The Lance/Windsor/Twilight Hotel sees their vision come to life in new album
By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
January 25, 2011
Winnipeg-based and newly relocated to Texas, Twilight Hotel are celebrating the release of their new album, which came out last week, When The Wolves Go Blind.
The pair, comprised of Dave Quanbury and Brandy Zdan, is quite happy with the release, which is a follow up to their Juno Award-nominated Highway Prayer.
The duo spent most of the last five years out on the road in Canada, Europe, and the U.S., although they’ve taken the past year off since they’ve moved to Austin, TX, in order to settle in.
“Being on the road is a wonderful thing. You get to play to all kinds of different audiences and see places that you never would have thought of before,” said Zdan. The pair’s music will be bringing them to Scotland and Belgium for the first time. “We may not have gone there if it hadn’t been for us playing shows. It’s a great way to see the world,” she added.
Working on When The Wolves Go Blind was a bit different for Twilight Hotel as compared to their previous releases. This time around, the vision was completely their own.
“We came to a vision on the record and we made all the decisions on our own in a sense. We did take on a co-producer who helped us with the project, John Whynot, but for the most part, it was us achieving the vision in our own heads on our own,” Zdan explained.
Although Zdan does acknowledge that their previous album Highway Prayer was essential for them to come to this point in their career. It was Colin Linden, their producer on Highway Prayer, who introduced Twilight Hotel to John Whynot as well as drummer Stephen Hodges.
Working on the album in Los Angeles and staying in Venice Beach was rather memorable for Zdan.
“I’m going to look back on that time for many years very fondly. Going into the studio and recording and coming back to Venice and going for a walk on the beach, reflecting on the day, talking to each other about how the recordings went that day, it was a nice time,” she recalled.
Twilight Hotel hopes more than anything that they can create connections with their audience through their music.
“You hope to accomplish connections to your audience, you hope that people can relate to your songs, and you hope that you can move people at the end of the day. That’s kind of all there is, really. It’s about expressing emotions and relating to people. It’s not really about grand career accomplishments or things like that. It’s really simplistic connections,” said Zdan.
As for the future, Zdan says that right now they’re just concentrating on this current two and a half months long tour, but will be continuing to write.
“We’ll keep following the muse, writing songs, and putting out records. Pretty simple, really. We’re very lucky, we’re very blessed to be able to do what we do,” said Zdan.
Twilight Hotel will have a full band with them at Phog Lounge, located at 157 University Ave. W., on Jan. 27, where they’ll be playing the full album in its entirety.
