Songwriters Brendan McLeod and Adrian Glynn make powerful music /Image: Killbeat Music
The Fugitives mellow out while on tour
Article: Destiny Kaus – A&C Writer
Not all bands need to have incredibly significant band names, and not all bands need to create an entire album based on one overall theme. I did not realize this before I wrote this article. No, I’m not stupid or sheltered; I just didn’t think of these concepts until I spoke with The Fugitives, an indie folk collective band from Vancouver, led by songwriters Brendan McLeod and Adrian Glynn. These champs came up with their band name when they first got started in the music industry.
McLeod says, “We were just going on tour one day when we first started, and we didn’t have a band name, so we just made it up at the time. And then we were just like ‘Ah well we’ll just come home in three weeks and it doesn’t matter, we’ll rethink it,’ and it just kind of stuck. We’re not running from anything except low self-esteem maybe.”
Apparently, even musicians suffer from low self-esteem on occasion. But, this did not hold The Fugitives back when they created their newest, full-length album Everything Will Happen.
“I don’t think it’s a conceptual record. It doesn’t have a theme. It’s a series of songs. I guess there are themes within it. They include everything from death and dying to [being] out late at night having fun drinking,” McLeod explains.
[pullquote]”Listening to The Fugitives’ music is like eating a hot fudge sundae: everything melts together into one, unified, bite of goodness.”[/pullquote]
Sounds to me like a pretty solid album, which deals with subject matter relevant to life such as the reality of death and the joy of having loads of fun. My guess is The Fugitives added some audience interest by including songs about drinking.
Like their previous albums, The Fugitives have put together a unique, diverse, track-list in Everything Will Happen. This album showcases the technically sound vocal harmonies and powerful musical combinations between instruments, such as the drums, violin, banjo, bass, and acoustic guitar. In my opinion, there’s no way this album will fail. Listening to The Fugitives’ music is like eating a hot fudge sundae: everything melts together into one, unified, bite of goodness.
The Fugitives are currently touring across Canada and will be stopping to play a show at 8 p.m. on Nov. 19 at The Artful Dodger.
Sadly, The Fugitives likely won’t make it into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anytime soon. Not many indie folk bands do. But, they do have high hopes for their new album as they promote it on tour.
“The best thing that can happen is that people other than your mom like the record ‘cause your mom is obviously biased,” says McLeod, who hopes the public will enjoy the new album as much as he does. “It’s my most favourite thing I’ve ever done … that’s nice for me to be able to say and hopefully [the public] likes it as well.”
During tour, McLeod spends countless hours looking through his vehicle’s window and watching season five of Sons of Anarchy.
“It’s the absolute worst show you could possibly ever watch, but I can’t stop watching it because every show someone dies and you need to know who’s going to die next.”
McLeod’s down-to-earth activities just go to show that some bands do, in fact, include level-headed, normal individuals.
