Lean Years

Bryce Jardine & The Parlour Birds:
Bryce Jardine, Brad Kilpatrick, Michelle Willis, Nathan Gray

Be Still

No Matter Where You Are

Edge Of Night (DEMO, Unmastered)

Recorded 2017 at HawksleyTownV with Brad Kilpatrick and Nathan Gray

Only Love w/ Keys (Demo Unmastered)

Recorded in 2017 at HawksleyTownV with Brad Kilpatrick and Nathan Gray

Dec 2016

Only Love (Demo, Unmastered)

I recorded this demo in my basement to send to my producer. I programmed the drums electronically and recorded the acoustic guitar and vocal together. Only meant to provide a sketch of material I am currently working on.

This Much To Lose (Rough Basement Demo 2017)

I barely learned anything at audio engineering school, but that disappointment lit a fire under me. Afterwards, I started to pursue recording on my own terms, with my own gear, in my own basement.

For tracks like the ones I sent David, I always begin by picking a couple of virtual instruments that I like the sound of, and combine them with a melody or two that has been kicking around my head. Next, I program the beats and the structure. Then I start adding the human elements. After I repeated this process enough times, I had a bunch of what I call “skeleton tracks,” but no specific idea of how to finish them.  

I knew I wanted a different tone - lyrically - than the one I am used to using for my own writing. I care a lot about words, so I knew that I needed to find a lyricist who would bring the aesthetic framework that I was after. 

David and I have known each other for years - at a distance - through the Toronto music scene. I became a fan of his work after someone passed me a secondhand copy of ‘Replacement Things’. His writing is rare.  As fate would have it, he and I were both hired to back up Vancouver musician Rodney Decroo on Rodney’s album release tour last summer. After that, it felt natural to share these demos with him.

I had Dave come by my modest-at-best home studio and we workshopped the melodies and lyrics he’d brought for three tunes. We spent time with the source material (in this case, the Tsvetaeva poem) and moulded them to suit the track. When David had finished his singing, I replaced a bunch of the virtual instruments with real ones, added harmonies, and hit print.  

This little project has been the most fun I've had creatively in quite a few years. As a couple of guys who have flirted with the music industry for years, it is freeing for us both to create budget-less art that we can stand behind, while the music biz continues it’s costly and perpetual slide. I figure: to hell with the industry machine, let's just do good work. Surely publicists and managers would tell us we’re wrong - but that's the kind of advice you have to pay for. 

Bryce and I will give you two more tunes, as soon as we can. And in March, effort willing, I will have something else to offer you. I've got collaborations, records, ideas, and some archive-mining in the frying pan. Here's hoping the thermometer reads 'done' in the next few weeks.

brycefjardine