Interview: Great Lake Swimmers @ The Grad Club, Saturday
Sit down with Tony Dekker, the brains behind Great Lake Swimmers, and in one phrase, he’ll tell you everything you need to know about his music: “Stop, listen and feel.”
Without whiny self-indulgence, Dekker’s Great Lake Swimmers explore the human condition on their third album, Ongiara. Much like their two previous albums, Great Lake Swimmers (2003) and Bodies and Minds (2005), Ongiara taps into a familiar melancholy that Dekker is quick to it.
“I still think that there’s a certain weariness in our collective unconscious that maybe I’m drawing from,” Dekker said. While he deals frankly with the universality of pain, his lyrics aren’t weighed down by the sappy details often characteristic of introspective music. In “Where In The World Are You,” there seems to be an honesty in his words as Dekker writes, “I’ve looked for you there in music and song / because I thought I could find you there /… where in the world are you now? / oh where in the world are you?”
“I don’t like to see my lyrics as an opportunity to air my dirty laundry,” he said. “It all comes down to storytelling. Once the songs are out there, they are in other people’s hands. … For this kind of music, the songs have as much to do with the message as the person.”
In aspiring to make these interpretive connections with the audience, Dekker evokes a balladry reminiscent of his folk roots—and it’s obvious that these roots are deeply embedded in the pastoral tradition. Growing up in small-town Canada has given Dekker a lasting reverence for nature.
“I now live in a big city, but I don’t consider the urban life that imposing that it finds its way into my writings. I focus more on a clash with that environment, or more a natural kind of theme.”
Dekker’s organic approach to music goes beyond incorporating topography and plant life into his lyrics—his approach to recording gives equal value to natural effects.
Great Lake Swimmers have previously recorded in venues including a church and an abandoned grain silo, places that provide their songs with sonorous reverb by letting the notes dance along the walls and through the cavernous enclosures. Following the same tradition, Ongiara found its home in a century-old concert hall.
“We tried to capture the essence of the place we were recording in and at the same time, making a document about the song.” Ongiara expands the Great Lake Swimmers’ established, intimate
sound by using a wider range of instruments and vocal work, with the help of guests including Erik Arneson, Colin Huebert and Sarah Harmer.
“For a couple of the new songs, we ended up stripping away some of the instrumentation that we added. I guess that it makes it more of a dynamic record, because there are still some quiet songs on it, and then there are some songs that are a little more fleshed out. Like, it’s the first time we’ve had strings on a record. Ongiara tries to communicate the inevitability of change, but Dekker seems content with how things have progressed. “Being in a place where I can be a songwriter and work on songs is a great place to be. Everyone goes through hard times and when that es, as a songwriter, you’re kind of stuck with these really sad songs even though these times have ed,” he said. “But I think I’m in a good spot, a better spot all around.”
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The Great Lake Swimmers play tomorrow night at The Grad Club with Julie Fader. Tickets are
available in advance for $10 or at the door for $12. Doors open at 9 p.m.
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