Purveyors of: Improvisational jazz-rock explosions

Although Barnyard Drama's music is inarguably jazz based, the band has crafted its own bizarre, headphone-melting ideas of what can be done with the genre when you really want to fuck with it. Improvisational bands can range from horribly self-indulgent to just plain boring, but this batch of Torontonians has found that ideal sonic zone where everything comes together perfectly. Matt Pilgrim asked vocalist Christine Duncan how they reached this chemistry.

Where did you grow up and how did you meet each other?

Christine was born in Vancouver and grew up around Canada with a traveling Christian musical family show. Justin and Jean both grew up in the Ottawa area albeit in their respective French and Anglo sectors. Jean and Christine were introduced to each other by Jesse Zubot at an event in Vancouver about 7 years ago and immediately became fast friends. Justin and Jean have been friends and music partners for many years and met first on the pro scene in Ottawa.

Do you work as a team on putting each song together?

We basically improvise together and see what comes up. Sometimes we make up songs on the spot and sometimes we just make a lot of noise.

Did you take vocal lessons to reach the octaves you are able to hit or have you just always been able to do that?

I have taken some voice lessons of different kinds and, in fact, right now am engaged in some Japanese folk singing lessons and overtone singing lessons. The vocal range is mostly a result of personal exploration and I guess I just naturally have a “big” voice. I'm pretty intentional about expanding it though and constantly looking for new “voices” within my instrument.

What should our Wavelength readers expect from one of your live performances?

Not sure. We'll be improvising, so almost anything can happen.

How many records do you have out at this point and do you plan on releasing anything else in the near future?

Barnyard Drama has 2 albums out at the moment, Memories and a List of Things to Do, and I'm a Navvy, and between the members of the group we have many different and diverse recordings. We have a label and a website. The website is www.barnyardrecords.com and some of the different things are listed there. Barnyard records will be releasing a bunch of new albums in the next couple of months, with the likes of Colin Fisher, Ryan Driver, Scott Thompson and Lori Freedman, Blah Blah 666 and others, so keep your ears peeled.

By Matthew Pilgrim