Daniel Lanois, musician and producer extraordinaire who has worked with the who’s who of rock royalty from U2 to Bob Dylan, has always had a thing for new tools to aid in his quest for the perfect sound. His “sonics” he likes to call them. Normally, these tools are of the electronic variety. But with his new project, Black Dub, he goes humanoid.
Vocalist Trixie Whitley and drummer Brian Blade provided Lanois with what he’s been looking for to put together his critically acclaimed, innovative Black Dub project.
Lanois describes the project as “essentially a three-piece band with a high level of musicianship. We don’t operate on a technological grid. Nor are we tied to a page of fixed notes. Our songs are fluid. Often recorded live. One take. No overdubs. It’s a very old-fashioned idea really.”
Inspired by Jamaican dub reggae, but grounded in the group’s stunning musicality, Black Dub is proving to be an awe-inspiring effort. With a new album garnering positive reviews, cracking new markets in the process, and with a summer of touring on tap, including a stop in Toronto on July 5 at the Opera House, Black Dub could be Lanois’s biggest musical breakthrough in his storied career.
“It has always been a dream in the back of my mind to work in the presence of a great soul singer with the capacity to hit amazing notes,” Lanois says.
“This was a chance for me to work with a new instrument.”
Lanois met Trixie Whitley, the daughter of musician Chris Whitley, backstage at a festival in Belgium.
“I had known Trixie years ago, when she was still a little kid,” Lanois explains.
“I was taken by her voice and her artistry. We recorded a couple songs. It went well and I suggested we start this band.”
The third piece in Black Dub is long-time Lanois collaborator and fierce drummer Brian Blade.
“I met Brian in New Orleans, where I went in the ’80s to do some songwriting,” Lanois says.
“Iggy Pop was down making a record in my studio, and we went for a walk, and around the corner was this place called Café Brazil where we heard the most impressive and thundering drumming. Inside, there was a young man with a shaved head pouring every ounce of energy and blood into his playing. I knew right then that I wanted to work with this man.”
In addition to brilliant musicianship, Blade, who grew up in the band at his father’s Baptist church in Shreveport, Louisiana, adds a spiritual dimension to the group that Lanois seems to appreciate.
“Brian learned to play at church. His father’s a singing pastor and a great singer,” Lanois says.
“We play in the church band and listen to his father sing at least once a year if we can. But beyond the specifics of his father, I like the that fact that these are spiritual people. They have good values, honest, and it comes through in his playing. I like to have that around me, being a spiritual person of sorts.”
“He wants to play an acoustic on a stool? OK. But that all changed when he pulled out the black Les Paul.”
Perhaps Lanois’ spirituality has been heightened as of late following a brush with death in 2010 after a motorcycle crash that left him in a wheelchair for weeks after breaking many bones and partially collapsing a lung. The accident postponed the release of the Black Dub album and stopped his work with iconic Toronto rocker Neil Young.
But not for long.
“Neil was terrific to work with,” Lanois says. “It was a dream come true for me. He was very creative and kind, had all the Canadian qualities intact.”
One might think Young and Lanois were a team destined for exploding amps with the volume up to 11, but it didn’t start out that way.
“It was supposed to be an acoustic record, initially,” Lanois explains.
“I was going to record him and film him, like in the Black Dub films (www.blackdub.com), and we agreed to everything, no problem. He wants to play an acoustic on a stool? OK. But that all changed as soon as he pulled out the black Les Paul.”
And when an acoustic came into play, Lanois tried to ensure it was something raw and totally new. “Neil was so appreciative of the sonics that we presented to him,” Lanois says. “He walked in the door and I put an acoustic guitar into his hands — one that I had been working on to build a new sound. That’s the multi-layered acoustic sound that you hear on the songs ‘Love and War’ and ‘Peaceful Valley Boulevard.’”
“I wanted him to understand that I’ve spent years dedicated to the sonics in my home and that I wanted to give him something he’d never heard before,” Lanois continues.
“He picked up that instrument, which had everything — an acoustic sound, electronica, bass sounds — and he knew as soon as he played it that we had taken the acoustic guitar to a new level. It’s hard to come up with a new sound at the back end of 50 years of rock and roll, but I think we did it.”
The resulting effort, Le Noise, is considered one of Young’s finest efforts in years, garnering the rocker a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Performance, for the song “Angry World,” and a Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year.
In addition to sonic assaults, Lanois and Young also share a deep environmental ethic. Lanois, for his part, is organizing Harvest Picnic for Aug. 27 (www.harvestpicnic.ca) that features Lanois in concert along with Ray LaMontagne, Gord Downie, Emmy Lou Harris and others.
“I’ve always enjoyed August in southern Ontario because of the fantastic tomatoes I was exposed to as a kid in an Italian community,” Lanois says.
“In these fast times, why not celebrate these heroes? Food is a big topic these days.… This event is about awareness, about the music and the foods we love and to draw attention to our local heroes.”
