Dynasty Four On the Making Of “Revisions”
What was the creative process like for this particular EP?
Long and fraught with disaster! Originally planned as a full length album called ‘Everywheres,’ this was meant to be recorded in several places, with some incredible producers.
But sometimes plans change. I lost my job, my band quit, my marriage split, I lost my flat: my life imploded in spectacular fashion.
All I had left was my guitar and my computer. I recorded and finished this EP when and where I could, between losing nearly everything.
Were there any challenges or breakthrough moments during the songwriting process for 'Revisions?'
There was definitely a point when I didn’t want to continue. After my band left I didn’t want to keep on with Dynasty Four - I always wanted a band, never wanted to be a solo act.
But I had tons of encouragement from everyone around me, friends and family, and other solo musicians who all said not to quit.
So I learned how to program drums. And I brushed up on my bass guitar! And I just did it myself - it was a different experience entirely but I’m glad I didn’t throw these songs away.
Were there any memorable or standout moments during the recording sessions for 'Revisions?'
When I first shared Rome’s Bounty one of my friends would put it on repeat for hours at a time. It’s a minute and a half long! And this was before it even had words.
I’d get up and find he had listened 86 times, 119 times, another 45 plays. So I tried to write it in a way so that it would never end.
Play it on repeat, he says, you won’t be disappointed.
Can you share a bit about your musical background and the journey that led you to where you are today?
In 2004 I was looking for a hobby that wasn’t school - I was trying to finish my PhD in Egyptology but needed something between reading all those birds. I decided to see if I could learn to play guitar. I’d just got out of a bad relationship with a musician; he’d always been such a dick about it. I just wanted to see if I could really.
So I had a friend loan me a guitar and teach me a few chords. He taught me how to read tab and suggested I pick a record I loved to learn how to play. Your head knows it, he said, you just have to teach your hand how to play. Just pick a record!
OK computer, I said.
Pick another record, he replied. Do you like the White Stripes?
I did, and six months later, after exhausting the White Stripes and the Strokes catalogues I wrote my first song. It was called Your Girlfriend’s Crazy, and it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard.
I put an ad online right then entitled Me and Red Guitar Need a Band. That’s how I met Ryan Couture - we founded First Person Shooter and then spent years pioneering electro punk.
Turns out I could play guitar.
Many years and many bands later I’m thrilled to play everything on Revisions. Finally learned some Radiohead too!
Is there a specific song that holds a particularly special meaning to you? Can you share the story behind it?
So these three are all pretty special - being the only ones that made the cut! Rome’s Bounty is easily the hardest minute and a half of music to write - I rewrote the lyrics for that bloody song eight times. Yesterday Waits is easily the most personal song I’ve ever written, it still makes me cry half the time I hear it.
But Queen of the Hipsters has been around since 2011. I first wrote it for The Nancy Boys about one of my friends. I performed it in London as Jinx Malloy and it was a treat to have a version all my own for this record as Dynasty Four.
It’s as garage rock as I think I’ll ever get and I’m super happy with how it turned out (finally!) in the end. It was a real treat to track both guitars and hear this one come to such fun life with all the cheers in the bridge.
It’s got such a Toronto vibe for me, I love blaring this one at the Beach. So I set the video for Hipsters here in Toronto, and made it using footage I captured in the Beaches (mostly while out walking the dog).
This is the first time I’ve managed to have videos ready with a release, and I’m really happy with how they came together. It was important to me to have them, like I’d always planned but never managed. So that if this is the last record I make as Dynasty Four, it will feel complete. Or close to it as music ever gets.