Great Lake Swimmers

  • Toronto, Canada
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  • Folk-Rock
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  • 2003
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About Great Lake Swimmers

New Wild Everywhere is the follow-up to Great Lake Swimmers’ critically acclaimed, Polaris Music Prize shortlisted and Juno nominated 2009 album Lost Channels. Their fifth album in just under a decade, this new collection of 12 tracks reveals a depth and maturity previously only hinted at by lead singer and songwriter Tony Dekker.

Featuring the touring band from Lost Channels (with long-time collaborator Erik Arnesen on banjo and guitar, along with new addition Miranda Mulholland contributing backing vocals and violin, Bret Higgins on upright bass, and Lost Channels drummer Greg Millson), New Wild Everywhere thematically picks up where the previous album left off, exploring transcendence in the natural world to describe the universal themes of love, mortality and escape.

“There is something very elemental about this album as a whole,” says Dekker.

Indeed. Throughout New Wild Everywhere, there is an elemental energy that moves from physical to spiritual and from the immediate present to an all-encompassing future, all represented by Dekker’s ability to weave insightful lyrics into deceptively simple, hook-laden tunes. This is perhaps best exemplified by lead single “Easy Come Easy Go,” the most upbeat and up-tempo song ever penned by Dekker, which explores finding a center to grasp amidst a chaotic and often temporary world. The title track talks of “a fire in the static, a whisper in the dark,” while “Changes With The Wind” finds the “wild in the wilderness.” “Ballad Of A Fisherman’s Wife” is a protest wrapped in an ode to the families affected by the BP oil spill on the gulf coast of Louisiana. In the sadly satisfying album closer “On The Water,” the lone passenger on a small boat amidst a raging storm says, “I thought of my maker, and what might be above / and the cabin in the woods that I had not yet built.”

For a band whose storied location recordings in increasingly out-of-the-way places have brought their output to an almost mythical status, longtime Great Lake Swimmers producer Andy Magoffin was thrilled to be asked to capture the new album in a real studio. Magoffin recalls, “I finally got what I always wanted: Tony Dekker asked me to help his band make a record in a real studio. No extension cords, boat rides, generators, buzzing flies, squirrel noise, missing connectors, furnace cycles, motorcycles, faulty rentals, bad weather or bad headphone mixes to mess things up. We chose to work in Toronto at Revolution Recording, a brand new studio with brand new everything, except for the old stuff which is also brand new. We had access to a great many microphones, instruments, processors and people we would not normally have had the privilege of working with.”

“We wanted to try something new, expand our horizons, and flex a bit of the creative muscle we’ve built up through years of touring,” says Dekker. “It came as a bit of a surprise how well we functioned as a band in that environment. We were able to focus completely on the songs, rather than the logistical obstacles of waiting for the boat to dock, or the rain to stop. The folks at Revolution felt like extended family and the studio itself is a real Toronto gem.”

However, no Great Lake Swimmers album would be complete without at least one field recording. The song “The Great Exhale” was recorded in an abandoned Toronto subway station, down three long flights of stairs where Magoffin and the band had to wait until the wee hours of the morning for the trains to stop overhead before they could hit the record button.

“We set up a studio from scratch on the moist florescent-lit oil-coated subway platform of the unused Lower Bay Station. It was bleak. I could not tell if the recording was any good, because our playback system was nearly useless in the echoing, cavernous tunnel. When we finally listened to the results, we were amazed to hear how beautifully the song fit with the other album tracks,” says Magoffin. “Somehow, Great Lake Swimmers sound just like they should no matter what tools they're using or how far they get from civilization.”

With timeless melodies telling undiscovered stories, Great Lake Swimmers’ New Wild Everywhere maintains an acute respect for the folk tradition, while at the same time transforming it for new listeners everywhere.
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Music

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  • The Great Exhale
    great-lake-swimmers
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    The Great Exhale
  • New Wild Everywhere
    great-lake-swimmers
    Video
    New Wild Everywhere
  • Pulling On A Line
    great-lake-swimmers
    Video
    Pulling On A Line
  • 6882041
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    All the music you want, just 10 bucks a month. Try it free.
    • Easy Come Easy Go
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/9/2/4/0/8/903980429.mp3
    • Your Rocky Spine
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g1/2/9/0/6/3/245536092.mp3
    • New Wild Everywhere
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g2/4/8/6/1/8/903981684.mp3
    • Changing Colours
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g1/1/7/7/7/3/324137771.mp3
    • Catcher Song
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g1/8/3/2/8/3/324138238.mp3
    • Where In The World Are You
      http://listen.vo.llnwd.net/g1/3/6/7/7/3/324137763.mp3

Photos

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  • Great Lake Swimmers
    Great Lake Swimmers
    Great Lake Swimmers
    Adrian Fish
  • Great Lake Swimmers
    Asli Alin

News

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  • Great Lake Swimmers
    Great Lake Swimmers will get Lost in March
    Paste
    We already knew the Great Lake Swimmers had a new album on deck for next spring. Now, we have the full details: the album, entitled Lost Channels, wil...
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  • Great Lake Swimmers
    Great Lake Swimmers get Lost on Spring tour
    Paste
    Toronto's Great Lake Swimmers will release their fourth album, Lost Channels, on March 31 via Nettwerk. The band has lined up some Spring dates in sup...
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  • Great Lake Swimmers
    Great Lake Swimmers take a dip in 'Lost Channels' next spring
    prefixmag.com
    Purveyors of the pastoral and folksy, Great Lake Swimmers have announced Lost Channels, the follow-up to their 2007 LP, Ongiara. The band was inspired...
    Read More
  • Great Lake Swimmers
    News in Brief: Screaming Females, Dr. John / Dan Auerbach, Great Lake Swimmers, MACRoCK 2012
    www.pitchfork.com
    Don Giovanni. Check out album cuts "It All Means Nothing" and "Expire". -- Locked Down is the new album by New Orleans legend Dr. John. It was produce...
    Read More

Tour Dates

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  • Jun 6 Thursday
    Bayfield, ON, Canada Town Hall
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  • Jun 7 Friday
    Bayfield, ON, Canada Town Hall
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  • Jun 14 Friday
    Brockville, ON, Canada Brockville Arts Centre
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  • Jun 15 Saturday
    Kingston, ON, Canada The Island Queen-1000 Islands Boat Line
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  • Jun 21 Friday
    Ottawa, ON, Canada Mooney's Bay Park
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  • Jun 22 Saturday
    Ottawa, ON, Canada Tim Horton's Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival
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  • Jun 22 Saturday
    Ottawa, ON, Canada Dragon Boat Festival
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  • Jul 19 Friday
    London, ON, Canada Home County Music & Art Festival
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  • Jul 19 Friday
    London, ON, Canada Home County Folk Festival
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  • Jul 20 Saturday
    London, ON, Canada Home County Music & Art Festival
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  • Jul 20 Saturday
    London, ON, Canada Home County Folk Festival
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  • Jul 20 Saturday
    London, ON, Canada Unknown venue
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  • Aug 3 Saturday
    Canmore, AB, Canada Centennial Park
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  • Aug 3 Saturday
    Canmore, AB, Canada Centennial Park
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  • Aug 4 Sunday
    Canmore, AB, Canada Centennial Park
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  • Aug 4 Sunday
    Canmore, AB, Canada Centennial Park
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  • Aug 5 Monday
    Canmore, AB, Canada Centennial Park
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  • Aug 5 Monday
    Canmore, AB, Canada Centennial Park
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  • Aug 11 Sunday
    Kitchener, ON, Canada Kitchener Blues Festival
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  • Aug 17 Saturday
    Port Dover, ON, Canada Silver Lake Roots Music Festival
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  • Aug 17 Saturday
    Port Dover, ON, Canada Silver Lake Roots Music Festival
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  • Aug 31 Saturday
    Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, Canada Amphitheatre, Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery
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Discography

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  • New Wild Everywhere (2012)
    Great Lake Swimmers
    New Wild Everywhere (2012)
    Nettwerk Productions
  • The Legion Sessions (2010)
    Great Lake Swimmers
    The Legion Sessions (2010)
    Nettwerk
  • Lost Channels (2009)
    Great Lake Swimmers
    Lost Channels (2009)
    RCA
  • Ongiara (2007)
    Great Lake Swimmers
    Ongiara (2007)
    Universal Distribution
  • Bodies and Minds (2005)
    Great Lake Swimmers
    Bodies and Minds (2005)
    Outside Music
  • Great Lake Swimmers (2003)
    Great Lake Swimmers
    Great Lake Swimmers (2003)
    teenage USA recordings
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