Canadian Musician - January/February 2018 | Page 41

discussion on that this time. We had to
explore these themes together, and then
each sit with it for awhile before coming
to a consensus.”
It’s understandable that the musical
and lyrical evolution between Good Clean
Fun! and Ms. Behave has the latter sitting
a bit closer to their collective heart. “We’re
much closer now as humans and artists,”
Normand says, “and because of that, we
could be more vulnerable with each other,
and the music kind of opens to that, too.”
“We all have really
weird influences and
backgrounds, and we put
those to work.”
STACEY KAY
Eh440
A Cappella
on Overdrive
When Stacey Kay was first approached to join what would become
Eh440, she didn’t necessarily jump at the chance. “To be honest, I
thought in my head, ‘This is lame,’” she admits with a hearty laugh.
“I mean, I pictured Pitch Perfect and men in a barbershop, and didn’t
realize there’s just so much more that this could be.”
What it ended up being is a five-member vocal group – Kay,
Janet Turner, and Tafari Anthony alternating between lead and
backing vocals and the rhythm section of beatboxer Luke Stapleton
and bass vocalist Joe Oliva – that incorporates countless styles, eras,
and influences into a unique sonic cocktail all their own. Their debut
album, 2016’s Boss Level, showcases the wide spectrum of those indi-
vidual components
“Joe always says we’re five singers that have no business singing
together,” laughs Kay – and make no mistake, that’s exactly what
makes Eh440 such a standout act. Turner and Oliva were once mem-
bers of a “traditional” a cappella group and were looking to push their
creative boundaries. Through some existing connections and some
pure serendipity, they put the pieces together and were soon a quin-
tet creating a one-of-a-kind musical mosaic – all with just their voices
and a few effects for good measure.
“When people ask me about my influences, I’m like, ‘Tom Wait s
and Busta Rhymes,’ which doesn’t make sense at all, but that’s been
really helpful,” Kay reveals. “We all have really weird influences and
backgrounds, and we put those to work.”
Boss Level’s title track showcases the success of their union in
spades. One would be hard-pressed to discern the all-vocal track
from a slick new Black Eyed Peas production. What starts as an
EDM-inspired rhythm track with a monstrously hooky vocal chorus
soon kicks into Kay spitting some absolute fire on a super-speedy,
syncopated rap that would put some of the genre’s pioneers to
shame. Follow that with a massive dubstep breakdown and you’ve
got a bona-fide banger.
The slick production quality is the product of a few technolog-
ical assists – for example, Oliva drops down an octave thanks to an
effects pedal – but the source material is always a human voice, and
the arrangements are incredibly imaginative.
Considering the unique nature of the band, Eh440’s songwriting
style is subsequently one-of-a-kind. In some cases, a lead vocalist
might have a basic song idea and will ask Stapleton to lay down a
beat into his iPhone – “essentially a karaoke track,” Kay offers. “And
then I’ll take that and start writing on top of it.”
In other cases, they’ll just be goofing around with melodies – or,
in Stapleton’s case, a beat – that might catch someone else’s ear. “I
mean, I know I can’t think of a beat that’s as cool as something Luke
might come up with, so I can always give him ideas, but we really
want to get everyone’s best individual ideas to the table, and then
we’ll rely on each other to bring an arrangement together.”
When it came time to choose a producer for Boss Level, Eh440
used the same approach they did when putting the band together
in the first place. “We thought, ‘We’re weird, so we need someone
that works with weird,’” Kay offers, and it turns out Hill Kourkoutis
knows weird.
Throughout her career, the multi-instrumentalist has performed
with the likes of Serena Ryder, The Weeknd, Martha and the Muffins,
and The Cliks. “She was right in the middle, where she accepted the
weirdness, but also knew when to pull us back if it’d be something
really cool in the end,” Kay continues. “She always knew what my
sound effect was. I’d have to act things out because I don’t know
how to musically say it sometimes, and she picked up on that. It was
just perfect – having somebody that could understand this crazy
language that we have.”
They’re really only limited to what they can do with their natural
instruments, and as the breadth of material covered on Boss Level makes
clear, that means there are virtually no limits to their creativity at all.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Musician.
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