Sound Glyphics

Kitchener band Sound Glyphics formed when singer-guitarist Rick Wren and drummer Rick Barbosa met while playing in a "weird pop cover band" in 2008, a suitable beginning for the group's experimental take on conventional songwriting.

The band, which also includes keyboard player and vocalist Sarah Pottier and bassist Nathan Payne, will release their second EP, A Cacophony of Toots, Hoots, Cackles and Wails, at a CD release party at Maxwell's Music House in Waterloo Sept. 7. In a phone interview earlier this week, Wren said he and Barbosa (ex-Astrokick, Mudmen) formed an instant musical connection when they met, and founded the band soon after.

"We had the whole fusion idea when we started," said Wren. "We wanted to experiment with different time signatures and push ourselves and push the listener … still be in a pop sense when we wanted to but (have) arrangements that were unconventional and (leave) room for pop music elements if we felt like it."

Wren and Barbosa are both music teachers and experienced musicians — Wren started his first band in Grade 7, one year after he began writing lyrics, he said.

"We're kind of music nerds," admitted Wren. "We're always working on our techniques and trying to push ourselves individually as players."

Payne (also ex-Mudmen) and Pottier are both fairly recent additions to the band. The lineup has undergone a number of changes due in part to the demanding nature of their music, Wren said.

"We've had a revolving door because of the commitment. It's very hard to commit to this band because … your playing ability has to be on a high scale but at the same time you have to be able to feel it, too. It's not all about being book-smart and studying … you also have to feel it. You have to have both sides of it."

The band's self-titled debut EP was released last year, a self-produced collection that Wren concedes was "kind of a train wreck." Dissatisfied with the sound they captured on their own, the band had it "patched up" at Toronto's Phase 1 Studios, where they eventually returned to begin recording A Cacophony of Toots, Hoots, Cackles and Wails amid high hopes.

"Your performance in the studio is a lot different from when you're live because that's your tattoo, it's always going to be there, so we really wanted to sound great," said Wren, who also plans to release an acoustic album this year.

Despite the large financial investment required to record at the studio, however, the end result was disappointing, Wren said. On Payne's suggestion, the band reached out to Kenny Bridges, frontman for pop-punk band Moneen, who remixed the EP for the band at his home studio free of charge.

"The first one we did self-production but getting actually somebody involved has just kind of really helped us and is really inspiring, and a few doors have opened up now for us," said Wren, who called Bridges "just unbelievably the most humble person I've ever met in my life."

Though the band's first album included an homage to Miles Davis and songs that crossed the 10-minute barrier, Wren said the band's sound is still an accessible one. Older fans have likened the group's music to classic prog-rockers Rush, Yes and King Crimson, Wren said, adding that younger listeners compare the two-time ARC Battle of the Bands finalists to punk-influenced rock bands like At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta and Coheed and Cambria.

Wren said early feedback from fans for the new EP is that it's catchier and more accurately captures the band's live sound, though he said the band's experimental nature has not changed.

"On this new one, it's not that it's less odd time signatures, it's that we've taken those odd time signatures and we've made them sound natural," he said.

The band took a break from playing live earlier this year, in part because Barbosa donated a kidney to his brother. In the group's first practice after Barbosa's return, they wrote what would become White Rhino, the leadoff track on A Cacophony of Toots, Hoots, Cackles and Wails. Wren said that even after the long layoff, it was immediately apparent that their musical connection was still strong.

"We got together after that operation, it was like magic and that's how we came up with this album," he said. - Neil McDonald, The KW Record

"Overall, this is one amazing CD. I want to call it more of an art form than music because of how well everything flowed and sounded. One thing that really stood out for me was how harmonized the vocals were with the instrumentals. Not too many bands could come out with that kind of smooth sound but Sound Glyphics makes it look easy. Sound Glyphics clearly spends plenty of time honing their craft not only through practise but also through editing and it shows in this album."
- Velvet Rope Magazine