Tag Archives: Loon Town

Community Connections for 18 November 2022: Loon Town Again!

Show Notes

Danielle Savage in front of the microphone in the CKMS-FM studio
Danielle Savage
Dave Lacalamita and Nic Hyatt in the CKMS-FM studio, Dave in front of a mic with a sock on a boom and holding a guitar; Nic holding a microphone.
Dave Lacalamita and Nic Hyatt

Loon Town is back in the studio! Bob Jonkman talks with Danielle Savage, Nic Hyatt, and Dave Lacalamita about their tour of Ontario and Québec, making their video for Silver Flowers, musical collaboration, and writing harmonies. And Loon Town performs some songs, Live, On-Air, In-studio!

The interview starts at 2m47s.

Dave Lacalamita was also in the studio on CKMS Community Connections for 7 November 2022.

Online:

  • Website: https://thisisloontown.com/
  • Facebook: Loon Town | Facebook
  • Instagram: @loon_town | Instagram
  • YouTube: Loon Town | YouTube
  • Bandcamp: Loon TGown | Bandcamp
  • SoundCloud: Loon Town | SoundCloud
  • Spotify: Loon Town | Spotify
  • Eventbrite: Album Release Tour 2022 tickets
  • E-mail: loontownmusic@gmail.com
  • Podcast

    Download: ckms-community-connections-2022-11-18-episode104.mp3 (82 MB, 56m54s, episode 104)

    Index

    Exclusive tracks recorded in the CKMS-FM 102.7 Radio Waterloo Studio are now available! Right-click on a linked track title to download!

    Time Title Album Artist
    0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc CKMS Sunflower logo (yellow petals surrounding a black centre with white wavies all on a teal background)
    CKMS Community Connections
    Steve Todd
    00m49s Great Sorrows (CKMS sunflower logo on a circular teal background)
    Live, On-Air, In-Studio
    Loon Town
    2m47s Quick band intro. Reviewing the Ontario/Québec tour. Discussing Great Sorrow lyrics, and how collaboration works. The structure (and length) of the Slow Space album. “Bootleg” music from Dave’s previous visit. There’s some material for a new album, but for now concentrating on performing the current songs together. Nic explains why some songs didn’t make it to this album; they’re conceptually different. Discussing the artwork on the website and the album cover. Talking about the video for Silver Flowers that was shot in Québec the past weekend.
    12m12s/td> Silver Flowers Loon Town | Slow space (illustration of birds flying to the left, with a very large bird with a human head in the centre, a woman with a pennant on a staff riding behind the head, and several organic-looking buildings on the back of the bird)
    Slow Space
    Loon Town
    15m20s “It ends abruptly, right here.” Talking about the rhythmic structure of Silver Flowers. Shoutouts to the video production crew, discussing the complexity of shooting video and recording an album. Getting together again in the spring for more songwriting. Spread across Canada, it’s like Loon Town has four hometowns, with a home crowd at every stop.
    20m32s Party At The Ice Cream Shop (CKMS sunflower logo on a circular teal background)
    Live, On-Air, In-Studio
    Loon Town
    23m47s Bob resists the impulse to sing along. How Ice Cream Shop was developed. Sharing collaborative works to perform them solo — is there a “proprietary” feeling to the songs? No, the members are attached to the results but happy to play them; there’s a generosity to it. Talking about rights and songwriting credits: Everything is shared equally. How about the public “sharing” Loon Town music? It’s unavoidable, and they don’t mind as long as it’s from the ethos of sharing, but not for profit. The music is copyrighted, but they’re open to sharing if someone asks. Drop them a note! Cover versions of songs are equally valid. All band members have jobs in the music field: Dave is a music teacher, Nic runs a record label, Danielle does sound installations, and Milli is a full-time drummer. But they’ve all packed boxes and cut staples in their off-season. But this month of touring has been a full-time music gig, and it’s slowly increasing.
    34m04s Black Crow (CKMS sunflower logo on a circular teal background)
    Live, On-Air, In-Studio
    Loon Town
    37m42s How Black Crow here differs from the album track, and it’s more upbeat when played live with the band. Bob thought Dave’s guitar had been restrung, but it’s still wound nylon strings making a slidey effect between notes. Seeing what a song lives as — embracing who’s there, what instruments are there. The first album Exit Strategy was different from Slow Space, these songs have all existed as “B” sides or demo versions. Collaborating by sharing files might be time-consuming, with the danger of losing the creative spark. But Danielle says there wasn’t a lot of waiting; everyone had a shared repertoire and worked on it. There was enough material that if there was a lull they could pick up something else. Did some “distance residencies”, took a week to spend time writing together, called each other to work on material. Sometimes a song comes all at once, sometimes it can take years to finish the last 10%. The last 25% is the hardest. All members have other collaborators for different projects, creating different music. Lots of new material for the Radio Waterloo library! Shoutout to campus and community radio station, where interesting music is being played all the time. There is Loon Town merch, a vinyl disc of Slow Space! Hand-delivery by a band member if you’re in their hometown!
    50m53s Pick Up The Phone (CKMS sunflower logo on a circular teal background)
    Live, On-Air, In-Studio
    Loon Town
    53m50s Pick Up The Phone has three-part harmonies, how do you write harmony? Dave is a natural-born harmonizer. There are techniques, but sometimes they just try stuff out.

    Bob gives the end credits, and Dave Lacalamita plays us out.

    CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

    Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

    CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

    CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community ConnectionsSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

    Bonus Footage

    YouTube: CKMS Community Connections for 18 November 2022

    Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2022 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

CKMS Community Connections for 7 November 2022: In-Studio with Loon Town

Show Notes

Dave Lacalamita of Loon Town in the studio, holding a guitar, and singing into a microphone
Dave Lacalamita
Bob Jonkman talks to Dave Lacalamita of Loon Town about the band, songwriting, teaching music, and politics.

The interview starts at 4m06s.

Online:

Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2022-11-07-episode103.mp3 (80.9 MB, 56m06s, episode 103)

Index

Exclusive tracks recorded in the CKMS-FM 102.7 Radio Waterloo Studio are now available! Right-click on a linked track title to download!

Time Title Album Artist
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc CKMS Sunflower logo (yellow petals surrounding a black centre with white wavies all on a teal background)
CKMS Community Connections
Steve Todd
0m29s Nomenclature Loon Town | Slow space (illustration of birds flying to the left, with a very large bird with a human head in the centre, a woman with a pennant on a staff riding behind the head, and several organic-looking buildings on the back of the bird)
Slow Space
Loon Town
4m06s Introducing Dave Lacalamati from Loon Town and his travelling bandmates. Introducing the band: Danielle Savage from Penticton, Nic Hyatt from Whitehorse, and Milli Hong from Montréal. How they met, how they manage to have a band scattered across Canada. Using Ableton to collaborate remotely. Upcoming shows: Cameron House on Thursday; at Sephora Catana’s studio in the old Boehmer Box Factory building in Kitchener. In Ottawa on Saturday, and Montréal on Sunday. Then band members are doing some playing and writing together, playing in Sarnia a week later, and then Dave follows the others to play in British Columbia. This is the first tour and playing live since the start of the pandemic. And the Slow Space album has just been released on 4 November. Going to play a track from that now.
9m26s Retrospective Loon Town | Slow space (illustration of birds flying to the left, with a very large bird with a human head in the centre, a woman with a pennant on a staff riding behind the head, and several organic-looking buildings on the back of the bird)
Slow Space
Loon Town
12m55s Identifying the genre of Loon Town music, Dave identifies it as “Synth Pop”, the Exit Strategy album is “Psych Synth Rock”, more heavy guitar, busier drumbeats. Dave is playing an acoustic guitar today, and composes on guitar with a little bit on piano. Nick, Danni and Dave are all songwriters, one goal of the new album is collective songwriting. Bob is surprised that composing is sometimes accidental. New songs are shared with the band by audio clips, written out only to figure out details. Not all the chords have names! Dave and Nick like improv, Milli is a jazz musician. Hoping to incorporate some improv in their live performances. This will be the first time all four musicians have played together in person!
20m40s Prairie Desert (CKMS sunflower logo on a circular teal background)
Live, On-Air, In-Studio
Dave Lacalamita
23m24s The album version has differences from the live version. Examining Dave’s guitar, which he uses to write music. Talking about how the rest of the band composes. Doing some group composition now that the group is together. And shooting a video when they’re in Montréal, something “upbeat”. Dave is a music teacher at St. Mary’s high school, his students describe all music as “upbeat”. Composing professionally helps teach music to the students; some teachers lack that context. Dave teaches “Music and Computers”, using computers to record, compose. There’s a computer lab, not unlike the CKMS-FM studio. Maybe get some student compositions on the air! So much local talent and local music being produced. A little local community radio history. Dave taught drama during the pandemic, and plays a song about the process of “getting out of your head” and being a bit over-confident.
35m21s Old Songs About Important Things (CKMS sunflower logo on a circular teal background)
Live, On-Air, In-Studio
Dave Lacalamita
38m16s Maybe this song was autobigraphical? Dave didn’t write it with himself in mind. It’s a fun song, and the chords are simple. Talking about what’s happening in the world of education today. Kids are not in school due to an education workers’ strike. Discussing the government’s treatment of hard-working but low-paid workers, which has said that human rights don’t matter here. Dave knew education minister Steven Lecce from their university days, not surprised he’s a politician. Does Loon Town have protest music? Not as such, there needs to be a chantable chorus. But all members of the band are politically engaged, and comment on the state of the world; music is a way of recapturing some of that power. Recap of upcoming performances. Discussing the Loon Town website, a animated map of Loon Town. Clicking on the icons will play music. After Toronto and Kitchener the tour continues to Ottawa, Montréal, Penticton, Nelson, and Vancouver. There are some unused songs for a new album. But Dave is interested in pursuing music with specific sounds that exist in the band. Dave would like to revisit the sound of Exit Strategy, there’s a lot of energy in that album. Dave has done a bit of solo work, an improv piano set, and has been playing a bit with Alison Corbett and Grady Caplan. Dave introduces the last song.
51m52s Great Sorrows (CKMS sunflower logo on a circular teal background)
Live, On-Air, In-Studio
Dave Lacalamita
54m30s Discussing Great Sorrows, recognizing people’s needs over the last few years. Talking about a future CKMS Community Connections episode with Loon Town, and Bob gives the end credits.

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community ConnectionsSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Bonus Footage

YouTube: CKMS Community Connections for 7 November 2022

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2022 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

CKMS Community Connections for 25 May 2020

Yup, the studio is still closed, so here’s an hour of new CanCon music, some from returning artists!

Time Title Artist Album
00m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections Steve Todd CKMS Community Connections
00m26s In the Long, Long, Long Ago Bob Jensen Prayer to Morning
04m36s Diablo De Un Segundo Alex Cuba
06m44s Barred Up Windows Jesse Maxwell Radio Silence
10m03s Whatever We Call This Jesse Maxwell Radio Silence
14m04s Jaguar Joe Nolan Drifters
17m09s Tupelo Honey Joe Nolan Drifters
20m33s Big Bones LENOIRE Off the Cuff
22m45s Exit Strategy Loon Town Exit Strategy
26m51s Borrowed Time Loon Town Exit Strategy
31m18s To-Do List Sherman Downey New Beautiful
35m14s Deep in the Dark of the Jubilee Seam Sherman Downey New Beautiful
39m39s Kill The Lies Sven Gali 3
43m18s You Won’t Break Me Sven Gali 3
46m59s Stack Overflow / The Comfy Corner / Periwinkle Stéafán & Saskia with guests Sam Allison, Oisin Hannigan and Anne Delong The Loon’s Call – tunes from the north shore
51m05s Move it on Ouevre The Bumblebats Standing in the Shadows of Moncton
53m14s Lucy in the Sky with Linus The Bumblebats Standing in the Shadows of Moncton
56m37s My Brother The Jerry Cans Swell

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Friday from 2:00pm to 3:00pm.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community Connections | Mondays 10 am - 12 NoonSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2020 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and deriviatives works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.