February

The Liquefaction

If there’s one thing I’d like you to remember after reading this post, it’s this:

DRMHS (DREAMHOUSE) IS RELEASING OUR FIRST SINGLE ON FEB 20 AT MIDNIGHT. WE ARE ALSO PLAYING AT TYRANT STUDIOS THAT NIGHT! COME CELEBRATE WITH US!

You can find all of my performance dates and links to purchase tickets to these dates here.

Hello!

I hope your new year has been off to a nice start. For those of you who have gotten snow in the past little while, I hope you’ve been able to take some time out of your day to enjoy it. It snowed here in Vancouver earlier this week, and of course, our city partially shut down for a day. As somebody who lived on the east coast, I always find it very funny how our city shuts down due to a few centimeters of snow. Ultimately, I find it endearing (although I do wish our city would invest in more infrastructure to clear snow from the streets when it does snow).

Teaching at VCC

I am now teaching on faculty at Vancouver Community College. I’m very honored to join this incredible faculty and to get to work with such a wonderful community. I’ve been having a blast working at VCC. I’m now teaching a few private students and a piano masterclass for their jazz program, and I’m really enjoying getting to connect with the students. The masterclass is particularly fun, as it gives us pianists the opportunity to hang out for an hour and geek out over piano specific topics. In addition to this, I have been continuing to teach my private students at the VSO, while also running two jazz ensembles and teaching a group course. Today, I will be running the last class for the VSO Music Production course that I teach, and I will begin teaching a film scoring course next week. This film scoring course will guide my composition students through the process of scoring a short film made by a student in the Cinematheque’s Youth Filmmaking workshop. It’s always such a pleasure working with the Cinematheque.

Nature of Things Doc Recording Session

I also had some fun musical recording work take place over the course of January. I had the privilege of spending two days in the recording studio as the pianist on Jonathan Kawchuk’s score for an upcoming CBC Nature of Things doc. During those two days, I spent some quality time with a lovely old upright piano that required an incredibly delicate touch to make it sound more like a gentle out-of-tune piano and less like a janky honky tonk piano. I also got to play a beautiful Wurlitzer that was in pristine condition and sounded incredible!

One of the best parts of this session involved getting to reconnect and work with my good friend Jill McKenna. Jill and I played together in a great band on a 3 week tour in Eastern Canada back in the summer of 2019. We had such a blast playing music every night, driving all the way from Ontario to Prince Edward Island, cracking jokes, and dealing with the funny (and sometimes unpleasant) situations you end up in as a young touring musician playing small venues. This tour was one of the greatest 3 weeks I had in my early twenties. Jill now lives in Nelson and teaches bass guitar and other music courses at Selkirk University, so when I saw her name on an email thread for the recording session, I was incredibly happy. The music that Jonathan Kawchuk wrote was great, and it was such a blast working with the band over that two day period in January. I hope that everybody reading this will get to hear the music and watch the doc sometime in the future.

Vernon Jazz Club with the Trio

I also had a blast playing at the Vernon Jazz Club with my trio. We played to a packed room! We had a very pleasant day hanging around Vernon after catching an early flight. The organizers and volunteers that run this venue are incredibly warm, hospitable, and kind. After the concert was over and the audience left the venue, we all sat around a big table and ate some great homemade food with all of the volunteers. The sound was great, the turnout was impressive, and the audience was very receptive. I highly recommend you check out a show at the Vernon Jazz Club if you are ever in the area on one of their jazz nights.

The trio just recorded our next record in early January. We enjoyed playing some of that new material at the gig.

Upcoming Performances

February is starting off with a great concert at Zameen Art House, hosted by Tim Reinhert’s Infidels Jazz organization. I will be playing in Francois Houle’s quartet with Kenton Loewen on drums and James Meger on bass. This is a new band that Francois has put together, and the energy is strong. Francois’ music is filled with intensity, spontaneity, and dynamism. We’ve had one rehearsal, and the multitude of possibilities in the band is already very clear. I’ve been working hard on Francois’ music and I can’t wait to play it with the group on Feb 8th at 7:30.

After this, I’ll be joining John Korsrud’s Absolute Unit Band on Feb 13 at the Fox Cabaret at 8PM. John also runs the legendary Hard Rubber Orchestra (which I will also be performing with in a few months). The band is categorized as The Planet’s Only 18-Piece Psychedelic Lounge Orchestra, and this somehow feels very west coast to me. I’ve played with this group before and it is always a real trip (pun intended)! John somehow leads us through a shapeshifting musical landscape that starts off as a driving rhythmic force, then morphs into a discombobulated pool of ambient sonic explorations, and then breaks into a cacophony of groovy funk and soul anthems. Get ready for a good time with this group!

I’m also looking forward to playing in two concerts on Feb 15 as part of the Jazz at The Bolt Festival. I’ll be playing in The Ha Sibling’s Group, performing the music of Alice Coltrane, earlier in the day, and will finish off the evening with Julian Borkowski’s Sextet. This weekend festival is always a great time. I highly encourage you to buy your tickets in advance.

DRMHS (DREAMHOUSE) + Nick Bracewell Interview

Poster made by Nick Bracewell

Finally, my great pal and musical co-conspirator Nick Bracewell and I have an exciting announcement! We will be releasing DRMHS’s (formerly known as DREAMHOUSE) first single on Feb 20 at midnight. This release also corresponds with our upcoming performance at Tyrant Studios. On Feb 20, we will be sharing a bill with Vancouver’s experimental pop singer-songwriter Joe Passed. He will play the opening set, and we will end the night off with an explosive 2nd set. At midnight, we will get every audience member in the venue to stream our newly released single The Liquefaction .

Click here to pre-save the track on Spotify.

We hope to see you there. In anticipation of the release, here is a brief interview I conducted with Nick Bracewell.

Photo Credit: Dana Kroeger

NFN: Tell us a bit about you. What do you do? What projects are you involved in?

NB: I’m a drummer, composer, and educator. I play in various bands and collaborate with musicians across the Canadian scene.

Currently, I’m working on a duo project with Noah Franche-Nolan called DRMHS. I also play drums in Shruti Ramani’s Ragaaverse, and I’m part of a band called Midnight Boogaloo, which blends Latin rock, jazz, and cumbia.

NFN: Who are/were your mentors?

NB: Growing up, I had the privilege of spending time with some Detroit legends, including Rodney Whitaker, Thaddeus Dixon, Kris Johnson, Diego Rivera, and the drum guru Uncle G.

NFN: How did Dreamhouse come about?

NB: I had been in a band with NFN for about two years, and we would often jam during sound checks before Ragaaverse gigs. We also rehearsed as a duo in preparation for a trio gig with François Houle.

I think we both enjoyed the interplay and freedom that came with it, so we decided to start a duo project together.

NFN: Tell us about your time working in the Detroit scene.

NB: Working in the Detroit scene was crucial to my development as a musician. You could walk into a jam session at Bakers Keyboard Lounge or Cliff Bells and run into amazing drummers like Karriem Riggins, Alex White, Sean Dobbins, and Uncle G. These moments deeply influenced how I approached playing and gave me endless inspiration.

The bandstand is a sacred place. You never know when it might be your last time performing behind your instrument, so it’s important to play every time as if it could be the final one. Listen intently, and contribute to the story when you can.

I had the honor of working with Rodney Whitaker, Diego Rivera, Randy Napoleon, and Cory Kendrick, among others. There are so many incredible musicians who have either come from Detroit or passed through, and they’re now making waves worldwide.

NFN: How does your work as an educator impact your work as a musician?

NB: Seeing younger, talented musicians with the passion and drive to succeed really motivates me to be the best educator I can be. It also reminds me that I’m in a position similar to the one my mentors were in when I was younger—a position to positively impact the lives of aspiring musicians and help them realize their dreams, just like my mentors did for me.

NFN: What is your main goal with your art? What are you trying to convey?

NB: I’m just trying to play! And when I can, I hope to inspire a sense of wonder and joy.

NFN: What goals are you working toward with the projects you are involved in?

NB: I’m focused on releasing new music that I genuinely enjoy and that resonates with me. My goal is to create music that explores deeper emotional and musical territories, hoping it resonates with others in the same way.

Mixing, Composing, and playing Chopin

When I’m not busy working on any of the things I mentioned above, I’m doing the following:

Mixing and editing the tracks for the record Dan Pitt and I made. This is going very well. I can’t wait for you all to hear this soon.

Producing, editing, mixing, and releasing the upcoming DRMHS singles. Nick and I are hard at work with this music. We can’t wait for you to hear The Liquefaction, and many more singles in the future!

Editing and mixing my new trio record with Sheldon Zaharko. This is also going well. We’re crafting a great record!

Composing music for a sextet project. I’m writing some music for a sextet project at the moment. I’m also currently booking shows for this group. I’m quite excited to see how this music will shape up. I will have more to say about this music soon.

Learning Chopin’s Nocturnes. Whenever I have some spare practice time, I’m beginning to dive (slowly) into Chopin’s first nocturne. I find the melodies to be so beautiful and haunting. It’s one of my favorite ways to unwind.

Conclusion (and reflection on art in the age of tyrants)

I hope you enjoyed reading about what I’m up to lately. I also hope that either my music or somebody else’s music is bringing joy and energy into your life.

As all of you are aware, we are witnessing horrifying times. We are seeing the destruction of democracy, the blatant disregard for nations’ sovereignty, and the promotion of hatred and all sorts of prejudices. In these times, it’s easy to think that art and music may not be of any help, although I believe that it is quite the opposite case. Not only can art provide us with energy to resist the movements of hatred that are present in our world, it can also be used as a tool to fight against the fascist ideologies that are attempting to silence critical thought and force civilians into submitting to the demands of a rising tyrannical demagogue. A fascist state demands from its citizens to choke out any form of original thought that does not serve the state. Therefore, the creation of art, a magical form of original self-expression and communal-expression, is indeed an act of resistance.

As we dive further into this new world, one that none of us understand, and yet, one that continues to closely resemble the mad world of the first half of the 20th century, I invite you all to consider this idea and, hopefully, hold onto it. I believe that we are entering a time that will test our spiritual, and perhaps physical, resistance as individuals, as sovereign nations, and most importantly, as a global community. Let music, art, and creative thought, among other things, feed the fire of love and wisdom that burns in all of us. I have never lived through times like these, but it appears to me that we must be diligent with keeping this fire alive for the years to come if we wish to hold onto our humanity and all of the progress we have made as a civilization in the past 100 years.

Peace,

Noah