Twilight Hotel

Front Porch Feature - FolkWax

No Vacancies In Twilight Hotel

“We’ve been on this road for some time now. Our hearts are leading us now. Our hearts, and the tires, are leading us now.’‘ – from “Highway Prayer” by Twilight Hotel

Brandy Zdan switches from wail to whammy deep in the Canadian twang zone, firing love notes a la vibrato into the appreciative blue eyes of blonde-on-blonde Dave Quanbury, who tosses them back from his hand-made, hand-me-down, cigar-box plugged-in acoustic guitar in a Rock Noir tennis match. It’s L-O-V-E alright!

Twilight Hotel is the hottest couple to join musical voices in years. The aptly titled band of two presents dark, road songs that sizzle on and seduce off stage. Two guitars or a guitar accompanied by accordion, two rich vocals, two composer-lyricists: Twilight Hotel fills a whole band’s bill with only two members.

“We don’t want to be any bigger,” says Dave. “We get one of two comments after the show, ‘You guys have a really big sound’ and ‘I heard a bass and a drum.’ That’s really cool. The audience members are filling in the blanks in the theatre of the mind.”

Their songs may feature a character, like the miner in “No Place for A Woman”: “I got a knife in my lunch pail/A screwdriver in my boot/To keep those union boys at bay/When I come walking in sight”; the jilted lover in “Sometimes I Get So Lonely”; and the immigrant couple Salvador and Isabelle. “When I got hooked on songwriting,” muses Quanbury, “I was more into artists who spoke through song more than they spoke through soundscape. Tom Waits has got a whole universe in his songs. He’s picturing this world and you can almost feel what the weather’s like.” Zdan adds, “Theater of the mind is something we think of when we write songs. We’re trying to create a song, something the audience member can imagine.”

Their music is intentional story songs and emotive sketches, lyrically striking the bass chords of human needs. Dave credits his mother, a visual artist and a professional storyteller, for his strong lyrics. Today he uses crossword puzzles to sharpen lyrical skills. For Brandy, vinyl immersion was her school of Rock, heavy into Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Now she spends time listening backwards, rediscovering artists such as Rosetta Tharpe. Dave cites French-Canadian Daniel Lanois as an influence, following the producer’s career with favorite artists such as U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris. When the producer began releasing as a solo artist, Dave kept listening. Brandy agrees, “Strength of the melody and all the instruments in Lanois’ arrangements serve the song. And that’s something really important to remember in producing a record. It’s probably some of our favorite stuff.”

Front Porch Feature by Deborah Douglas, FolkWax, March 6, 2008

Twilight Hotel got serious in 2006, releasing Bethune, which was nominated Best Americana Album at the American Independent Music Awards in 2007. The band likes the live recording techniques of the past. “You hear this fabulous playing and it’s just icing on the cake that they did it all together, all in one shot. Nowadays, with a lot of records, I find it hard to connect with whether I would actually like that person,” says Dave. “It’s pretty easy to dress up a song, record those vocal takes until it’s perfect, but when you listen to those records and it’s one microphone you know those folks were on their game.”

Their second album, Highway Prayer, was released January 28. “We played what we do, live, those instruments,” recalls Brandy. “Colin Linden, Prayer’s producer, calls the important part of the song the DNA of the song – and if that’s there you can color that with other instruments and you won’t lose the song. So we went in there, recorded the record in six days, playing live, no headphones, playing in the same room – we had great energy, great vibe, it was a lot of fun! That’s what it should be,” she grins at the memory.

The album’s opener, the Rockabilly song “Viva La Vinyl,” conveys that genre’s fun, danceable feel and comes in optional, separate vinyl. But the repertoire quickly rolls into different directions, inspired by life on the road and places. The song “Highway Prayer” was conceived on Interstate 35, which has prayer groups available along the road. Dave says, “It started out being an observation about I-35’s threatening billboards. It’s not like ‘Hey, God is Love.’ It’s ‘Hell is Real, Prepare to Meet thy Maker.’ It blows my mind, it’s reverse psychology for me. The last thing I want to do is go to church because they’re threatening me. So it started out being an observation about what is our spirituality and what are the places we think are sacred. We had just been to Sun Studio [in Memphis] the day we started writing that.”

Brandy and Dave are both from Winnipeg, Canada, but six years ago met at a festival some 400 miles away. Says Dave, “I’d been visiting a friend, Jefferson Bishop, who owns a record shop and he told me I ought to meet Brandy – I’d seen her gig, so when I saw her walking around I went up and said, ‘Hi.’” Brandy remembers, “We had a conversation about Jefferson and how he sells lots of vinyl, which we both love. It was a nice night. We stayed up very late, playing songs for each other. Our musical partnership and personal partnership happened at the same time.” The couple continues to collect vinyl, with over 90% of the collection pre-1950, and the partnership has accelerated, becoming engaged on Valentine’s Day 2008.

Dave Quanbury started playing piano at age three and cites Scott Joplin’s ragtime as an early influence. While he also plays pedal steel and trumpet, and Brandy plays flute, saxophone, and piano, but those sounds are not yet part of Twilight Hotel. Brandy, aka Granola-on-Fire, was strongly influenced by Joni Mitchell and Neil Young; and Dave played in Rock bands, as well as in an acoustic Latin band. “When I met Dave I developed more of an edge to my guitar playing. I really wanted to be a good player as well as a good singer. There are a lot of women in music that aren’t really competent on guitar and it makes me angry. Just because you have a good voice, well, you should be able to know your instrument. I think that’s really important,” says Brandy, leaning forward with flashing eyes. She’s a wonder to watch.

Colin Linden saw some of that determination in the studio while making Highway Prayer. “They came in well prepared, which makes a big difference, focused, and open to new ideas. Good attitudes, too.” Linden produces in Nashville, as well as in Canada and was at the Folk Alliance with his Roots Rock band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, as well as conducting an electric guitar workshop. Why did he accept the project? “I thought they had a great deal of charisma in their singing together. I liked their songs. They like the same stuff I do, though they’re a different generation. Working with them was fun,” he concludes. Linden brought in guest musicians, including the late Richard Bell (Janis Joplin, The Band), Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits), and Dave Roe (Johnny Cash).

Nominated for the Emerging Artist Award, the band played the Folk Alliance Awards show a few weeks ago in Memphis. Attending their third FA conference, they were there for typical reasons: to see old friends and make new ones, and for visibility, but with close friends in the city, the roots capital is becoming a second home. While Dave cruised Memphis musical landmarks, Brandy waited for a media phone call discussing the character of the city with a local waitress. “We found that when you compare the two it’s a lot like Winnipeg: they both have racial tension, empty buildings and a muddy river. But Winnipeg doesn’t have corrupt politics.”

Touring 200 nights a year is both inspiration and challenge. Brandy’s favorite gig was in New York’s Madison Square Park. The small-towners played outside on a fall Saturday afternoon for 200 people. “That one was fabulous! Amazing! Everybody was so nice to deal with. They even gave us a parking spot for the whole day! That was a dream.” Dave remembers opening for the Subdudes in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “It was really great to meet them, they’ve been at this a long time. We could see their team and it was a glimpse into the kind of operation we hope to have one day, with a guitar tech, a monitor guy, a truck with a driver! And when you play to a big audience that is there because they love the music, you rise to the occasion. I’d love to play with those guys again. They were really nice to us.”

Heading for the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan for a novel house concert tour, Twilight Hotel will then wend through Chicago, playing Richard Warren’s show on WMFT, then on to Kerrville as part of a Texas tour. They find a different reception in the states for their music. “Americans embrace us as something new and exciting. They’ll come up to us and ask us to go on the radio. But in Canada, they’re watching from the sides to see if we do well. It’s a more conservative market. Folk music means Gordon Lightfoot.” Brandy nods, “We don’t fit in a genre box and they want us to fit. We’re in the Twilight Hotel box.”

With its shady surround sounding, heart-pumping performance, and solid commitment to art, Twilight Hotel is a band of note. The young couple has room to grow musically and every intention of doing so. Like many bands, they want to travel, record, and build an enthusiastic audience. They are online at www.twilighthotel.ca and have a MySpace page. They’ve thought about their career over the long haul and Dave articulates their goal, “To continue to create music that inspires us. I say that because there are a lot of musicians who build a career for themselves, but perpetuate their career by doing what their fans want. It’s rolling, it’s paying the bills, but inside it’s drying up and they’re dying artistically. I don’t think it’s worth it. It feels like prostitution when you use what you’re created for the wrong reasons, past its expiration date. So we want to keep that creative spark alive.” Brandi adds, “If we can go to bed every day knowing we’re creating music that’s inspiring us, then, we can go to bed happy.” My own day ends happily with another song to savor from Twilight Hotel.

Deborah Douglas Wilbrink, former English teacher and active songwriter, freelances from her home in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a contributing editor at FolkWax. You may contact Deborah at folkwax@visnat.com.