To singer, songwriter and producer Robert Wilson, it seemed like the ideal place to record a solo album: surrounded by nothing but forest and ocean in a borrowed cabin on Gambier Island, just a short boat ride but a world away from the bustle of his [+]To singer, songwriter and producer Robert Wilson, it seemed like the ideal place to record a solo album: surrounded by nothing but forest and ocean in a borrowed cabin on Gambier Island, just a short boat ride but a world away from the bustle of his Vancouver home. And ideal it was - until he heard the crushing sound of a giant drilling rig burrowing into the rock nearby.
"The sound was bleeding into my microphones, so I couldn't do any recording. So I went down and talked to the drill master, and he said they were going to be drilling 14 hours a day until they reached 240 feet down," says Wilson with a
lighthearted laugh. "So I lost a lot of recording time, but we made the best of it. We went swimming, we played some wickedly competitive croquet, we picked blackberries, we read books. And on the drillers' lunch breaks, we ran back inside and hit record."
But Wilson's laid-back approach isn't limited to his dealings with drill masters. Be My Habit, his much-anticipated sophomore release, is a soulful, sweetly melodic album with a distinctly chilled-out West Coast feel.
Rich in rhythm, texture and emotion, the songs on Be My Habit tell simple stories that speak volumes. With whispers of gospel, the title track confronts the fear of intimacy; set to a sunny reggae rhythm, "Soleil" tells the story of the hope a baby brings to a world where wars are waged over oil and fought on TV screens; "Alive" pays homage to one of Canada's great pastimes - the road trip; and "Making Love Right Now" is a playfully sexy tune about waking up in a lover's bed.
"Most of the time, I'll have a personal experience in mind, and then I'll build a little story around it. The simplest things in our lives tend to speak the loudest: self-worth, joy, fear, love," says Wilson, whose debut album, Thin Man, won the artist a faithful fan base and nominations for The West Coast Music Awards and The Georgia Straight Music Awards. "But my experience isn't what's
important. The real power of music is when listeners claim it as their own, so I hope people find their own lives inside the songs."
Produced by Wilson and mixed at Ogre Studios, Be My Habit includes contributions from some of Vancouver's top musical talent: John Raham (Kinnie Starr, Mimosa) brought in groove-heavy percus
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