'s May issue here.
