Crown Lands Reflect on the Journey to Their Latest Album, ‘Apocalypse’
Wednesday night’s edition of Loudwire Nights (May 20) featured two very special guests, Kevin Comeau and Cody Bowles, the duo that comprises Crown Lands. Celebrating their latest album, Apocalypse, Bowles and Comeau dove into the journey of the band, what’s on the horizon and much more.
Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.
“It’s a relief in many ways,” Comeau admitted to Loudwire Nights‘ Chuck Armstrong about the release of Apocalypse.
“It feels like it’s been such a long time coming. There was a really big break in-between Fearless and Apocalypse. Of course, in between, we did the Ritual records and a couple of other instrumental, experimental records that might be coming out later this year, but this was our return to epic, progressive storytelling form and it just feels so nice to finally have this beast out in the world, man.”
Taking Control of the Creative Process
Since 2020, Crown Lands have demoed everything in their own home studio. After realizing they were spending too much money driving to Toronto to record everything in what they called a “clandestine studio,” they made the decision to do everything themselves.
“It’s been really nice to be able to see through a vision, front to back, in the same space that we love to be,” Comeau shared. “We pretty much live here, maybe myself more than Cody, but I mean, I spend every waking moment I can here working on music.”
When Bowles heard that, he was happy to share how nice it is to be able to work so hard in their own space. “It’s such a privilege to do what we do,” he shared.
Collaborating with Industry Icons
A major part of the creation of Apocalypse was the fact that they worked with two celebrated producers, Nick Raskulinecz and David Bottrill.
“We were chatting with Nick on how we were going to approach this next record and we were thinking we do the whole record with him, so we made this awesome arrangement to go down to his place, his home studio and we started working on Apocalypse,” Bowles said. “It was great. We did a couple sessions there and then it became clear that he was just so busy. He’s such a cool dude, he’s got too much on his plate. So we asked his permission, like, ‘Hey, can we finish the rest of it?'”
As they were finishing it on their own, they both felt like they needed a little bit more help, or as they shared, “That extra 10-percent bump on the top line.” So they called up their longtime collaborator David Bottrill.
“I think, for the most part, why we go to these guys is there’s often stalemates in the Crown Lands world,” Comeau said. “There’s no democracy in this band, there’s two people so if there’s a disagreement, nothing gets done and things sit in stasis for too long.”
When stalemates came up with Raskulinecz, he was quick to tell them what he thought, allowing Bowles and Comeau to move on. “With Bottrill, it’s a similar thing where you know you just need an objective ear sometimes,” Comeau said. “But it leads to [this]: We sound like us. No matter what.”
The Duo Dynamic
Reflecting on their identity as a duo, the band noted that it was born out of necessity. “It was a necessity at the very beginning. It was because we couldn’t fit anyone in my dad’s Elantra. It was one of those situations where we had no room for anyone else… But off the tail of that, we quickly realized when we wrote our first EP, we’re like, ‘Damn, this works really good, let’s just keep it this way.'”
They also addressed the frustration of being labeled as “good for a duo.” Bowles noted that the fear of bringing in extra live performers often stems from wanting to prove that they can pull everything off without trickery. Furthermore, the band remains committed to speaking out about injustices faced by Indigenous communities in Canada, viewing it as a responsibility to elevate those voices.