Killing Time in the Solo Department
Chris Page returns with a record that gives new meaning
to the term 'solo project'
 Who
knew what to make of it: It was getting on 9 p.m. and Ottawa’s
Chris Page stood on stage, slowly walking around in circles
strumming his guitar, seemingly getting ready to begin his
Canadian Music Week set. “C’mon Chris,”
grumbled a disembodied voice through the stage monitors. “It’s
showtime.” Page seemed to ignore the sound guy’s
direction and took his guitar off his shoulder, much to the
guy's annoyance: “Chris, it’s showtime. ShowTIME.”
Page, seemingly oblivious, walked off stage and cruised to
the bar across the room. About five minutes later he just
as casually sauntered back to the stage, plugged in his guitar,
and launched into his electric troubadour act. Talking to
him on the phone a week later I had to know what that was
all about.
“They wanted me to start too early,” he says.
“No one was there and so I thought maybe I could start
later. It turned out that the next band started a half-hour
after me anyway so it was like the gig started with them.”
Another successful Toronto debut. But Page is used to the
quirks that come from playing live shows in this country,
having fronted The Stand GT for over a decade, and spending
the last five years as a solo act.
Decide to Stay and Swim (Kelp) is Page’s third
solo record, but the first under his own name. His first two
were released under the name of his old hockey team, The Glen
Nevous Retraction. “Around the time The Stand was doing
that last record I started doing some solo stuff around Ottawa,
and I didn’t want it to be a ‘solo thing’
so I decided it would be a side project so I should give it
a name,” he explains. “But really, the records
sound identical to the stuff I’m doing now.”
That sound is stripped down, minimalist, slightly melancholy
pop that has drawn comparisons to artists as diverse as Billy
Bragg, Portastatic, and one well-meaning, but incorrect comparison
to U2.
Critics in the National Capital Region have been all over
this CD, and with good reason. Page has an affecting vocal
style that lends itself well to the engaging style that one
guy on stage with a guitar needs to make himself noticed above
the bar chatter. But he doesn’t perform your garden-variety
singer-songwriter solo material. It’s more mature-sounding
pop, not completely removed from the poppy garage-ish stuff
he did with The Stand GT.
Some songs on the CD are augmented by other instruments that
seem to sit quietly in the background, blending in effortlessly
to the arrangement.
For me, the strongest song is “One Projectile from
the Sun”. It takes a left turn in terms of style and
structure from the last few songs that precede it. The track
immediately previous, “What Makes You Think You’re
The One”, is a kind of a climax, where he adds other
instruments, like drums and rhythm guitars, which all come
together like he’s coming to a lo-fi pop conclusion
of sorts. When “Projectile” begins, he creates
an entirely new mood, where at first he sounds like he could
be singing somewhere just for himself, but when the piano
kicks in during the second verse, it creates a pastoral
This builds to “Killing Time in the Doubt Department”,
where he takes back control by dropping the accompaniment
and plowing through a loud, bitter track where he pounds his
guitar and sings loudly, but mournfully barely keeping his
guitar playing from going out of control.
The rest of the CD explores Page’s quieter, more experimental
side, and one that he is eager to explore further. “I
just feel real comfortable playing the electric guitar. I
like the idea that I can play really hard and really loud
and then quiet an instant later,” he says. “I
like the dynamics of the electric guitar, with an acoustic,
it’s just not the same.”
Page will be hitting the road at the end of April, supporting
Jim Bryson on a handful of dates in Western Canada. He’s
also working on a compilation of old compilation tracks, 7”
eps, an dother stuff from The Stand GT that he is organizing
into a CD release.
-- Keith Powell
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