Cygnets

EDMONTON — Dark days are upon us.

Misleading robocalls threaten the legitimacy of Canada’s democracy. Snooki is pregnant. And, of course, it’s 2012 – the year of the apocalypse, if you believe the Mayans.

Enter Edmonton’s Cygnets, purveyors of their own Dark Days – filled with failed relationships, A Clockwork Orange deviants, anorexic girls and tortured Welsh musicians, set to ’80s post-punk synths, dance beats, noisy guitars, and faux British accents. “Let’s build something beautiful and then burn it to the ground,” reads a mission statement of sorts, printed on the inside of the 14-track album.

“It’s almost the theme of the band or our ideology,” explains singer/bassist Logan Turner. “Making something beautiful, but not for the purpose of personal gain, not for the purpose of longevity, but just so it exists in that moment and then destroy it. That’s what we try to do sonically, musically and ideologically.”

At times, this self-destructiveness is also evident in Turner’s approach to songwriting — peppering a few of the trio’s tunes, such as Sarah Smith and We Will Become Enemies, with four-letter words. “I think Logan takes pride in writing catchy songs that could never be played on the radio,” smiles guitarist Chris Bruce.

Turner can usually control these impulses. Cygnets, also starring Dan Snow on synths, were one of Sonic’s bands of the month in 2011 and Teenager, the first single from Dark Days, is both catchy and radio-friendly — laced with uber-boppy synths, throbbing bass lines and Turner’s dour vocals.

The accompanying video highlights the trio’s sense of humour, featuring mopey-looking cardboard cut-outs of the three Cygnets going about their daily lives — eating cereal, riding the bus, playing Frisbee in the river valley, hanging at a Whyte Avenue watering hole. (They’re now inserting their cut-outs into historical photos, such as the shot of Bruins defenceman Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring the Stanley Cup-clinching goal in 1970. Check out their photoshopping prowess via cygnetsnotswans.tumblr.com.)

“This was, by far, our highest budget video,” laughs Turner.

“Each cut-out was $100,” explains Bruce. “Usually, we’re a no-budget band. Plus, we had to pay for all the beer for the house-party scenes, so this turned into a low-budget video, which turned into a real house party afterwards. That’s cool, right?”

As a no-budget (and no-shame) band, Cygnets asked fans to chip in for the recording of Dark Days. The trio managed to collect $4,650 via indiegogo.com, a site which helps people raise money for their projects. “It was kind of flattering and kind of humbling at the same time,” says Bruce.

As with all their albums, including 2010’s Bleak Anthems, and in keeping with their no-personal-gain ideology, Cygnets are now giving away free copies of Dark Days — at Saturday’s CD release party at The Pawn Shop, 10551 Whyte Avenue, which also happens to be free. (It’s an early show; doors open at 7 p.m.) Fans will also be able to get free downloads of the album, starting Tuesday, March 6, via cygnetsnotswans.blogspot.com.

Raising money to release free tunes might seem like a weird strategy, but it’s right up Occupy Wall Street’s alley — a case of the one per cent supporting the 99 per cent.

“Our idea is supported by a few so it can be free for everyone,” says Turner. “There are some people who are really enthusiastic — even at shows, we have a donation jar, and they just give us money because they love the band and they want to invest in us.”

Hmm, maybe these aren’t such dark days, after all ... - Edmonton Journal

New wave is alive and well in these Edmonton boys without being obnoxious hipsters. Cygnets might be the best band in Edmonton right now. The high energy shows and brilliantly crafted pop songs captures and hold ransom whoever perks up their ears. Logan Turner’s vocals have the sense of tone and timing of New Order’s Bernard Sumner while having the charms and wit of Morrissey. Chris Bruce’s guitar work in phenomenal. It’s more indie rock than ’80s pop but it fills out the band’s sound and gives them an interesting taste. The chorus riff in “The First Time She Came” is probably the catchiest thing I have ever heard. “Bleak Decades” is the track that best defines the band’s sound. It’s tackles dark themes but remains a song that anyone can dance to. Don’t think twice about picking up this record.

Four out of five stars.
- See Magazine

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the indie new wave band Cygnets perform energetic, infectious songs with a strong influences of electronic dance, post-punk and Britpop, all combined to create a decidedly new wave sound – a style that seems to be oozing out of every nook and cranny of the Canadian indie music scene in recent years. The band is the culmination of many years of work, with songwriter and musician Logan Turner privately writing and recording hundreds of songs before deciding to explore a group dynamic. This collaboration was realized in close friends Chris Bruce and Dan Snow. Contributing textured, inspiring guitar work and bright, catchy synthesizer hooks, Bruce and Snow’s styles compliment and enhance Logan’s colorful songwriting style and singular, melodic voice.

The musical and lyrical dynamics of the band blend nicely Cygnets’ new wave-style supported by synthesizers and steady pop beats are the centerpiece of the band’s sound, as evidenced on the fantastic track, “Telepaths”. On the equally upbeat song “Bleak Decades,” Turner seems to be channeling early Smiths’ era Morrissey crooning, but without sounding like a tacky rip-off. So it was no surprise when we learned that the band list among their biggest influences The Smiths, Joy Division, Depeche Mode and New Order. Both songs featured here were picked by the band as standout singles from their debut album, Bleak Anthems, which dropped on September 21st. If you like what you hear, the LP, and their debut EP, are available as free downloads via their official website.

- indierockcafe.com

Popping the new Cygnets album Bleak Anthems into your CD player is sort of like opening a time capsule and having the very definition of early '80s New Wave leap out and slap you on the face. Your ears are ringing, you're reeling a little bit, and you're pretty sure that far off in the distance, you can see the shadows of Morrissey, Bernard Sumner, and Marc Almond dancing somewhere through the dimly lit fog-machine haze. Needless to say, it's pretty great.

The album starts off catchy, knocking out some infectiously danceable beats with frontman Logan Turner's voice weaving in and around its classical post-punk style. Lyrically, it's diverse, swinging deftly back and forth between songs about technology, depression, A Clockwork Orange, and, of course, cunnilingus. These are all beautifully written, and lend the otherwise synthpopy album an ominous quality that really rounds it out.

Occasionally, the tracks sound so similar to one another that they all blend together, bringing it into the realm of unobtrusive background music. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it gives the album a good sense of unity and flow, but it causes it to lose some of the power it might have had with a more varied sound. But the Cygnets have never been so danceable and thought-provoking, so a little background music amongst the beats won't distract you too much. - The Gateway

With the music industry changing, they’re trying a new model — the music must be free.

Published November 18, 2010 by Trent Wilkie in Music Preview

Being in a band has never been simple. Although it is getting easier (MySpace, YouTube, auto-tune), you still have to be imaginative when trying to get your music out there. For Cygnets guitarist Chris Bruce, the belief is that you have to ‘uncommoditize’ your music (yes, that is a word he made up and he is very proud of it). What does that mean exactly? It means taking the price tag off of it.

“The show will be free to get in and everyone gets a free CD,” explains Bruce. “We realized that in order to succeed nowadays we need to have people listening to our music. We want to sustain ourselves with removing the music as a commodity. The show is a free show and a copy of the record is free in order to make a big of a splash as possible. Now, this could all blow up in our face, but the music industry is changing so fast that we have to be creative. If we were charging $10-$15 for an album, people would never hear us. We figured that free is the best way to reach people … but we could be wrong.”

Their release party for Bleak Anthems is the most recent in a short but furious line for the band. Using work ethic as their mantra, the Cygnets are starting to resemble a really good date; they never say no.

“We’ve been playing shows in town for a solid year and a half,” Bruce says. “We didn’t refuse any gig we were offered and that put us in a lot of people’s good books. On top of that, we have a pretty unique sound, so we line up well with other bands that we might not have if we stuck to a strict genre of music. There is just the three of us so we let our musical influences collide. We just focus on early eighties post punk and darker new wave and let everything go from there. Then Nik Kozub from Shout Out Out Out Out said he really liked our sound, so we had him do some work on our album. If there is anyone in town that can lay a synthesizer down on a record it’s that guy. He mixed and mastered our CD and brought it to life. We are horribly inept compared to Nik. He did an awesome job.”

As much as music is a business, it’s also a lifestyle and, according to Bruce, it is time for adjustment.

With all this accessibility comes over saturation which creates a new set of problems. There may be a paradigm shift coming and everyone on all sides of the speaker is involved.

“People have to change,” says Bruce. “People are selective with their money so we have to rethink the approach. Putting on expensive shows and selling expensive CDs and merchandise and hoping to get signed isn’t the best business plan anymore. Open your mind and see what is going on out there. Business models are irrelevant. Keep it as diverse as possible. As derivative as we are we are musically, we are still trying to be different while having the best time we could possibly have.”

With a fearless and creative approach like this, I’m sure this won’t be their last CD release party. And hopefully, they are all free.

The Cygnets CD Release Party
With The Paronomasiac
Pawn Shop
Saturday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m.
Free Show - See Magazine

With the music industry changing, they’re trying a new model — the music must be free.

Published November 18, 2010 by Trent Wilkie in Music Preview

Being in a band has never been simple. Although it is getting easier (MySpace, YouTube, auto-tune), you still have to be imaginative when trying to get your music out there. For Cygnets guitarist Chris Bruce, the belief is that you have to ‘uncommoditize’ your music (yes, that is a word he made up and he is very proud of it). What does that mean exactly? It means taking the price tag off of it.

“The show will be free to get in and everyone gets a free CD,” explains Bruce. “We realized that in order to succeed nowadays we need to have people listening to our music. We want to sustain ourselves with removing the music as a commodity. The show is a free show and a copy of the record is free in order to make a big of a splash as possible. Now, this could all blow up in our face, but the music industry is changing so fast that we have to be creative. If we were charging $10-$15 for an album, people would never hear us. We figured that free is the best way to reach people … but we could be wrong.”

Their release party for Bleak Anthems is the most recent in a short but furious line for the band. Using work ethic as their mantra, the Cygnets are starting to resemble a really good date; they never say no.

“We’ve been playing shows in town for a solid year and a half,” Bruce says. “We didn’t refuse any gig we were offered and that put us in a lot of people’s good books. On top of that, we have a pretty unique sound, so we line up well with other bands that we might not have if we stuck to a strict genre of music. There is just the three of us so we let our musical influences collide. We just focus on early eighties post punk and darker new wave and let everything go from there. Then Nik Kozub from Shout Out Out Out Out said he really liked our sound, so we had him do some work on our album. If there is anyone in town that can lay a synthesizer down on a record it’s that guy. He mixed and mastered our CD and brought it to life. We are horribly inept compared to Nik. He did an awesome job.”

As much as music is a business, it’s also a lifestyle and, according to Bruce, it is time for adjustment.

With all this accessibility comes over saturation which creates a new set of problems. There may be a paradigm shift coming and everyone on all sides of the speaker is involved.

“People have to change,” says Bruce. “People are selective with their money so we have to rethink the approach. Putting on expensive shows and selling expensive CDs and merchandise and hoping to get signed isn’t the best business plan anymore. Open your mind and see what is going on out there. Business models are irrelevant. Keep it as diverse as possible. As derivative as we are we are musically, we are still trying to be different while having the best time we could possibly have.”

With a fearless and creative approach like this, I’m sure this won’t be their last CD release party. And hopefully, they are all free.

The Cygnets CD Release Party
With The Paronomasiac
Pawn Shop
Saturday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m.
Free Show - See Magazine

EDMONTON - For their full-length debut, Cygnets spent $1,300 on mixing and mastering Bleak Anthems, then another $1,300 for pressing a thousand copies of the post-punk album — not to mention thousands on their instruments and recording gear.

What do they want in return? Not a damn cent. The local trio is giving away free copies of Bleak Anthems at their shows and cygnetsnotswans.com.

“I’ve had this ethos that I wanted to do as much for free for my art since I was very young,” says vocalist Logan Turner, 25, who works in tech support by day. “I’ve never been into the money side of it at all. First and foremost, you should be concerned with whether people are appreciating what you’re doing. And do bands really make that much money off CDs anyway? Not anymore.”

Cygnets joins a growing number of local musicians willing to forgo any payment for their songs, including Kumon Plaza, Slates, Falklands, Doug Hoyer, The Fight and Twin Library. (Many use Bandcamp, a distribution site, to host their free downloads.)

The usual explanation?

“We’re just accepting the realities,” says singer-songwriter Rick Reid of The City Streets, a group of Edmonton natives who now live in Montreal. Their latest folk-rock album, The Jazz Age, is available for free at citystreetsband.com, though fans are given the option to purchase a physical copy or donate to the band.

“We’d rather people buy the record,” he says. “But we just thought ‘We’re still a pretty obscure band, let’s just try to get it out to as many people as we can.’ If it catches the ear of someone that can help us out, then whatever.”

Reid admits he doesn’t buy CDs or digital downloads, so he can’t expect fans to do the same. Instead, he pours his money into vinyl, which he thinks could be a major source of income for artists in the future. Well, maybe. While CD sales are dropping and vinyl sales are rising, they’re still not increasing as fast as digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan Canada.

In other words, fans are still willing to pay for music. But if newer artists give away their albums in an attempt to get exposure, when can they start charging for their work? And will fans to want to pay when they’re conditioned to getting Artist X’s music for free?

F&M vocalist Rebecca Anderson doesn’t even want to contemplate such questions. She thinks artists should put a price on their music.

“You have to value yourself, otherwise other people won’t,” she says. “(Free albums) devalue music. People will be like, ‘I can get someone else’s music for free, why can’t I get yours? You should be playing for the love of music.’ I do, but I also have bills to pay and you wouldn’t expect a doctor to work for the love of humanity.”

Anderson’s husband and bandmate Ryan thinks the problem doesn’t lie so much with cheap fans as musicians themselves. There’s simply too many of them. Anyone can record and release an album, thanks to cheap computer software and sites such as MySpace, SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

“It’s not journalists who ruin it or people who download it for free,” he says. “It’s musicians who ruin music. They’re not good enough. How do you wade through all those MySpace pages?”

For Cygnets, Turner admits the decision to give away Bleak Anthems wasn’t easy. He had to convince one of his bandmates Dan Snow, who came close to persuading Turner to ditch the idea.

“At least one of us, sometimes two of us, thought that giving away your music devalues it,” says the singing Cygnet. “If people take a free CD, it’ll be like, ‘Meh, I’ll throw it in the garbage,’ whereas if you paid for it, you’re more likely to take a vested interest in it and say, ‘Oh, I should take a listen to this.’ At the end of the day, we all agreed, that it doesn’t matter what we do. We could leave our CDs in public bathrooms around the city or we could charge for it on iTunes — if our music’s any good, that’s what going to speak the loudest.”

To further prove their point, Cygnets will host a free release party at The Pawn Shop on Saturday. Doors open at 8 p.m. Nik Kozub’s side project, The Paranomasiac, will open.

“We wanted to do something different,” says Turner. “We did a free show a little while ago and we felt that a lot of people came out that didn’t know who we were or what kind of music we made.

“So a free show is a way to get people to check us out, plus if they like us, they can immediately have our music, factory pressed and sealed, for no money at all. It’s maximizing the number of people who listen to us, not minimizing, which is what happens when you start charging for anything.”

This could be an incredibly smart or stupid move for Cygnets. If fans start getting used to free shows, will they ever want to pay for one again? Ever the idealist, Turner has faith in his approach.

“If there’s a way for us to go on forever and release 20 albums and give them all away for free, I’d be into that,” he says. “Even if the music itself is free, people are really good about buying the band’s merch and trying to still support them.”

ssperounes@edmontonjournal.com

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal - Edmonton Journal

It took him nearly 15 years to find the right band.


Now, local singer/songwriter Logan Turner is ready to crash the Edmonton scene with some good old-fashioned new wave.


Turner’s band Cygnets (pronounced sig-nets) will play its first headlining gig Saturday night at Brixx Bar and Grill, underneath the Starlite Room (10030-102 St.) , with Caffeine Sunday and Shagbots.


The 27-year-old has been writing and recording music since age 12, and until Cygnets formed a year-and-a-half ago, he’d never released an album or even had a band.


“I literally was just recording music in my basement for no one,” he says, admitting he never put much effort into finding bandmates.


“I never put an ad in the paper or anything, I kind of just waited for it to happen. And I guess I’m pretty lucky that it actually did; that’s not a very good way to go about things.”


It’s not that music was just a casual hobby for Turner — quite the opposite, in fact. The multi-instrumentalist has an extensive library of recorded music, including an impressive number of tracks he’s written since forming Cygnets.


“We actually write incredibly massive amounts of songs. I think we have like 100 demos lying around right now,” he says.


“I guess I’m kind of a prolific songwriter; I write way too many songs. Our idea is kind of to write as many songs as possible and cut to the top 10 percentile.”


The band nailed that objective on its self-titled six-song EP, a collection of dark, infectious synth-driven new wave gems that could have come straight out of early-80s London.


Recalling acts like Depeche Mode, New Order and the Smiths, standout songs like 'Pieces of Ania' and 'City of the Dead' were the result of a rigorous cutting process and much instrument swapping between Turner and bandmates Chris Bruce and Dan Snow.


“A lot of the time I’m writing songs for a five-piece band, sometimes a three-piece band, sometimes a seven-piece band, and then we try our best between the three of us to make that happen in a live setting and on record,” he explains.


While Turner still writes the majority of Cygnets’ music, he has learned that collaboration can be a very valuable thing.


“What other people contribute is so important just because they have a different take on something that I never would have thought of myself,” he says.


The band finally fell into place through separate projects he was doing with each of the other Cygnets members - Turner was making electronic music with Snow and “noisy, guitar-based music” with Bruce.


“Somehow the two just kind of came together. It just made sense,” he says.


New wave was never the objective, but rather the natural culmination of the two projects.


“That’s just how we translate I guess, having an almost full-time synthesizer player, and the way I sing.”


Now that Turner has a legitimate band with a proper EP, he promises not to be so secretive about his music anymore.

In fact, he plans to go a little nuts releasing Cygnets songs.


“We’re going to try to record as many songs as we can over the next year here … and put them out for free for anyone who will listen to them,” he says. “We’re really gracious to have anyone even be remotely interested in our music.”


The band has posted its entire EP and two new tracks for free download at cygnetsnotswans.com.

- Edmonton Sun