Behind Sapphire is an experimental pop group from Vancouver, BC. These innovative and eccentric young rockers are making quite a splash, and we had the opportunity to talk to guitarist Matthew and singer Grant, they discuss their unique sound and stage performance (which is truly a must see,) their plans for a cover a day, the story behind their run in with the law while on tour in China and much more.
Behind Sapphire is a very unique sound. When I was writing up this interview I was trying to think up bands to compare you to, but couldn’t come up with any. What kinds of bands influence your writing?
MATTHEW: I think as of lately it obviously changes because we listen to loads of different music. Because we’re in the industry, through that we get introduced to local bands and lots of buzz or blog bands. We obviously as musicians and as lovers of music ourselves are always trying to seek out new music that can influence in a new and creative way. Right now we’re listening to…I mean I really like the Sufjan Stevens project, planetarium, with Bryce Dessner from the National, Nico Muhly, who’s a really great composer and obviously Sufjan Stevens. That’s something that I’m really interested in right now, but it obviously changes. I mean Grant loves St. Vincent, and what’s the new record your listening to?
GRANT: Well for new stuff, I’m always trying to keep up with so many new bands but right now I’m listening to a lot of Rufus Wainwright. He’s got a new album out called Out Of The Game, that’s got some really cool stuff on it. Um what else, Patrick Watson just came out with a new record, its called Adventures in Your Own Back Yard, that’s a really sweet record. I throw on whatever on the radio, I don’t know, I listen to French pop, I listen to some interesting stuff from CBC and I get influenced by anything out of the ordinary I guess, just something different, just something new to bring to the table. Or even old vibes, old vibes are cool too. We get a radio station out here, its really hard to pick up, but when you do get reception it just has stuff from the forties and the fifties, I love that, I really dig that. We really dig stuff that’s experimental and out of the box, because we like that in our songwriting as well.
Your music has a very layered sound to it, Could you could tell us a little about your writing process?
Matthew: It all starts quite simply, with Grants melodies or some music that I’ve written or a piece that I’ve written and I mean, every song that we approach we approach it differently so I don’t think for us we have a set way that works every time. It’s not like a set formula that we stick to; it’s something different every time. For example we have a song “Oh my What a Fine Day,” the way that was written was super special and super different than every other song on that record. So I know for Grant and I, that ones really close to home for us, just for the way that it was written. I know for myself I just love sitting down and writing music and Grant has a completely different experience with that music after I’m done writing it, like vocally. He takes some different approaches to it that I think brings a very unique sound that I don’t think you’d get anywhere else because its just kind of, ourselves.
Grant: For me, I only like the music that I write if it’s something that surprises myself, that’s how I like to write music, especially lately. It’s exploring your emotions, exploring your feelings but if you can play something that just throws you off that’s amazing for me, that’s a great composition. Our new record that we’re thinking of releasing maybe in the fall or maybe in spring next year, were debating when to release it, that record I think is a really good example of that. Everything on it is just straight from our hearts; it was a very mysterious song writing process for us, it was just very different for us.
Matthew: I think it’s the songs too, the songs they surprise you later on. I mean at first you don’t really notice it, but the more that you listen to it and go over it and stuff you notice things, you get different feelings and surprises, you enjoy it more later on. Its like you grow with that music, I think that record for me, it’s been a growing into process rather than process of just understanding your way and putting it out there. As I listen to the new music we write to add different things, or take away different things from it, I listen to it, and I feel like I’m growing more, I’m understanding the music more because it’s so mysterious. It was so mysterious for us when we wrote it at first and I think that’s a great part of the new style or process of writing that we’re taking, or just the growth that we’ve seen, just because it’s a mystery and that keeps things interesting you know and without that your just kinda bored, you want to keep things interesting for yourself and obviously for the listeners.
Grant: Well yeah if you’re writing others people’s music, you can go listen to their music right so why would you want to do the same thing? We’re experiencing that first hand lately, where it’s easy to write music that will get on the radio, it’s easy to rip off other people you know what I mean? So when people hear the music they can appreciate it and hear the vibes of the music that they already enjoy and so it’s really easy for them to get along with it. But I think with me and Matthew, we dig things that throw us off and at first it might feel almost a little uncomfortable but you start to appreciate it more and more and more and I think that any musician that gets farther into their career and is learning about songwriting starts to appreciate the things that make it unique and special.
You guys mentioned your song “Oh my what a fine day.” You have a video for that song which stars Twilights Jodelle Ferland and was featured on Much Music but it’s not your average music video. It is a beautiful piece of videography that doesn’t show a single shot of anyone with an instrument in his or her hands, but instead follows quite the intricate storyline. What made you guys decide to the video the way you did?
Matthew: I think it’s interesting, Grant came up with the concept for it and then we brought it to the company that did it and they were great friends of ours and so they loved the idea and they loved the song right away. Just how it got put together was quite an accomplishment for ourselves. We felt really accomplished after in that we were able to pull off and help and work and figure something out like that. But I mean there’s tons of music video’s where you can see the band, I mean we have a music video out for Christmas Night that shows us playing a little bit, but I don’t think we wanted to fit into that mold necessarily. I don’t think that was every our goal really, but to make a piece that was reciprocated of the music, and I think the video reciprocates the feelings of the music. It’s kind of vague and mysterious as well as it kind of leaves you wanting more and that’s the way we felt about the song. I think music that intrigues you, and peaks your interest and entices you to want to listen to it more and understand it more is a really unique thing, and I think that was the approach for the video and the song as well. So not having us in it, I think Grant wanted it the most, but I think it was a mutual idea.
Grant: I don’t really like video’s necessarily where people perform in their music video, and more specifically because I guess when I’m on stage and I’m performing there’s a lot of spontaneity and improv in our live performance and it creates a dynamic that’s fun for the viewers and the audience, but it’s really fun for us on stage. When you don’t know what’s going to happen next and being able to flow with the punches, that’s one of the best feelings. So I can only imagine that if we had a music video with us performing in it, it would just be really really intense and energetic and chaotic but just really, I don’t know, schizophrenic. It would be really strange to watch and it wouldn’t necessarily be pleasingly acceptable. It wouldn’t just be something normal to watch on t.v. So I don’t know, if I ever did have a performance video, I can’t imagine it being politically acceptable.
Speaking of your live performance, Grant you do something live that I’ve never seen before. You sing some of your lines into a vase, and hold the microphone so that it picks up your voice on the way out. Did you see that technique somewhere or where did you get that one from?
Grant: I’m very playful with what goes on vocally on stage, and even with our new act there’s a lot that goes on vocally that I’ve never really seen from any other singers. But when I was younger I used to go to my mom’s friend’s houses and they used to have they really big vases, some times full of flowers or other things, and I would pull out the flowers and then I’d just kind of start singing into this vase and you collect all this beautiful reverb that would shoot back to you, but it would almost shoot back to you with a little delay and little bit of pitch shifting and it was very strange. For me it was phenomenal, it was awesome and then I remembered that a whole bunch of years later and so I was a thrift store and I picked up a vase and started singing into different vases, trying to see which vase would collect the best reverb and shoot it out the other end. I learned that glass vases do a really good job of that but knowing us, going on the road it would probably break really quick. But I found this one, I think it was made in India, but its made out of brass. It kind of looks like an urn, but it’s not it’s a vase and so I would sing into it and would collect and then the sound would go back into the mic, which sometimes can be a dangerous thing. A lot of sound guys don’t appreciate that because on some mics it will get very hot and it will feed back quickly, but sometimes you can get a really beautiful sound coming out the other end. I don’t think you could ever replace that with something digital so its very analog, very real and I think very fun to play with. We’ll continue to do stuff like that, like sing into trumpets and sing into anything.
You guys do a lot of experimenting not only vocally, but with different instruments as well. You have songs that are filled with trumpets, trombones, vibraphones, ukuleles and even a glockenspiel. Do you guys write a song and automatically know “this would sound great with a vibraphone!” Or is it just a lot of experimenting?
Matthew: I think your referring a lot to the first record we did. To be honest with you I don’t have a whole ton of knowledge about music. I don’t really know exactly what I’m doing half the time. I just try new things. I mean we have friends that are very intellectual and are very into the music. They understand what chords will take you there and what the feeling will bring, and if you add this instrument it will feel like this and different timbres and different sonic vibes and how the music will all go together and make it sonically acceptable or ear pleasing or whatever the case is. I feel like we came from a place out of high school where we just always experimented with the instruments that we had and as we heard other bands or heard other songs that had different things we thought they sounded cool and we thought why not try these things out for our own songs. And so we just experimented to be honest with you man, like I just bought a glockenspiel, tried it out and just wrote some music with it and I wrote to the music I guess, I wrote melodies and stuff and that’s how it worked out. For me I love different things, I love trying different things like having different melodies written on different instruments to kind of surprise myself. I kind of felt like as I did that I loved the music a lot more. I wrote this one song, and when I wrote the music for it, I started on guitar and wrote a vocal melody. Then as I moved forward I wrote a glockenspiel to it, then I met up with our violin player who is a really good friend and asked him to try and put some violin melodies on it. Songs that develop that way I really love because the feelings that went into it and the experimentation and the no knowledge that I had, and just how it turned out and how beautiful it can sound with just experimenting. Doing something like that was just mind blowing to me. That’s the approach I take to it.
Grant: I write a lot of just melodies, just for my vocals and I’m constantly trying to write some guitar parts, or like some piano parts all with my vocals because I love singing and it’s easiest for me to write on my main instrument which is my voice.
Matthew: He writes on his vocals, it’s crazy how much he can do with just his voice, sometimes we’ll just be sitting in the car and he’ll just be like try this, and I think it always keeps things fresh for us and I think it really compliments the way that I write music because I’m not as talented as Grant in that area, and so it’s really nice.
I remember watching CBC and seeing a headline involving your tour to China. But it wasn’t exactly your typical tour story. Do you mind sharing a bit about your bizarre experience overseas?
Grant: Um collectively we probably experienced it quite differently but I was able to experience China for about a week and a half before I was detained. It was just a big misunderstanding; I made a mistake by bringing something I shouldn’t have. I basically got through the Vancouver airport, the Shanghai airport and the Dalian airport, and on the way back to Shanghai with a bunch of antique ammunition, because I like to collect antiques, and I ended up picking this container that was full of bullets up that I was going to bring it to my little brother, he’s twelve years old, because I had no use for these bullets they were world war one circa. They’re neat and they’re rusty and inactive but I was carrying these bullets and obviously its illegal to carry ammunition internationally. I was completely unaware that they were in my bag and all the airports were too, and so I got through three airports and finally on September 11th they found these bullets in my bag and I was like “Man why? Why are these in my bag I didn’t even know they were in my bag!” And I was wearing this military garb and I had like a hair cut like a …somebody from a German accent and it just went crazy. I had a camouflage duffle bag and they found the bullets and it moved very quickly from a very calm situation to me being detained in a place that I’ve never experienced something like that in my life. So I was there for about six days and they interrogated me for about fifteen hours. It was outrageous. It was really crazy and awful but it was really enlightening to me, and I’m really blessed to have a taste of something like that and learn a lesson obviously, but just blessed to see where a lot of people come from when they go through an experience like that. I was supposed to be there for three months minimum and no one has ever been released from this detention center under three months, but I got released within six days. I set a record and it was very dark at times, but in the end it was very fulfilling. I learned a lot, it was very humbling to be with another man in there, some of who are innocent and some of who are not. It blew my mind it was a really interesting situation.
Last question; what are you guys working on now, and what do you have planned for the future?
Matthew: Right now, we’re working on a couple different projects with music. We have a few idea’s that we’re running through, just different things that we’re working on for the summer, trying to keep ourselves fresh and going. We’re actually going to back to China in a month-ish; we’re just waiting to hear back from our management to find out when we’re going. But we’ll be going back so we’re just working a couple things we’ll be able to do just keep ourselves fresh and connect with our fans through that. We’re also working on this online video project that we’re doing and we’ve recorded a lot of music so we’re just working out how we’re going to release it. We have a really special record that we wrote, that I guess we kind of referred to throughout the interview, which we’ll possibly release in the fall or most probably in the spring we’re more thinking now, we’re just kind of working out the details on that. Then we have a couple more little things that we’re going to be recording, and then hopefully releasing those as well. When we get back from China we’re going to be doing some dates in Canada, probably a western Canada tour, and then in the spring of next year, if we release the record, I think we’ll be doing that. There’s just a lot of different things, we’re going back to china growth I guess, in our own music and a bit of a way to push forward through all the different things that we’re working on. So we’re really excited to be going to China, we’ve just kind of been staying at home and working on things so we’re just kind of excited for a new adventure and I think that’s what really, that’s what sets us apart. We’re always keeping ourselves on our toes, everyday that I wake up I find that there’s something new that I wasn’t planning and I feel that’s a really unique way of life I guess. We’re learning a lot everyday, and we’re growing musically, and business minded and all these other areas of life. It’s been a really great growing experience for the both of us, and so we’re both just continuing on having adventures and just living life and just trying to be the best that we can be at what we’re trying to do you know, and so it’s just a lot of that.
Grant: We’re also gearing up, and I guess we haven’t publically released it yet, but we’re going to be doing a cover a day. We decided like, with all the other challenges we have going on in our life, we like to be busy and things come down to the wire for us everyday because we have so many things going on and we do everything ourselves which can be can be really challenging in itself.
Matthew: So that’s the other thing I was talking about, I was keeping it a secret but…
Grant: So with a cover a day, we’re doing sixty covers of just like top 40 songs, songs that are very popular. We’ve actually opened up a channel on our facebook, just asking people what they want us to cover and then we’re just going to go through that list and pick sixty and just cover them all.
Matthew: Yeah we’ll release them all, everyday throughout the summer.
Grant: Just Behind Sapphire renditions of cool songs that people picked
Matthew: Yeah hopefully something fresh, something fun and hopefully people enjoy it, that would be our wish you know, our desire. We’re going to them in weird areas too. We have this one idea that I’ll share with you, we’re gonna’ get in a shower with our clothes on and stuff while the showers going we’re going to play a song.
Grant: And just destroy a guitar, because once it’s gets wet…
Matthew: We’ll get a cheap one; we’ll buy a cheapie. I don’t like wrecking guitars, I love guitars, and so that’s kind of an iffy for me.
Grant: We’ll get like a Value Village one, a thirty dollar one from the kids section or something.
Matthew: It’ll be sweet though man, I’m stoked for it!
You can check out Behind Sapphire at any of the links below, and watch their video for "Oh My, What A Fine Day" right here.
http://behindsapphire.tumblr.com/
www.facebook.com/behindsapphire
Interview By Jesse Read
Photography: Braden Paul Photography
