Brent Morton sees the world through a musician's eyes, so as he walked about in Xi'an, China, he was perhaps, more than the average sightseer, attuned to the prominence of the town's drum tower and bell tower.
These were the giant civic clocks of ancient China - gulou and zhonglou - and also used for musical purposes.
The imagery and the ancient purpose of these two cultural mainstays settled mightily in Morton's imagination. When the Williams Lake singer-songwriter-producer came back home to the Cariboo, he took these on as his creative title. Drum And Bell Tower has been a growing musical force in the B.C. modern folk scene for the past few years, and Prince George brings it up to a new level on March 6.
With more subtle nod to those ages-old Chinese installations, Morton is bringing with him his new Drum And Bell Tower album called Out Of Time. Prince George is only the second place, after his Williams Lake home base, to hear the new material.
"I'm touring this new record with a band - guitar, bass and drums - which I've never done before," Morton said. "I can focus on playing the guitar more as a full instrument and hopefully explore that more than in the past, and focus on the vocals too. And also, I've only ever been able to have kick and high-hat, no crashes, so having someone with a whole kit is a big adjustment for me and I'm looking forward to showing people what that sounds like. So this is really a departure but being true to the record."
Those already familiar with his presentation will find that he is more compositionally rooted in these live-pay instruments than the studio effects he leaned on in the past. He still enjoys the electronic-folk genre but applying more instrumentation has been a pleasure he couldn't resist when it came time to write songs.
"I don't (sit and write on a schedule)," he said. "I have fits and starts. I have long drought periods then periods of pretty intense productivity. This next release is all songs I wrote in a space of about five weeks, just churning material out. I definitely struggle sometimes to finish a song, but in this case I was able to bring a lot of them to completion in a short period of time."
Although he enjoys what sequencers can do, his instrument of natural choice is the acoustic guitar, he said, at least for the purposes of initial songwriting. During his flurry of activity building Out Of Time, though, his process had a lot more electric guitar influence than usual. He said he got one recently and his zeal to play with his new toy ended up informing the new songs.
He credits general life in Williams Lake as another basis for his writing. He wasn't born there, but chose to move to the Cariboo town in 2007 and keeps choosing it as his home. Prince George is a close second.
"It's a total DIY (Do-It-Yourself) music scene here. It's a lot of work to put on shows, but people show up to support that," he said. "I enjoy the landscape and I like to ride the mountain bike. I quite enjoy the luxuries it affords someone of my modest income. You can have a decent job, have your own home, and go play, too."
It's not far from Williams Lake to Prince George's busier and more complex music scene, so whenever he wants some creative company, he makes the short trip north and hangs out with musical pals. His appearance on March 6 is the epitome of that. He will share the stage that night with Power Duo (Naomi Kavka and Corbin Spensley) and Sober Betty, with Vancouver-based special guest Block Treat also along for the ride.
The show happens at Riley's Pub (Days Inn) starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door.
