Music

Bran Van 3000 are "like your neighbourhood bar"

by Nicole Villeneuve

Before the sprawling collective-collab became the norm in Canadian music circles, there was Bran Van 3000. In 1997, the genre-mashing Montreal group released Glee, the weirdo electro-prog-hip-pop head turner; it spawned an international hit in “Drinking in L.A.” and won the 1998 Juno award for Best Alternative Album.

Four year later, the group captured another bit of magic on sophomore album Discosis; it was snapped up by the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal label and the single “Astounded,” a high-rotation hit, featured one of the last recorded performances from legendary soul singer Curtis Mayfield, recorded before his death in late 1999.

Then, they sort of disappeared. Bran Van mastermind James DiSalvio had moved to Los Angeles, and though he brought the core band to L.A. to record 2007’s follow-up, Rosé, it would prove a flop.

Then, in summer of 2008, without having released a successful single or having toured in almost a decade, Bran Van’s Montreal Jazz Festival performance overwhelmed the concert grounds, some 250,000 fans swarming to see the hometown group. DiSalvio describes it as life changing.

“To this day, two years later, those two hours felt like an alien abduction. We were there, but it was like a dream.”

“You go away for ten years—all of us walking the streets, getting jobs, having kids, going back to school, taking dangerous alley ways—for someone to say ‘who are you? and you have to say ‘oh, I used to have a band.’ And here we are talking today.”

The result of the regained inspiration is The Garden, a collection of songs as experimental, and yet cohesive, as ever; from the from the electro-indie of “You” to the familiar soulful raps of the acoustic-tinged “Oui Got Now,” it’s the most inspired they’ve sounded since their debut.

“This is the first one since Glee that we came full circle, [and it was] because we did that Jazz Fest show,” DiSalvio says. “You can’t not be touched by that. Plus, there was a lot of reconnecting with family and friends, and Montreal in itself.”

A big part of the reconnection with the city, musically, was recording there again. Not unlike DiSalvio’s days as a young producer in Montreal (he got recruited to produce/remix a song for local musician Jean Leloup) Bran Van happened upon some eager long-time fans of the band, production duo the Troublemakers. DiSalvio agrees that it added a positive perspective.

“A friend of mine said ‘oh, there are these guys who are big fans,’ and heard I was looking for a studio. It was an amazing exchange of projection, and resetting our projections…[they] represented so lovingly the details, and the vision, and their own definition.”

As for Bran Van’s definition as a band these days, DiSalvio is sure they’re once again on the cutting edge of something new.

“We’ve moved beyond the definition of collective actually, and we have a new way of defining it now—we define it now as your neighborhood bar. The doors are always open, and you have your regulars, like Sam and Norm and Diane. And you have a lot of guest stars.

And you have a lot of people that come in maybe once a week. Maybe that will explode too,” he laughs. Ultimately, though, it’s apparent that some perspective has given him a much more modest measure of success.

“Beyond anything, what I’m noticing is that anyone who doesn’t know Bran Van from a hole in the wall are just really responding to it as music. And that’s probably the coolest feeling you could get.”