They aren't super heroes. They aren't sports heroes. They aren't the hottest electrical engineering apprentices. But Naomi Kavka and Corbin Spensely are indeed a power duo, so that's what they called themselves when they hit the stage to play together.
There is a lot of irony in that name, too. You couldn't ask for kinder, gentler, more self-deprecating people, and they tend to perform with acoustic instruments. Yet, Power Duo they are, and it is because Kavka and Spensely have spent their youthful lives building up solid reputations as national-calibre musicians and songwriters. Spensely is with popular folk-rock band Canadian Waste, and previously with The Painstakes and Big Old Eyes. Kavka was one half of The Arbitrarys and is principal cellist with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra.
As testament to their individual esteem within the northern B.C. music scene, each of them was invited to be among the special guest vocalists at the First Waltz mega-collaboration event at the Prince George Playhouse on Nov. 21.
They had known each other for years, but one fateful confluence happened in Oct. 2014 in Fort Fraser where they ended up performing in the same place at roughly the same time.
Following that, invitations were made, accepted, and acted upon. A collaboration was born.
Now that union has produced its first tangible results. There have been live appearances in the past, but tonight Power Duo releases their first album.
It's an eponymous 11-track disc recorded live off the floor in campfire fashion at CFUR's production studio at UNBC. At the helm of the soundboard was Fraser Hayes of CFUR and Eric Wynleau of the band Black Spruce Bog. They sent it for mastering at Mojito Studios in Toronto where Reuben Ghose gave it a final professional mix-down.
Spensely and Kavka laughed that the producers probably thought the single Sunday session would yield four or five songs for an EP, "but we just kept hammering them out, seeing how far we could get, and I think we were all surprised by how many we ended up with," said Kavka, who handles the band's cello playing. She also plays guitar and sings.
Spensely plays guitar too, also piano, and sings. Between the two of them, each song can sound lush with instrumentation, but they prefer simple and stripped down arrangements. It lets the lyrics stand out, and both are muscular lyric writers.
Their main goal was to have an album that accurately reflected what their troubadourial live shows sound like. The end result could be called a blend of modern folk with a distinct tinge of country and undertones of bluegrass, with a literate wash over it all.
"I just wait for it (any unwritten song's content) to happen; I try not to push it. I want it to happen naturally," said Spensely. "One time I do push it, though, is when I'm antsy to play a song that is almost finished and sometimes I'll knuckle down on that last verse and get it finished. I just don't like forcing it. The instrument I'm writing it with isn't usually a deciding factor in how it's going to sound in the end. I'll write on the guitar and add other instruments, or I'll write on the piano and then transfer it back to the guitar. That doesn't matter to me too much. I've even written from a bit of whistling I was doing, and when it kept sticking in my head I figured there was something to it so I should do something about it."
Kavka said that, in her process, "sometimes the songs come as complete ideas, and sometimes I'll struggle along with it awhile. But lately, though, I try to think of harmonies that would be a good fit for Corbin. I usually just have to feel really sad about something, and then the song works out."
"Yeah," Corbin agreed, "that works for me, too. If you're not upset about something, what's the point in writing about it?"
"It's not that I'm a sad person, not at all," Kavka added, "but if I'm happy, I'm too busy doing things. Sadness is when I sit down and think, and that's when the writing comes. And I don't mean just emotional sadness. It could be something political, something personal, any large emotion that slows you down to the point you stop and think about it."
The two of them described how Kavka tends to bring fully formed songs to the Power Duo table and they'll work on the integration details together, whereas Spensely "doesn't wait for the grand unveiling" and throws more formative ideas on the same table so the two of them can add more dressing to the semi-clad tune.
To see the results yourself, live in concert, come out tonight to the launch of the Power Duo album. The music happens at 8 p.m. at St. Michael's Anglican Church in the sanctuary, then, after the show, everyone is invited to the after-party in the hall across the corridor.
Tickets are $10.
