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BRUCE PENINSULA return with their sophomore full-length album, Open Flames released on Toronto indie label HAND DRAWN DRACULA. The multi-musician ensemble gives us 10 new, sprawling songs, drawn from the skin of a drum and sung from deep down in the gut.
It has been quite a journey. Bruce Peninsula’s previous record, 2009’s self-released debut, A Mountain Is A Mouth immediately caught fire, garnering countless glowing reviews and a Polaris Music Prize long-list nomination. Their raucous, big top live show, featuring at times, a 10-musician sprawl, has converted audiences across the continent with headline appearances at SXSW, Pop Montreal and Halifax Pop Explosion. Songs from that album (along with Open Flames’ opening track) were used to score the full-length feature film Small Town Murder Songs, which premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.
Bruce Peninsula spent the middle months of 2010 with their heads down, hard at work. The idea was to write quickly, second-guess less and to push musical boundaries beyond their signature, progressive-gospel sound. By the end of the year, the band was sitting on a wealth of new material and had planned a release of Open Flames in the Spring of 2010.
But, in December, as the master came into hand, the band were suddenly sideswiped when lead shouter Neil Haverty was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. Open Flames would be forced to wait while Haverty endured treatment. The band created The Bruce Trail Fire Sale, an online campaign of new videos, covers and b-sides not featured on the LP to help calm an anxious wait. After a long and dreadful winter, Haverty is officially in remission and Bruce Peninsula is finally ready to take its next step forward. With a new choir on hand (featuring, among others, Daniela Gesundheit aka Snowblink and Tamara Lindeman aka The Weather Station), a fresh lease on life and Open Flames at the ready, Bruce Peninsula are born anew.
