Bend Sinister’s Dan Moxon croons smooth pop on an album that features high-calibre songwriting and pristine production.
Dan Moxon
Lounge Singer Tour
When: Oct. 24, 8 p.m.
Where: The WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac
Tickets and info: $15 at showpass.com or wisehall.ca
As frontman for Vancouver band Bend Sinister, Dan Moxon is well known for hard rocking on his keyboard. Over the course of nine albums, the group has honed its ’70s-centric, glam-prog sounds into some very memorable material. But on his latest solo effort, Moxon leaves the loudness behind.
Dan Moxon. Christopher Edmonstone / PNG
The 13 tunes on Lounge Singer find the musician crooning smooth pop that owes a great deal more to the introspective folk of Nick Drake, Hall & Oates’ soul pop, and Billy Joel’s urban storytelling.
Rather than an inside joke, the title is actually a statement of fact. A lot of the music on the album first premiered when Moxon was moonlighting as a lounge singer. It’s also a reflection on how people consume music today, which is less about listening to a full album and a lot more about short-attention span snippets.
“A lot of these songs did, in fact, first get played in gigs at assorted hotel lounges and things, but it seemed a suitable title for other reasons as well,” said Moxon.
“These days, everybody digests music in the background on a streaming service and it’s very hard to get anyone to approach an album to listen to the whole way through. Spotify turns us all into lounge singers in the background, hoping that one song on the mix gets noticed.”
Lounge Singer should get noticed for its high-calibre songwriting and pristine production. Featuring mostly introspective slow jams such as the leadoff single Where You Gonna Sleep Tonight, Moxon’s new tunes are the kind ready-made for breakups or healing from them. Moxon hoped to mine some personal melancholy in his music.
“When I came around to deciding to make this album, I had a lot of older songs that I really wanted to record but also knew I needed to make room for new ones, too,” he said.
“So I went away for a week of vacation with family on the Sunshine Coast and set myself the goal of writing six new songs and those joined up with seven of my favourite old ones to make the record. The Blue was written on my little battery-powered Yamaha mini keyboard hiding out in my car on the ferry feeling down, so I played around with the idea.”
Sounding a lot like Nick Drake sighing behind a rich, warm Fender Rhodes piano, The Blue is one of the best tracks on Lounge Singer. It opens the album and sets its introspective mood. Always a strong singer, Moxon’s vocals on this track are exceptional, even getting in a bit of an homage to Sir Elton John by including a line about “I guess that’s why they call it The Blue.” The gospel-style backing vocal chorus and string section just dress up the track even more. This should be a AAA hit.
“I liked the idea of playing with the idea of the blues, but to make it The Blue, alluding to the whole West Coast and open oceans thing,” Moxon said.
“It’s a little clichéd, but I really like the way it turned out. I rehearsed it for two days and then had the Bend Sinister guys come in to do the drums and bass bed tracks and I played everything else but the string arrangements, which were by Good For Grapes’ Alex Hauka.”
The players on Lounge Singer represent some of the most agile and busy of the local scene. Given budgets being what they were, Moxon had everything pretty complete before bringing in the session players. Strings, saxophones, rhythm sections and the like were all done in single sessions, getting the parts for each song down. It was quick and efficient and it sounds like the participants were chilling back in some studio in the woods for weeks to get the right vibe on the record.
“It was pretty crazy how we banged it all out, but that’s what you do as an independent artist,” Moxon said.
“The biggest thing I wanted to do was get something going on like Bahamas live sessions where the female backing vocals are a real focus in the overall music, so I had Tonye Aganaba and Ashleigh Ball (Hey Ocean) come in and do most of the album and then my pals Jody Peck (Miss Quincy), Chelsea Johnson (Old Soul Rebel) and Alex Badger did the rest.”
For the coming tour, Moxon has recruited a female rhythm section to both keep the beat and bring those upfront background vocals. An optional sax player rounds out the group when possible. As a strong advocate for keyboards being front and centre in any musical context, Moxon is really pleased with Lounge Singer.
“There isn’t a single guitar on the record, or in the live show,” he said.
“I always feel that the second you let a guitar in, the whole thing starts to get louder and more rock. That really isn’t what I wanted, instead I wanted to keep it more simple and direct.”
Moxon says that he is aiming for the “whole jazz fest and folk fest world” with Lounge Singer. He feels that the longer Bend Sinister goes, the less the world seems to care about rock n’ roll. He’s ready to see what it’s like taking the music out on tour and promises to break out some older tunes as well as some favourite covers.
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