THE MAGIC IS IN THE COLLABORATION
A CONVERSATION WITH UNCLE STRUT
Uncle Strut has become one of the most well-known local bands in Vancouver with their energetically sunny sound, hypnotically dreamy melodies, sing-along choruses, infectious charm, mesmerizing guitar solos, and extensive styles ranging from surf-pop, funk, indie, reggae, psychedelic, classic rock, and country. Their sound could be best described as a combination of The Beatles, Peach Pit, Pink Floyd, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Recently, I chatted with Tyson McNamara, Simon Tejani, Quincy Flowers, and Jasper Matthias about Uncle Strut’s debut album, Home At Last.
“The album for me represents getting back into the reasons why you’re doing things and finding joy, playfulness, and friendship within music,” smiles Tejani. “There is nothing that I would rather do than make music with these guys, and Home At Last will always represent that feeling for me… We really found a home for our sound and our music, and when we were writing this album, it was like returning home to remembering why we love doing this.”
The creative process of Home At Last was quite different than their previous releases. “Previously, Tyson would bring the song in and then we would all work on it together,” comments Flowers. “You get a few different shades of our different writing styles, having multiple writers on this project.”
“This is the album we really were able to open up and be fully collaborative,” adds Tejani. “The most beautiful part about writing and being in a band is the magic is in the collaboration.”
Matthias recently joined Uncle Strut. He tells me that joining Uncle Strut marks a new beginning for him. “Months before I joined Uncle Strut, there was a part of me where I was a little disconnected from music as a whole. I started taking my other jobs a lot more seriously. I kind of put music on the back burner. As soon as I started playing with these guys, it was just like the universe was telling me ‘Hey, you’re actually still a guitar player and music is what you’re meant to do.'”
The addition of Matthias really helped shape songs like “Scarlett” and “Exit Sign”, as the band knew both songs were missing something. “We had been playing them the way we had been playing them for a long time and played them so many times it was really hard to look for new ideas,” recalls Tejani. “All it takes is just one new person coming in. These new ideas breathe life into things that are feeling stale to us. Then they end up being these very inspiring pieces to the music.”
“Tio”, an instrumental track that opens the record, is the song Matthias brought to the table. “Adding an instrumental guitar-focused track was my way of saying ‘I’m here,’” he shares. “I got thrown into the whole project when most of the songs were already done… We were going into a psychedelic feel with it, and I was looking for a slide. I had left my slide at home, and we were at the studio. Obviously, rookie mistake right there – I ended up playing the slide part with a glass candle.”
“Natalie” started as a finger-style folk song before turning into a joyously upbeat anthemic surf-pop tune. “My natural state of writing songs is usually just to write them acoustically and folksy,” comments Tejani. “Some songs we’re working on right now, it’s the same, where right now they’re very simple acoustic songs and it’s not really an Uncle Strut song until you bring it in and allow people to put their own style on it – ‘Natalie’ was probably the best representation of that process.”
HOME AT LAST ALBUM REVIEW
“Waiting For You” is one of the oldest songs on the record. “I had written it quite a while before we started working on this first album, and it had this longer drawn-out chorus,” recalls McNamara. “Everyone had their way with the lyrics. We actually ended up taking out half or three quarters of the lyrics of the chorus.” The song has become a fan favourite at concerts. “Getting everybody to sing that chorus. That’s why you write choruses with only a couple of words. Sing along super easily.”
The comfortingly bluesy “Exit Sign” is a song that Tejani wrote about his partner. “It’s a song about meeting someone and feeling this instant connection and the happiness that comes with the first bit of a relationship when you’re learning about each other, having these positive things, and these beautiful first memories,” he shares. “My partner is a bit younger than me and is still trying to figure out her path in life. It’s like the love story first half, and then the second half is like realizing there’s always gonna be this kind of peace of mind, or you may decide to do other things in your life. My job is to learn to be okay with whatever you decide, and I’ll always love you no matter what you decide. The first half is the beautiful beginning of a relationship. The second half is like a promise to always love someone. Musically, it starts very happy, bouncy, and fun, and hopefully the second half hits hard.”
The heartwarmingly catchy indie rock tune “7:30” features Eva Lucia, who is the album’s engineer and a member of the band Cat Larceny. The track discusses a relationship with the verses being from a male perspective and the choruses being from a female perspective. “I wanted to have a female vocalist do that bridge bit, and we were in the studio, and Eva Lucia was there, and we had the whole song recorded,” explains Flowers. “I just wanted her to go in and just sing the placeholder so I could picture what I wanted from the female vocalist who we would feature. She went in and sang it just as a placeholder, and we were blown away by it… We ended up just deciding to keep her placeholder vocal. She just nailed it.”
Utilizing featured vocalists, like Lucia in “7:30”, allows the song to go in exciting directions. “It’s cool to have a different mind on it,” states McNamara. “When Eva was working on it with us, she was never shy to put in her ideas or give us her opinion. I think that’s such a valuable piece to the puzzle ‘cause you can just get stuck when we’re all so emotionally attached to the song.”
“Scarlett” sees Uncle Strut going into very funky, Red Hot Chili Peppers territory with the chorus. Initially, the chorus sounded much different. “The chorus originally dropped down into this almost melancholic feeling, and ‘Scarlett’ always felt pretty good, but it was one of those songs that we knew something wasn’t quite right with it,” remarks Flowers.
“I just remember there was this sort of weird drop, and there was something about it that felt like it could be better,” echoes Matthias. “The verses build the listener up and then rather than just dropping into something super different or obscure, I was just like ‘Why don’t we try and go into this like funky thing?’ It came together really quick, even better than I imagined. I didn’t think it was gonna work at first. But then Tyson started almost rapping a little bit over it. We just went back and forth, and then I think the next day we had it set.”
The title track closes the record. It incorporates audio samples of movie quotes and soundbites of their friends and family. “They helped tie the songs together and make the album one cohesive story,” says McNamara. “We went back and forth about having them or not having them because it was a bit of a risk, but with some of the songs being different styles and genres, it felt like this helped keep everything flowing together.”
Uncle Strut really wanted the ending of the record to reflect the album’s title. “We got all of our best friends and our family to get together in the studio one day, and we recorded everyone chatting, and that’s the voices you hear in the end,” comments Flowers. “It feels like you’re returning home to a big celebration, which is how we wanted the album to feel for everybody.”
Home At Last dropped on May 16. “When we started this band, I think we were talking about, like if nothing happens with the band, like if we don’t make it, if we can come out of this project with one really solid album that we’re just extremely proud of through the whole thing then that’s a success,” states McNamara. “That’s what we did. I’m proud of us for doing it.”
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