Duff Thompson & Steph Green stop in <3
Garage rock, country, folk, indie vibes from two intertwined artists as part of an impressively intricate tour.
Duff Thompson is a songwriter, musician, and producer whose music is a swampy blend of folk, pop, and garage rock. As a songwriter, he has a rare ability to distill emotional complexity into simple, sincere songs that instantly hit the listener on a visceral level. As a producer, he draws from influences that span across decades and genres, merging them into a cohesive and organic sound recognizable as his own.
Thompson’s dark, alienated, and swaggering sophomore release, Shadow People, is the first of a duology of albums recorded during a late summer Montreal heatwave in 2021. Created over two weeks of intensive recording, Shadow People comprises 10 of the 20 tracks captured during these sessions. Thompson rented out the studio space at Sud-Ouest Recording Service and produced and engineered the album himself, bringing along with him a 16-track reel-to-reel and songwriter/musicians Steph Green and Kyle Taylor as his
backing band and assistant engineers. The album also features contributions from Mat Davidson (Twain) on strings, pedal steel, and bass clarinet. Whereas Thompson’s 2020 debut album, Haywire showcased his versatility and folk influences, Shadow People is a more cohesive collection of songs that push his music further into the world of garage and indie rock. Shadow People is out October 27th on Mashed Potato Records.
Thompson started out playing music at a young age, forming and playing in bands until 2016, when he shifted focus to being a solo artist. It was around this time he found himself in New Orleans where he would spend the next few years recording both himself and those around him in the folk/songwriter community he found himself in. It was also around this time that he co-founded Mashed Potato Records, which he continues to co-run with Steph Green in Canada.
Steph Green's music is for those who fancy the art of songwriting, depicting a lonely world illuminated by strangeness and beauty. Her sophomore album, "Lore", is a series of vignettes that immerse the listener in dreams and nightmares of the West. It's a world of towering storm clouds, flooding rivers, and diamond skies. The natural and supernatural collide, wailing spirits wander lost highways, and shapeshifting starling murmurations soar overhead of restless loners.
Green produced and recorded "Lore" at home on a 16-track reel-to-reel, creating a distinctive and otherworldly sound with weeping steel guitar, washy organ, and ghostly vocal layering reverberating from a distant dimension. Embarking on an almost entirely solo recording process that allowed room for experimentation, Green also enlisted long-time collaborator Duff Thompson as the rhythm section on bass and drums. Out now on Mashed Potato Records, "Lore" is a rugged, eerie, and wild homage to both a real and imagined place.
Green brought the same DIY ethos and spirit of experimentation that characterizes "Lore" to her previous releases, all of which were also recorded analog and variously featured her in the roles of producer and multi-instrumentalist. Her debut album "Thanks for That" and second EP, "Spooky Love" were recorded mostly live in makeshift home studios while living in New Orleans, with both releases taking influence from a combination of garage, indie rock/pop and country music. Her first release and venture into writing and recording was the cassette 4-track EP, "Salt Spring Island Tapes", created alone in a seaside barn in British Columbia, following years of traveling and performing as a street musician. In addition to her own project, Green has also performed as a backing musician and vocalist for numerous songwriters over the years, appearing most recently on recordings for Duff Thompson and Dean Johnson. Following an extensive era of collaboration in New Orleans, "Lore" finds Green returning to her roots in Canada, multi-tracking her way through the isolated, northern winter.
$12 Adv + $15 Door / 8pm