Deadly good music
Elliott BROOD drummer Steve Pitkin talks about Halloween parties, the band’s image and composing death country songs
Jeanne Fronda, Staff
Photo by Victor Tavares
“[Our songs are] more of mystery. It’s like opening a door to a dark room and then you have to feel around before you know what it’s like and your eyes get focused. It’s kind of like that,” said Elliott BROOD drummer Steve Pitkin.
Good visual, non? But let’s back up the truck a little, shall we?
Formed in 2002, Elliott BROOD is composed of singer Casey Laforet, banjo player Mark Sasso and drummer and suitcase beater/player Pitkin. In 2004, the Toronto-based trio released a six-song EP Tin Type, which was hand-bound and wrapped in a brown bag. Classified as death country, Elliott BROOD is alt-country that’s abrasive yet cryptic. With songs focusing on folk tales that feature often dark lyrics, the group’s first full-length record, Ambassador, hit the shelves in early October. Since its release, Ambassador has hit the country charts.
Pitkin, who has chosen to be absent from the band’s European tour in order to spend some quality time with the latest addition to his family, his young son, took a few minutes to speak with the Manitoban.
“There’s a little bit of space in the European tour,” said Pitkin from a phone in his Toronto home. “We’re going to play Western Canada and then the States, so, I thought, ‘Why not place Sault Ste. Marie instead of Barcelona?’”
Lighthearted and talkative, the drummer said it was startling to see their CD on the country charts.
“It was surprising,” said the percussionist. “[Radio] is so focused on advertising and . . . it starts to limit creativity because no one wants to take a chance [to play different music]. That’s why we think it’s cool to be on the charts.”
And, man, is Elliott BROOD different. The band’s original website didn’t even list a band bio, which is something that’s considered standard promotion. Instead, they asked a friend to write up a legend about a fictitious man named BROOD and posted it on their website.
Pitkin said, as with their website, they don’t like to give everything away in their songs. They choose to be a little mysterious.
“We’re not trying to put a hammer over your head,” said the musician. “We’re going to paint an image. When we write a song together it could be about a funeral procession with horses and bells . . . . [It’s like] being in a situation and all feeling the same thing but still feeling your own thing.”
Many fans think they understand Elliott BROOD. So much so that the trio has been invited to perform at Goth and Halloween parties. But Pitkin said the band’s music isn’t focused on the morbid, but more on the spiritual aspect of death.
“It’s funny . . . . It’s not like we’re living this ‘praise death’ kind of life. We’re not trying to create this macabre image,” said the 38-year-old. “[Our music] is more like . . . when you walk in a house and you get the feeling that someone might have died in [there] . . . . Sometimes you feel a presence, and I think that’s where [the dark feeling of our music] comes from.”
The band does, however, have three videos in which someone always dies, including a clown who gets run over by a bus. In the latest video, for “Second Son,” someone gets hanged. (Don’t worry, though, Pitkin said visually it’s “not gross,” as the death is illustrated through animation.)
Pitkin explained that the band’s knack for creating country music wasn’t ingrained in them, but was something that they learned to do over time through experimentation.
“We grew up in Ontario. My uncle wasn’t a world class fiddler,” said Pitkin, who admitted they didn’t coin the phrase death country. “We [are] influenced by what we see close to home, and there’s value in that, as opposed to the purist who says you have to go to who did it first and follow in their footsteps . . . . We just like to assemble and play from the heart. [We play] what feels good.”
Elliott BROOD performs at the Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club on Nov. 23.
