THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Imagine Yes had a three-way with George Clinton and Queen … in Canada. Out pops Vancouver’s own Brass Camel, a one-of-a-kind art-rock group that blends 70’s prog, funk and blues rock into a fresh sound.
Born in early 2018, Brass Camel are the brainchild of Daniel Sveinson, who began touring at age 11 and has performed with Les Paul and at N.Y.C.’s Apollo Theater. The group have been on a hot-streak of packed Vancouver shows and has shared the stage with groups such as Big Sugar, Songhoy Blues and Hey Ocean in such venues as the Commodore Ballroom and Rickshaw Theatre. With their new debut release, the Camel look to bring their singular sound to music fans around the world.
Says Sveinson: “In the time between Brass Camel’s genesis and late 2021 we had worked tireless on creating a unique stage show and sound which has allowed us to enjoy a loyal fanbase at our Vancouver headline shows (self-promoted under our own Dromedary Productions) and make fans of such notables as Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson who in 2021 named Brass Camel as his favourite band in Canada.
“By the end of 2021 we knew it was time to capture our live energy in the studio and in the early days of 2022 we spent three long days at the historic Afterlife Studios recording guitar, bass, drums, piano, Hammond organ and orchestral drums. From there we took things back to our own studio, Camelot, where we spent a month and a half of tireless nights and early mornings tracking vocals, guitar overdubs and synthesizer.
A tragic family death interrupted the process in the middle of the album’s recording and once we got back to it, the heavy emotional toll inspired more focus than ever. Despite dealing with loss and the distraction of day jobs, we hammered out the whole album by late February and sent it off to mix master Ben Kaplan, who spiced the LP up with his amazing work. Mastering was completed at CPS mastering in short order and before March was through we had an album fit to be heard.
“Lyrically, Brass covers a lot of ground — I’ve Got the Fox was written about bassist Curtis Arsenault’s demonic-sounding five litre 1990 Foxbody Mustang, Pressure Cooker ponders the instability of U.S. politics, Dinger’s in the Back pays homage to a legendary Canadian sound engineer and all sorts of other subject matter is to be found in these 40-odd minutes.
“Brass Camel’s sound draws influence from all over the musical map, from Queen to Holst, Herbie Hancock to Zeppelin, Albert King to Yes — and we hope that we’ve created a unique but familiar sound that you just can’t quite put a finger on while at the same time not confusing the listener. We are now ready to unleash this piece to the world. From the first song to the last, from the Storm Thorgenson-inspired cover to the gatefold art you’ll see before long, we are very proud of the album we have put together and hope you’ll listen, dig and share the fruits of our labour.”
