If you’re familiar with Marcus Paquin’s name, maybe it’s because you’ve pored over the liner notes in albums such as Stars’ Set Yourself on Fire or Arcade Fire’s remastered 2003 EP. Paquin’s established his name as a recording engineer over the last decade, and it’s still very much his day-job. When reached over the phone from his Montreal home, he reveals he’s currently helping out the Arcade Fire with their forthcoming follow-up to Neon Bible (all he’ll hint about that one, however, is that the project has “been really fun and it’s going to be a great record.”)
That’s not the reason we’re talking to Paquin, though. About three years ago, he began a solo singer-songwriter project. “It was to kind of broaden the palette a bit as a musician and also enable me to work with other bands, because the two sides are really different in a way, but they’re also very similar,” he explains. Today, that solo project has expanded into a five piece called Silver Starling. Paquin plays guitar and sings (with a fragile urgency not completely unlike Arcade Fire’s Win Butler); his wife, Marika Anthony-Shaw, plays violin, viola and keys; Liam O’Neil (Young Galaxy) play drums; Peter X is on bass; and Gab Lambert plays guitar and banjo. Their self-titled debut -- a collection of heart-on-your-sleeve orchestral pop with thoughtful lyrics -- came out last month on Last Gang Records.
The album’s dedicated to Chris Ireton, an old friend of Paquin’s who succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2008. In his will, he reportedly left all of his recording equipment to the band, which they used to make Silver Starling. But his contribution to the record wasn’t simply physical. He was also something of an inspiration for much of the disc.
“The News,” the ninth track, is one of the oldest songs on the album, Paquin says. It opens with not much more than Paquin’s trembling voice singing “The news of your demise has got me feeling like a soldier…,” a lonely guitar and a faint fog of eery white noise before ultimately building into a melancholy cacophony of strings and the surging chorus: “There’s a battle in my head / but I’m not a soldier.”
“That song is directly about my friend and my feelings about it, and you know, the sad side of that experience,” Paquin explains.
“The experience with my friend, I think as much as anything, it made me want to say something about any of the emotions I was having.
“And some of those were obviously sadness and sorrow, but there were so many thoughts of joy and happiness and feelings of feeling so lucky and inspired and so in love, you know.”
That emotional mix percolates below the surface of nearly every song on the album -- with driving rhythms (especially on songs such as opener “Something Over Nothing”) upping the urgency with a rush of blood to the head. It’s not all heavy, though. The playful acoustic shuffle of “Ghosts” is a stand-out on the album. It’s a whimsical little story-song about facing fear (and a literal spook), with the aid of some plucky violin and banjo plus a sweet, sing-songy chorus: “Oh no, I won’t believe in ghosts.”
The mood overall, though, is hushed and thoughtful, swathed in buttery strings and tinged with optimism -- “Love and A Broken Heart” perhaps being the best example.
“During the course of making this record my wife and I got married, we bought our first house, we went to Australia, we went to New Zealand, it’s all these amazing things happened as well,” says Paquin of the myriad experiences that ultimately shaped the record. “I think the overwhelming, the underlying tone of the record is quite optimistic and definitely the experience of my friend passing away allowed me to look more deeply into those feelings.”
Silver Starling’s Canadian Tour Dates:
Oct. 28, Toronto
Nov. 5, Montreal
Nov. 6, Kingston
Nov. 7, Ottawa
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