Calgarians all across the city will soon know the sadness of an empty nest as local indie darlings the Neighbourhood Council leave for Montreal in the fall. In one short year, the band has burst into the consciousness of music fans with the release of their Set Pieces EP and their recent mention in the “Bands to Watch” column on music blog Stereogum. As the perfect culmination of this whirlwind year in Calgary, they will have one last epic farewell party at the Artlife Gallery on Tuesday.
“Austin [Tuft] has this idea that, by the time we’re done university, we’ll do a world tour and take the world by storm,” laughs Council member Katie Lee. “We’re pretty much taking [our lives] day by day. We all have our own personal goals we want to accomplish. We don’t have a set plan. The only set plan, really, is to play music with each other for as long as possible.”
Even though Tuft jokes about taking the world by storm, the possibility of seeing these kids as a headliner at a major outdoor European festival in five years–fans as far as the eye can see, soaked in mud–is not far-fetched. To some, their music is an explosion of pop joy with an eye to the experimental, an absolutely delicious mix of noise that can sound like the roaring surf at dusk or as delicate as a porcelain ballerina attempting a pirouette.
The first rumblings about the band surfaced after member Raphaelle Standell-Preston won the youth songwriting competition in 2007, back when the band was a quintet instead of the current four. Losing a member to McGill University, their sound evolved into their current incarnation. With this small boost, doors started to open for the band to meet people involved in the local scene, giving them an opportunity for shows and even more chances to make connections in the community.
“Raffi [Standell-Preston] winning the songwriting competition at Folk Fest helped us a lot,” explains Lee. “Meeting [Woodpigeon’s] Mark Hamilton has done a lot of things for us–he helped get us into Sled Island. We just kept going to shows, meeting a bunch of local acts around town and having them ask us to play.”
The buzz the band has received isn’t just puffed-up hype either. Much has been said about their young age, but they wear maturity and humility on their sleeves, which helps to explain their willingness to work hard to get where they want to go.
Tuft explains the ethos the group had when it came to becoming established in Calgary, a testament to the best kind of bootstraps mentality that dominates the city.
“If you work your ass off with the few shows you get, then when people see your performances and what you put in, they just keep asking for more,” he says. “It was kind of nice to see how well we were received. Every time we’d play a show, we’d get [asked to play] more and it would snowball from there. The more shows we went to, the more shows we played, the more people we met. It just resulted in us expanding our connections.”
Anyone who has looked at the list of shows the band has played can see how well-connected they are in Calgary and beyond. They’ve played with Azeda Booth, opened for Woodpigeon and even got a shot to play with internationally renowned bands like Deerhunter at the Sled Island festival. It has allowed these young adults a chance to see other people’s creative processes and given them further motivation to write truly great tunes.
“We’re listening to them and playing with them,” Tuft says. “It’s mind-opening in the sense that you get to see all the different creative processes around town. Azeda Booth, Woodpigeon, Women all have a different process and they’re all different than our own. Being really good friends and playing with them all the time allows us to see into their creative process and it’s really interesting to see how other people do it.”
“They’ve helped inspire us to write awesome music,” adds Lee.
Like a mother crying over her baby son finally leaving the safety of a small-town life for the big city university, the Calgary indie music scene will definitely feel loss over the departure of the Neighbourhood Council. But don’t shed a tear–they’ll continue to play music. For now, it’s time for one last great party in the name of the Neighbourhood Council.
The Neighbourhood Council plays with Knots and Azeda Booth at the Artlife Gallery on Tuesday at 8 p.m.