DEVON SPROULE and the
UNMARKED ANIMALS :: PRESENT
I LOVE YOU, GO EASY - EUROPEAN TOUR 2011
DEVON SPROULE’S NEW RECORD OF PROTECTION AND LOSS, I LOVE YOU, GO EASY, WITH
TORONTO’S SANDRO PERRI PRODUCING
Tin Angel Records is sending its troops out into the wild. The Coventry,
England-based indie label is home to arguably the most eclectic roster on
either side of the Atlantic, and its earliest (and perhaps most popular) troop,
Virginia’s Devon Sproule, is headed home to the motherland. I Love You, Go Easy,
the newest studio record from the 28-year-old, sent Sproule back to her place
of birth, Ontario, Canada.
"My ironically named manager, Rich Guy, got it into his head that I should
team up with Canadian producer Sandro Perri, who I’d not met at the time. I
loved the idea, but the thought of working with a stranger also made me
nervous," admits Sproule, whose last studio record, ¡Don't Hurry for
Heaven!, was produced by her husband, fellow musician Paul Curreri.
"I was touring north of the border more often, and eventually, I had the
opportunity to meet with
Sandro. He was the one who suggested The Silt as a backing band.” In addition
to more traditional instruments, The Silt — a trio known as one of the few
Toronto groups to successfully infuse the spirit
of experimentalism into pop music — frequently incorporate trombone, bass
clarinet, flute, and analog synth to give them their signature sound. “All
three guys are highly trained,” Sproule says, “but they’re perfectly willing to
put aside virtuosity in favor of a lovely crackle, or the perfect bleep or
buzz. And they always keep a respectful eye on the song itself, which can slip
away if you’re not watching. In the end, they’re your basic, run-of-the-mill
trio of handsome, rebellious, minimalistic, emotional geeks. Can you tell that
I grew to love them?"
Sandro Perri was right: The Silt's sound suits Sproule's new material
remarkably well, as it does the well-chosen covers: “Body’s in Trouble” by
Toronto-native and cult heroine Mary Margaret O’Hara, and The Roches’ “Runs in
the Family.” As usual, Sproule’s songs span the genre spectrum: “Now’s the
Time” is a loose Neil-Youngish twanger made utterly original by the
introduction of Ryan Driver’s searing analog synth. “If I Can Do This (I Can Do
Anything)” is the floating, flouting mantra of the record. Doug Tielli’s
staccato trumpet punctuates the jazz-influenced, call-and-response of “Monk /
Monkey.” And the title track, “I Love You, Go Easy,” (easily Sproule’s finest
vocal performance of her career) takes a slow walk with some of the most
thoughtful piano voicings in recent pop memory.
I Love You, Go Easy, while sonically sparser than any of her recent records, is
a thematically logical next chapter to Sproule's story. It's a story that has
always revolved around her relationships with people – most notably, her
husband, Paul Curreri, a fellow Tin Angel Records recording artist.
"I don't know anything about the zodiac, but I know that when Paul and I
go out for Chinese, we have to turn our placemats over — the horoscopes...
Confucius and all that... they swear Paul and I should
be mortal enemies! Forget married, we shouldn’t even be co-workers! Paul lives
in his intellect, always having big wonderful thoughts, or doing things to slow
his mind down when he's trying to relax. The only time he pays attention to his
body is to get annoyed with it not being able to keep up
with his lifestyle. My approach is pretty much the opposite -- more inspired by
the sensual, emotional, and physical world. I think the best plan for marriage,
and the one I'm trying to describe in these
songs, is to pursue such a closeness with someone that their alienness rubs off
on you, helps youunskew yourself."
It's true what we tell them:
Distance makes us better.
It's clear, dear, from back here:
We should be together.
We should be by the ocean.
We should be in the Spitfire.
You showing me what a good motion
It can be to spin your tires.
I'm giving up my mother hold.
You're giving up your night assault.
It’s not surprising that Sproule may seem a bit preoccupied with the fragility
of the human body. "I lost a close friend in the fall — Danele. She had
been sick for a long time, and those years were equally
heartbreaking and enlightening for me. The whole thing pushed someone else's
dilemma onto my writing paper ... someone besides what’s his name," she
laughs, nodding in the direction of Curreri’s
electric guitar, cranking from the crack of their home studio’s door. “Danele’s
illness and passing made me even more protective of my physical world, but it
also gave me a peek into what it's like to live in
the present, to not obsess about the future.”
Faulty body -- girl, you got it. Ravishing cinnamon skin all aglow. You'd never
know it's a faulty body. Hot and bossy. On it goes, though it knows the bow's
drawn.
Coupled we dance a frazzling dance, a things-we-should dance. While ahead you
go, powerless to postpone your two-timing lungs and your bones. In a faulty
body, you make do.
Even at its most somber and reflective moments, I Love You, Go Easy never loses
the sparkling tenderness & humor that characterizes all of Sproule's work.
Perhaps her true talent lies in her ability to net the universally shared and
make it unique, to fix her spyglass on the everyday and show it anew, to prove
it undeniably worthy of a fresh look.
Sproule's first UK release, Keep Your Silver Shined,
proved an indie hit for her Coventry-based label Tin
Angel Records, topping year-end lists, landing her a spot on Later...with Jools
Holland, and inspiring many a Brit to google "Virginia." Paste
Magazine called Silver “The sexiest, sultriest southern album since Lucinda’s
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” Since its emergence in 2007, Tin Angel Records
has become a small but successful label, home to artists including Sproule, Curreri,
Baby Dee, Sean Hayes, Black Carrot, Trumpets of Death, Fabrizio Modense
Palumbo, Julia Kent, and others. "The label roster is like our record
collection at home," Sproule says, "not a lot of current ‘folkies,’
just folks who are doing something
different... usually a bit weird, a bit private, and always really good. Shit,
I think I might be the most normal one on there! And that's kind've saying a
lot."
Devon Sproule was born on a hippie commune in Ontario in 1982 but moved shortly
thereafter to a
Virginia-based commune & eco-village called Twin Oaks. She’s lived in the
area ever since.
