Emerging from the ashes of The Primrods, Calgary's Summerlad have been honing their sound since they emerged with 2001's Distance Will Be Swept Up. 2005 saw the release of Themes: International and a one-off performance of City of Noise for the performing arts community One Yellow Rabbit, which sound-tracked a day in the life of a city.

City of Noise translates 'œthe cycle of the city'? into music. What was the inspiration? Any word on the recording?
One Yellow Rabbit, who commissioned us for the performance, gave us carte blanche. When we first hatched the idea, it was an opportunity to get away from strictly song-based structures and do something more thematic and conceptual with a strong cinematic quality about how cities can almost seem like living organisms. Fritz Lang's two films, 'œMetropolis'? and 'œWhile The City Sleeps'? opened up these possibilities for us. Also, we were influenced by some Russian sources. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 'œOne Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch'? gave us the idea to set the piece within 24 hours, and Sergei Prokofiev's 'œPeter and the Wolf'? inspired us to use instruments as 'œvoices'? or narrative devices (all very pretentious'¦but it still totally rocked!). As for recording, we're in the midst of a studio version, planning for a full-length with a single also called 'œCity of Noise'? for Christmas release if possible'¦

Cliquey Canadian scenes and city border bounded fame'¦
With your commitment to touring, how are Canada's geographic obstacles treating you? What's your view of scenes outside of Calgary? Of Toronto?
We've had the opportunity to do lots of touring in North America and find Canada's geographic obstacles challenging but bands are doing it all the time and always have (look at Ronnie Hawkins!). Sometimes bands just need to suck it up and treat it like a nice road trip/vacation. Every city has a great scene. Toronto has some good stuff coming out of it and we love to play with the bands there (The Creeping Nobodies, The Constantines, Aaron Booth). Calgary can seem quite isolated at times and that can be both frustrating and enriching. We're left alone to do what we want and the local support is incredibly strong.

Your first label, Catch and Release, promoted the early 2000 Calgary scene well and your involvement lent some weight. How has Calgary's music scene grown since then?
Catch and Release really helped us out and we'll never forget that. They have the right attitude when it comes to putting out records. They want it to be inclusive, fun and to let their roster show its quality. They'll thrive in Calgary and beyond as long as they enjoy what they do. There is no shortage of talent here. We decided on SBY because they work hard and are passionate about their artists, just like C&R. But for what we wanted to do with Themes: International, we felt SBY had more resources, stronger media support and distribution. It's working out beautifully with Dawn, Jen and Owen at SBY (I'm blowing kisses right now).

City of Noise shows another side to the band though there's a continuation from The Mandarin Hand EP and elements from the albums are heightened. How Is the band's sound evolving?
Wow! Not many people have brought up The Mandarin Hand CD! You should get some kind of prize, as that was a limited edition of, like, 60 copies! For now I'd say it's another side of the band but for us the challenge is to try and somehow sew all our ambitions together and hopefully provide us with our own unique-ness and vision. Plans are in the works for a live soundtrack to a film at next year's Calgary Film Fest and an encore performance of City of Noise. One Yellow Rabbit has offered us a Dadaist play by Kurt Schwitters that we may turn into a song cycle. There's talk of different writing/recording approaches to our next 'œproper'? album.

Much has been written about Themes's $700 recording bill. Self-recording must have given you a lot of time to tweak parts and work things over. Is the craft of recording something more bands need to keep in mind? Has Calgary's musical growth pushed you?
We were constrained by a lack of funds and a desire to make a record sound they way we wanted to hear it. We didn't want to look at a clock and wanted to experiment with ideas. I don't think we fully succeeded, but we are proud of the results. Bands often wrestle with the idea of 'œCraft vs. Feel'?. I think a balance can be reached, and for us it's based on what we DON'T want our recordings to sound like. What you hear on your headphones should be a different from what you see live. We've worked hard to find our own sound and I can safely say that no one writes or arranges quite like us or thinks about things the way we do (at least not here in little '˜ol Calgary). That's a pretty good place to be.

By Mark Russell