Uptown Front Page Feature
Texas Twilight
Winnipeg duo makes the move to Austin — music capital of the Lone Star State
Starting a new life in a new city is hard. Making a record while starting a new life in a new city is even harder. Just ask Twilight Hotel’s husband-and-wife duo of Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury.
The Winnipeg couple relocated to Austin, Tex., in 2009 and, before they had even unpacked and found a place to call home, made the trek across the New Mexico/Arizona desert to record the third Twilight Hotel album, When The Wolves Go Blind — a sultry collection of moody Americana tunes clearly influenced by the duo’s new Southern surroundings.
Uptown called up Quanbury, who was in Toronto for a Gordon Lightfoot tribute show, to discuss Twilight Hotel’s new album and the couple’s new life in Austin.
Uptown: Before we talk about the record, let’s backtrack a bit and talk about your big move to Austin. What was the inspiration to pick up and start fresh somewhere else?
Dave Quanbury: We were here for South by Southwest in 2009 and we were driving home to Winnipeg, where it was still winter. We were driving through South Dakota and the highway was flooded and we had to take all these crazy side roads. We were actually listening to Angela’s Ashes on tape, read by the author Frank McCourt himself. He was talking about having his ticket to New York and starting a new life there. We thought, ‘What if the next time we went to Austin, we didn’t leave?’
It makes sense, then, that When The Wolves Go Blind is a record about moving on.
The record was certainly part of the move. We were really between lives at that point. We weren’t really settled in Austin. We hadn’t found a place to live — but then we found ourselves driving to L.A. to make this record. It sounds like a foolish plan, but it wasn’t foolish at all. It worked out. There’s certainly lots to inspire you when you’re away from home — and when you feel like you don’t have a home. We had a lot of possessions we just left behind. We were literally living out of our suitcases. It’s a cool, freeing feeling, actually. I think the more free you are the more you can reach in any artistic pursuit.
You worked with some veteran players on this record. You had Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples) behind the kit and John Whynot (Lucinda Williams, Blue Rodeo) at the board, as well as Jeff Turmes on bass. What was working with those guys like?
We were a little star-struck. Stephen Hodges has played on Tom Waits records that I grew up listening to. It was only a three-day session with those guys. We gave them demos and they did their prep before we got there, so we basically just came in and played. We thought we were going to capture it live off the floor like that and could add other parts in later. I personally left a lot of space for that — but when we went to add other parts in, we found the songs felt really complete.
You two have really taken to recording live off the floor. I know that’s something you started experimenting with on (2008’s) Highway Prayer.
I think we’ve definitely headed in a direction of recording live off the floor. Our first record (2006’s Bethune) was not live off the floor, our second (Highway Prayer) was live off the floor with overdubs and this one was all off the floor. I think when you do it that way, you’re more likely to play the way you do live, as opposed to playing for a special occasion, as you do in the studio. It’s getting closer to the DNA of the songs and they way we’d play them for an audience, instead of dressing it up. There’s also a lot more co-writing on this album. A lot of the songs we sat and wrote together. I think the next record will feature a lot more co-writing with other people.
Are you happy with the end result?
I’m very proud of it. We were away from home and away from the shelter of the Canadian access to money. We saved up the money we needed and did this on our own terms and on our own steam, and we’re quite proud of that. We put ourselves in charge and did things the way we thought they should be done. When you do it that way, it’s easy to be proud of it.
And what about Austin — is your adopted hometown feeling more like home?
Oh yeah — lots has happened since we moved here. It’s a whole new life and a whole new set of interests. Brandy’s been doing a lot leather working — she actually tanned a hide the other day — and I’ve been doing a lot of woodworking and painting. I think when we lived in Winnipeg, our vision for our lives was that we were touring musicians. We were putting 100% of our energy into our career. We’re still putting a lot of our energy into our music, but now it’s coming from different places. And our vision for our lives is more complex. It’s been really refreshing. It’s a richer life.
