Last year, Fiver (a.k.a. Toronto-based singer-songwriter Simone Schmidt) joined forces with a trio of Halifax music scene fixtures, dubbed the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition, for a covers EP, You Wanted Country? Vol 1. The collaborators have now revealed that a full-length album of original songs, Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition, is due for release on May 7 via You've Changed Records.
Schmidt devised the album's eight songs with drummer Bianca Palmer, guitarist/saxophonist Nick Dourado and bassist/keyboardist Jeremy Costello in Scotch Village, NS, during 2017 and 2018. True to the band's name, the arrangements were largely improvised, stretching and transforming Schmidt's country blueprints into lengthy, shifting voyages that push the genre into exciting new forms.
This can be heard on lead single "Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)." At its core a twanging tune led by Schmidt's vocals underscored by Dourado's lap steel, Costello's backing vocals and Palmer's brushed drums, the song slowly morphs into a friendly, wah-heavy jam with duelling guitars.
Said Schmidt in a statement about the song, "There is this part in his 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' where Martin Luther King Jr. says, 'Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.' He goes on to admonish 'the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.' That's the negative peace I'm talking about in the second verse of this song, and from there I think you can piece together the rest."
The band have also released a new eight-minute documentary about the creation of "Leaning Hard," which serves as the latest instalment in Fiver's ongoing songwriting docuseries, Atop of a Song. The new video features footage of the band working on the song, interviews with band members and recording personnel about their motivations and creative process, and a humorous skit about ordering 251 kilometres of recording cable.
Find "Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)" and the accompanying Atop of a Song documentary below, and keep scrolling for more information on the new album.
Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition:
1. Yeah but Uhhh Hey
2. Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)
3. June Like a Bug
4. Jr Wreck
5. Sick Gladiola
6. Death Is Only a Dream
7. Paid in Pride
8. For Your Sake (ft. Special Costello)
Pre-order Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition.
Schmidt devised the album's eight songs with drummer Bianca Palmer, guitarist/saxophonist Nick Dourado and bassist/keyboardist Jeremy Costello in Scotch Village, NS, during 2017 and 2018. True to the band's name, the arrangements were largely improvised, stretching and transforming Schmidt's country blueprints into lengthy, shifting voyages that push the genre into exciting new forms.
This can be heard on lead single "Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)." At its core a twanging tune led by Schmidt's vocals underscored by Dourado's lap steel, Costello's backing vocals and Palmer's brushed drums, the song slowly morphs into a friendly, wah-heavy jam with duelling guitars.
Said Schmidt in a statement about the song, "There is this part in his 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' where Martin Luther King Jr. says, 'Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.' He goes on to admonish 'the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.' That's the negative peace I'm talking about in the second verse of this song, and from there I think you can piece together the rest."
The band have also released a new eight-minute documentary about the creation of "Leaning Hard," which serves as the latest instalment in Fiver's ongoing songwriting docuseries, Atop of a Song. The new video features footage of the band working on the song, interviews with band members and recording personnel about their motivations and creative process, and a humorous skit about ordering 251 kilometres of recording cable.
Find "Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)" and the accompanying Atop of a Song documentary below, and keep scrolling for more information on the new album.
Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition:
1. Yeah but Uhhh Hey
2. Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)
3. June Like a Bug
4. Jr Wreck
5. Sick Gladiola
6. Death Is Only a Dream
7. Paid in Pride
8. For Your Sake (ft. Special Costello)
Pre-order Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition.