Growing up rural can make you sort of weird. There’s a space to country life, a distance – even between members of the same family. Life happens slightly more in the mind, and the quiet, solitude of unbroken routine causes almost a slight withdrawing into the spaces between the daily bustle and whirl. Moving that ruralness into the city, any city, can be a bewildering, stressful, almost drowning experience, with so much to do, see, and hear – it all muddles together.
Winter Gloves’ music has a space in it, a feeling of isolation and distance layered beneath even the poppiest hooks and danciest bass grooves that adds depth where many similar bands come up slightly short. Add this to the interesting mix of bedroom pop and hipster dance party, and you’ve got yourself some interesting songs for sure. Maybe this nifty musical mix comes from Winter Gloves’ lead singer/songwriter/wurlitzer player Charles F growing up in rural Quebec, or maybe it comes from F’s writing many of the songs on the group’s first full-length “About A Girl” alone in his apartment adjusting to life in the big city, but Winter Gloves’ sound is like a mix of country isolation with the relentless energy of a crowded club.
This mixture of pop music and dance music only works because of the creative efforts from each band member. The combination of Vincent Chalifour’s nasty synth bass lines and Pat Sayers downright dancy work on the drums with the strong pop anchors of Charles F’s at times almost plaintive singing and wurlitzer playing and Jean-Michel Pigeon’s work on the guitar and glockenspiel. It’s like analog meets digital, urban meets rural, bedroom meets dancefloor – whatever it is, Winter Gloves make it work.
Winter Gloves is on tour with Thunderheist through May 13th. They’re coming through The Rathaus’ area in May, check them out at The Record Bar in Kansas City, MO on May 5th, and at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence, KS on May 6th. For more tour dates visit Winter Gloves’ Website and MySpace.
Listen To Winter Gloves below:
by: Meghan Bainum
