Baby Eagle is the solo project of Steve Lambke. Commonly known as a member of the now disbanded Constantines, Lambke's solo work exhibits inclinations in the folk music spectrum.  His most recent record, Bone Soldiers (2012), includes the Proud Mothers, a backing band that lends a heavier hand to Lambke's sound. He currently co-runs You've Changed Records and has recently returned to Toronto after a stint in Sackville, NB. Lambke caught up with Marissa Janes to chat about the sense of place and the sound of a certain space, and catch us up on all his goodness. Catch him playing solo this Friday (March 29) at the Monarch in support of Shotgun Jimmie's record release on You've Changed!

When I moved back to Canada in 2007, I heard your album "No Blues" while working in the music department at CIUT. Not yet realizing that it was your project, I was convinced that Baby Eagle was an East Coast band (and not just because of guest musicians Shotgun Jimmie and Julie Doiron on the record). I am not sure if you were living in Sackville at that point. How much do you think our cities/provinces/musical surroundings shape our creative output?  Is it more so the people or the place?   

I wasn't living in Sackville when I recorded “No Blues.” I caught a ride east and arrived in town on Christmas Eve. We were recording and eating and sleeping in a big and nearly empty farmhouse out in the marsh. When I think about the records I've made, I can see the rooms I was in, the people I was with, the sound of creaky floors and wind blowing. So those records are, for me, those times and places and they sound like those specific times and places. I guess that's mostly just my memory, and not something that is actually objectively in those recordings, but I'm not sure.

Can you even say that a specific location has a “sound?”

Places definitely have sounds. The sound of the wood, and the size of the room. The things that are in the room that you can hear if you don't worry about them coming in and jamming with you. But I think you are asking me about geography and maybe even regional scenes or sounds, in the sense of a bunch of bands or artists sharing some common element, and that's something I just don't know much about. I'm definitely influenced by the people I collaborate with, and my friends who's music and art I love, and I'd say we all learn from each other, but I wouldn't tie them, or myself, down to a specific place.

The East Coast made me fall in love with Canada and Canadian independent music in the first place. Why did you go out east for a bit?

I went to Sackville thinking I was just going for the summer and stayed for three years! It's a good place, the music there is often really good and Sappyfest is there, but I didn't live there for Sappyfest or for the music exactly. I did feel pretty creative there, and I worked on music a lot, but I also lived a lot of life there that didn't have much of anything directly to do with music. I just fell in love with the place and some people there, as well as the
landscape and life in a smaller place.

Whenever your solo work is reviewed, folks are pretty hung up on your poetic lyricism.  When listening to your music, I find that I often focus on your voice in the way I'd listen to someone narrating a short story.  The timbre of your voice lends a great deal to this “storytelling” idea. You are also a wonderful guitarist. What is your writing method – do the lyrics or music come first? Are they built separately to find each other? Does one inspire the other?

In a way, they have to happen together. The arrival of a strong lyric idea is often when I'd recognize something as becoming a song, even if the music was strumming away there for a while. But then they would usually grow together. Some kind of words and word rhythms don't seem to work with certain musical beats or rhythms so, yeah, those elements definitely help form each other back and forth. I also really like writing groups of songs, so then the other songs become another factor in the writing too; they might share certain words or phrases or concerns or musical elements. Or contradict each other.

I heard you are living back in Toronto again. Has the music community here changed a lot since you've left? 

Yeah, I moved back pretty recently. I'm sure it has changed a lot, but I haven't really caught up with what's going on at all! I know it seems like there's a lot of bands and I'm super glad that there is a lot of young bands and places to play, and I'm also deeply heartened that a bunch of people I've known for a really long time are still making new things.

You've a history of working with so many incredible musicians. Any upcoming collaborations?

I had a great time working with Tamara on The Weather Station Duets we just did and I told her I wanted to make a record with her in her kitchen, but who knows? I'd love to make another Proud Moms record too, but I haven't really been writing rock songs recently, and Will is living way out west, so it might be a bit before we get to play together again.