Jordan Carrier & The Soviets

Several times in the last few years the walls at Vancouver’s legendary Commodore Ballroom shook with a thousand people shouting the lyrics to local radio hit single “Club People”. Jordan Carrier and the Soviets brought the anthems and the crowds did the rest. Infectious melodies, powerful rock songs performed by a killer band and a singer whose intensity is almost scary.

For their debut album as Jordan Carrier And The Soviets they do exactly what the name implies. Long before political fear mongering, Soviet had a simple meaning — an organized group of workers – and working hard was what the band wanted to do. As Jordan puts bluntly, “Our work is making music.”

When front man Jordan Carrier first decided to step back into production following his win from Fox’s Seeds 2008 contest, his time was spent writing and crafting the music and he hadn’t given a single thought to what the band should be called.

“We chose “The Soviets” for several reasons. First, there are no more Soviets and ‘The Soviet Threat’ is just a ghost of a boogeyman – the term itself has become archaic. Secondly, it sounds fucking awesome with the added bonus of making the right people angry. Billing it as Jordan Carrier was increasingly unfair. I wanted to scrap using my name since it was only in there because I was too busy making the music to even think about a name. But with the positive press around the name we decided to commit that dreaded ‘and the.’”

The Soviets came into being, like all good things, over pints in a pub—when Soviet’s drummer, Brendan Mclean first expressed interest in working with Jordan on something. “If you’re not familiar with Brendan you may have to peek your head out from the rock it’s hiding under as he’s one of the busiest drummers in Vancouver,” said Jordan. “He comes from more of a Jazz and Math Rock background but is also a sought after turntableist . Calling him the human metronome wouldn’t be risking hyperbole.”

The next Soviet would be bassist and recording engineer Brad Graham. Jordan met him when Jordan was doing some session work with Vancouver Folk Singer Jason Mitchell. Brad also had a hand in Absence Of Wonder since it partially recorded at Turtle Recording Studios in White Rock – the studio where Brad has worked for several years.

All that was left was the acquisition of guitarist Darren Henderson, another old friend brought into the fold, and once the band had finished the Seeds competition they started working on a new batch of songs.

The result was the new self-titled album that blends influences as diverse as Coldplay, The Shins, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. “To Here” builds tension and suspense only to come crashing to an epic finale, whereas other songs like “Things” and “I’m Able, I’m Abel” have a more introspective shade. High energy songs like “Spill” and “Tanks and Planes” verge on the heavier side and lyrically have more political poignancy. Compared to Jordan’s first album “Absence of Wonder,” the tracks are decidedly heavier rock, but the songs all retain Jordan’s complexly woven lyrics over tracks that distilled the band’s varied musical influences.

Since his early days when Jordan was the front man for the regionally successful band Cozybones, Jordan has never quite left music behind.

“You never take a break from writing and arranging music. I’ve been doing it in my head since I was a kid, but I did take a definite break form recording, performing and producing music. It was time to grow up and see where I was going.”

In 2007 he started heavily writing and producing again and that seed germinated into Jordan’s solo effort, Absence of Wonder (“One of the best local releases of the year.” – Tom Harrison, Vancouver Province) which was followed by his Fox Seeds entry in 2008. “Club People” became one of the most requested songs that year and launched the band into a streak of high profile opening gigs. Jordan Carrier and the Soviets have since shared the stage with Loverboy, Daniel Wesley, Wide Mouth Mason, Odds, Marcy Playground, Thornley and, most recently, Trooper. “I think that the bigger acts know that we’ll do the leg work for them,” said Jordan “whipping up the crowd and frying the stage… It happens every time.”