You could be forgiven for thinking Brother Twang’s latest record, The World Went Crazy Yesterday, is in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, it was recorded last fall and there’s no denying 2020 felt like a year in which the planet lost its collective marbles. But for the long-time Whistler rock band, it was a different (admittedly more fun) kind of crazy that was the jumping-off point for their fourth studio album.
“It would be too obvious pointing out that it’s about what we’ve just been through, so we’ve been trying to keep it uplifting. Obviously the world did go crazy, but for us, it’s about the ‘80s we grew up in,” explains guitarist and vocalist George Skoupas.
Drawing from their ‘80s upbringings, the four-man outfit leaned on some of their favourite cultural ephemera from that era to craft the album’s 10 rollicking tracks.
“As kids, the ‘80s were the best: best video games, best cartoons, everything. I was a big book reader and I was right into horror, like Stephen King and all that. Everything that was new,” Sloupas says. “Then being on the musician side, for me, the music coming from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s was just unparalleled. It was a fantastic time growing up in those years.”
The nostalgia doesn’t end there for Brother Twang. Released last month, The World Went Crazy Yesterday was initially offered exclusively on CD, and rather than distribute it via traditional channels, the band made it available through a minimum $15 donation on GoFundMe, effectively cutting out the middleman and allowing them to take a larger cut of their record sales. The format also informed their songwriting in an era dominated by the curated playlist.
“There are still some that do [listen to albums front to back] in my age group and we wrote this album like that: from start to end, [we wanted it] to be an all-killer, no-filler kind of album. We’re really happy with the way it came out, because we had the time,” says Skoupas.
The time the pandemic afforded also changed how the band approached their songs. Between their families, day jobs, and a plethora of side gigs (it seems, to be a true musician in the Sea to Sky, you have to play in a minimum of 17 bands simultaneously), the guys typically had to get creative with scheduling in order to get everyone in the same room at one time. But with live gigs all but dried up, they suddenly had the chance to let the songwriting and recording develop organically.
“We wanted to take advantage, because we always used to ask … if we had more time, what would we do with it? Obviously exercise more, spend more time with our families, but as musicians, we had time to actually be together,” Skoupas says. “This album was made in that period where everyone was available, the studio was cheaper than ever, the songs were flowing and continue to flow because we’re still just getting out of it.”
Skoupas says this album saw more emphasis on their choruses—“That’s what the non-musician remembers first”—and incorporated piano on the track, “Robo” after the band brought in Christie McRostie, who also filmed the making of the record for an upcoming documentary. Armed with a new synthesizer and home studio, vocalist and guitarist Jay Romany has been more heavily involved in the songwriting as the band continues to venture in a new direction.
“He started writing songs and sending them to me … and actually the piano has driven what we’ve recorded since then,” Skoupas says. “We’ve been back in the studio and recorded two new songs that are entirely unlike anything we’ve done, and are just so stunningly awesome to us, that we had to get right back into the studio.”
You can still pick up a physical copy of the album through Brother Twang’s GoFundMe: gofundme.com/f/brother-twangs-official-album-release, and the record will be available digitally on all major streaming platforms soon.
