On Thursday January 19th at Sneaky Dees-"Controlled Choas" and "Playful deceit" , two themes of the "Hive-brid" Vancouver pop rock band, Beekeeper, shared their thoughts on the debut album, Be Kept and upcoming release. Prior to their performance, Nick and I chatted with the drummer, Luke Cyca and the bassist, Brandi Sidoryk.
Kanae(K):How along have you guys playing together?
Luke (L):Be Kept came out in the end of 2010 and we've been in a band in one form or another since early 2007.
(K): Having such different backgrounds, (Singer/
(L): Devon and I are cousins, so we know each other and have played music forever together off and on. It wasn't until we were both in Vancouver that we really started developing a project. We prepared these songs for the album and then we met Brandi a couple years ago. She was an excellent fit for the project.
(B): On Be Kept, I was actually a guest vocalist because we were friends back then. Then later on I actually joined up as a part of the band full time.
(L): Back then, we were too nervous to ask her to be in the band. But we brought enough each other to ask her to join to sing in the three songs in the album.
(K): From Be Kept, do you have any songs particularly that you like?
(L): There are a few of them that stand out for me, Table and Bed is one of my favorites. It is the first song of the album. I really like the song because it's very perky. It's fun to play the song.
(K): In the debut album, there are 13 tracks and I found each songs sounds very distinctive.
(L): As you said every song sounds very different, it is something that we have as a common theme of Beekeeper. It's sort of like "controlled chaos." We start all the things at once and we try to control them, and make something out of it.
Nick (N): It's kind of like "keeping bees", right?
(L): Exactly.
(N): How's the recording process works then? Do you guys keep things as it goes or record each song differently?
(L): We have very good ideas going into recordings. But for the debut album, we had different guests. So just as a part of that different people coming in to record different songs, it took the songs in different directions. Partly, that's why we ended up with lots of variety.
(B): It was also recorded in some unconventional ways and it was another way to make the great sounding album.
(N): What do you mean by 'unconventional'?
(B): I mean just like Devon came in and did on the scene recording here in Toronto.
(L): We recorded in 3 cities. mainly Vancouver, and Devon did some recording with some friends out here in Toronto. Jacquie from the Balconies sang a few songs in the album. So Devon came here just with a laptop and a microphone and they recorded vocal tracks in a bed room with 12 other people at a party. I recorded my sister on the album. She was in Saskatoon and I was going there anyways, so I bought back some recording.
(B): It was like a mobile studio.
(L); Most of the recordings were done in my apartment or Devon's apartment. Then, we took it all to Colin Stewart in the Hive (Creative Labs.) He's done lots of great work with Canadian bands. We just dumped it all at him and said to sort it out to make it sound one album.
(B): And he did a great job.
(N): Any colloborations coming up next then?
(L): I can't really tell you that right now. Another theme of the band is 'Playful deceit'. I like keep people guessing.
(K): Does this debut album represent where you guys are heading to next?
(L) There is a single, 7-inch vinyl release that we are working on right now. We are waiting for the manufacturing of the vinyls. For the single, we did it a lot different (from the debut album). It was in the same studio from start to finish there and it has a very different result, too. I think for the next full length album, we'll do some mix of two methods. We like the energy that we get from all the different things.
(N): So it's gonna be more of a 'Hive-brid'
(K): Anything else planned up for 2012?
(L):We got the new vinyl coming out, and some upcoming Ontario tour dates right now and in April we are doing another Western Canadian tour. We will drive to Saskatchewan and I get to visit my hometown. Then we will start working on the full-length album.
(K): Any words for Toronto Music Fans?
(L) Our last song of the debut album is called Last Words. so That's my last words. and keeping eyes on the upcoming single, called Take me back to the place.
(B): it's fun and my favorite song that we've done yet.
(L): We just did an acoustic version of it a few hours ago. We went to Q107 and recorded it.
Thank you Luke and Brandi for your time! They were as sweet as honey! Click here to read my review for their show at Sneaky Dees on the same day.
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