Chad VanGaalen

Chad VanGaalen is a renaissance man, a complete musician who not only plays all of the instruments on his quirky, orchestrated indie folk albums but makes some of those instruments and draws the accompanying album artwork. With this type of single-minded focus, it is no wonder that for VanGaalen, performing is an afterthought.

"We're leaving for the tour in three days, and I'm super, super sad. I just got back from a cabin in the woods with my family, and now I'll have to deal with grumpy club owners every night," the songwriter tells The Prague Post by phone from his home in Calgary. "If I can make it through the first week, then I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel."

While Bon Iver has recently popularized the myth of the sensitive musician recording heart-baring music in a cabin in the woods, VanGaalen has been doing it for years. By the time he released his first album in 2004, the songwriter had amassed hundreds of hours of music recorded at his home in Canada, a backlog that would provide material for two albums and two EPs. Now, with four albums to his credit on Flemish Eye Records in Canada and Sub Pop in the United States, VanGaalen is a significant presence in North American music, whether he likes it or not. His ongoing European tour will bring him to the attention of the Continent, as well.

"We've never been to Prague, so we're really looking forward to it, though we're not sure exactly what we'll be doing on this tour. The last album was much more guitar-based, so we'll be traveling with three guitarists and a drummer," VanGaalen says.

A guitar-heavy album is the norm for many groups, but VanGaalen has typically been more resourceful in his instrumentation. His debut, Infiniheart (2004), is an album of lo-fidelity indie rock whose sheer range of styles is alarming. "Graduated Assassin" is a nervous instrumental electro track reminiscent of Radiohead, while "Sunshine Snare Hits" is a slide guitar country jam on hallucinogens, replete with flutes. It is the kind of groovy pastoral that drew comparisons to VanGaalen's fellow Canadian Neil Young. But the sheer versatility of this sprawling, 19-track conglomeration of music is imposing and pushes beyond any simple comparison.

Skelliconnection (2006) is as wildly ranging as any of VanGaalen's work, but more assured. Album opener "Flower Gardens" is a hard-rocking guitar- and bass-driven romp through stuttering indie territory. On "Sing Me 2 Sleep," meanwhile, VanGaalen fingerpicks a guitar tuned to drop-D in the "junkie music" style of early Elliot Smith, while singing "Take this lonesome brain and wash it down the drain." As a whole, the album confirms VanGaalen's unusual diversity, one of his most charming traits as a songwriter.

Soft Airplane (2008) was a break for VanGaalen, as it was his first recording that consisted of songs he had written specifically for the album. Album opener "Willow Tree" is representative of VanGaalen's strengths as a songwriter: Lyrically, it shows his ability to craft alluring imagery out of simple language and repetition. "Take my body/ put it in a boat/ light it on fire/ and send it out to sea," he sings in near-falsetto. Musically, the track shows VanGaalen's instrumental ingenuity and his knack for quirky orchestration that works well for the mood of this song, in this case, banjo, accordion, acoustic bass, snare drum, xylophone and clarinet.

VanGaalen's next, and most recent, full-length album, Diaper Island, is, as VanGaalen says, a more guitar-based album than much of his earlier work. On his European tour, the band is likely to focus on these songs, although the singer says they may decide at the last minute "to bring a bag of junk" to play on.

"We always bring a bag of junk," he adds.

What VanGaalen has sacrificed in variety of instrumentation on Diaper Island, he has gained in harmonic depth. Album highlight "Sara" begins as frailly as any of VanGaalen's work, with a single acoustic guitar and the singer whistling a wistful melody. The song begins to blossom at the refrain, however, introducing several voices in a deep harmony that continues through the song. This is haunting, heartfelt folk that gains strength through simple insistence, despite the frailty of its sentiment. Another track, "Burning Photographs," takes an amplified approach, layering several guitars over one another to create a depth of sound, as lush and steely as Sonic Youth.

Despite VanGaalen's reluctance to tour and his earnest approach to songwriting, he does have a sense of humor. Asked whom he would tour with if he had the chance, the singer does not hesitate.

"I'd love to tour with Steve Martin, when he was 25, playing the banjo."

Martin is unlikely to accompany VanGaalen at his concert in Prague, but the Canadian renaissance musician's beguiling versatility will be a show in itself.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com