Rae Spoon adores the great outdoors. On his new album SuperiorYouAreInferior, he pens every song with Canadas sprawling wilderness and buried history in mind. But ask the Calgary-based country artist about his love for being outdoors and youll get a whole different story.
"I refuse to camp, Spoon laughs, his smug "damn, you got me grin audible through the receiver. "I like the idea of the wild, which is why there is so much nature imagery, but Im also terrified of the wild. Im actually just scared of bears and things like that in general.
Spoon and forest beasts seem to have a love-hate relationship. But all fears aside, he truly believes Canadas geography is more interesting when viewed from a distance. Spoon spent great deal of time in Europe over the past couple of years; there, he found he could focus on our homeland a lot better.
"Its hard to see your own country when youre in it. I really wanted to focus on the history of Canada and the things that are unique about it. For example, people in England dont encounter black ice and crash their cars.
On SuperiorYouAreInferior, Spoons emotional writing led him away from his usual country style and towards a darker, electro-folk approach. The idea of folk music as a "peoples music allowed him to reflect upon his past small-town Canada experiences, as well as the gothic themes that emerge from touring through the heart of a nation.
"If folk is supposed to be music for the people, then I think hip-hop is folk music for our generation. A German friend thought techno was folk music, so I wanted to explore the context of the word. I wanted to find a pure way of approaching electronic music [on SuperiorYouAreInferior], and being in a country like Germany just challenged the way I thought about [the genre].
"I refuse to camp, Spoon laughs, his smug "damn, you got me grin audible through the receiver. "I like the idea of the wild, which is why there is so much nature imagery, but Im also terrified of the wild. Im actually just scared of bears and things like that in general.
Spoon and forest beasts seem to have a love-hate relationship. But all fears aside, he truly believes Canadas geography is more interesting when viewed from a distance. Spoon spent great deal of time in Europe over the past couple of years; there, he found he could focus on our homeland a lot better.
"Its hard to see your own country when youre in it. I really wanted to focus on the history of Canada and the things that are unique about it. For example, people in England dont encounter black ice and crash their cars.
On SuperiorYouAreInferior, Spoons emotional writing led him away from his usual country style and towards a darker, electro-folk approach. The idea of folk music as a "peoples music allowed him to reflect upon his past small-town Canada experiences, as well as the gothic themes that emerge from touring through the heart of a nation.
"If folk is supposed to be music for the people, then I think hip-hop is folk music for our generation. A German friend thought techno was folk music, so I wanted to explore the context of the word. I wanted to find a pure way of approaching electronic music [on SuperiorYouAreInferior], and being in a country like Germany just challenged the way I thought about [the genre].
