Eisenhauer

The seasons make us up. They weather us, shape us, get inside of us and sway our moods. They cause us to stay indoors on cold dreary nights, or run outside on warm afternoons. It’s in this reality that TIME OF YEAR finds its context. The sophomore release from Vancouver quintet EISENHAUER brings these seasons to life, creating a soundtrack to our Canadian year.

Tracks like “City in the Country” and “I Will Not Let Go” call for snow with the wet, dreary wind of tremolo-clad electric guitars, mixed with twinkling piano, lapsteel and banjo that somehow sounds like a cold winter night when the snow first falls. Subtle and intelligent drum and bass parts entwine to make these songs complete, like the pulse of a cold body trying to stay warm. The indie-pop gem, “Feel the Same”, warms the listener right back up again. The lyrics ‘dusty summer air spins swirls around your head, slowly as the morning floods the bed” chime out, and cant help but evoke an air of summer love.

Front man Jeremy Eisenhauer has taken noticeable strides and leaps as a melodist and songwriter since bands 2006 debut album “To Those Impressed”.

Beyond just stirring up nostalgia for seasons past and present, EISENHAUER digs deeper. The opening track, “Face Painter” touches on the loss of innocence of today’s youth to mass media. “Harder to Know” packs a brave statement for today’s world: “It’s harder to know that love we don’t show, will be the end of it all. So here’s to hoping at all”. “Oh America” rings out like an anthem, expressing a sense of endearment for our western world, seeming to choose love a motive for change, rather than the cynical path most commonly walked.

TIME OF YEAR was written over the past two years, in different cities all over North America. The band spent 3 months straight touring from Canada’s east to west in the spring and summer months of 2007. Following that, Jeremy Eisenhauer and wife Sheree Plett (also a rising singer/songwriter in Canada’s thriving indie music scene) recorded a Christmas album, combining the powers of the two songwriters in one album. Within the month, the record was finished and they flew off to Eastern Canada for another tour to complete the goal of playing music in every city in Canada. Upon their return home, they released the Christmas album and within 2 weeks were back on the road in Western Canada for another 40 some shows in November and December of 2007 alone.

Exhausted from 8 months of non-stop touring, recording, and more touring, the band took some time off to write and record TIME OF YEAR. With prominent indie-rock producer Jonathan Anderson (In Medias Res / Stabilo / Kensington Priarie) at the board, they took to the studio for 2 weeks of intense recording.

The album was tracked in Jonathan’s cozy suburban studio Buena Vista Audio. Wanting to retain the urgent ‘tension and release’ of their live show, the inner core of the songs were recorded in a live fashion – drums bass and rhythm guitar. Plenty of lush overdubs – featuring a near symphony of organ, horns, clarinet, cello, bells, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, cardboard boxes, choir, and anything they could get their hands on – were added in the following days. The intertwining vocal harmonies of Sheree and Jeremy are a constant in the sound of EISENHAUER and a thread running through much of the album. Like the basic core instruments, they were nearly all recorded live, face-to-face, giving the album a tangible sense of intimacy. Then the results were mixed and sifted into place with warm textures and ambiance by Jonathan.

TIME OF YEAR was mastered by Ed Brooks (Death Cab for Cutie, Fleet Foxes) at RFI CD Mastering in Seattle WA. The professionalism of the finishing touch is a complimentary match to the recording and musicianship of the album