WHO IS THE HERO HERE? THE GUITAR OR THE BASS?

In prog rock duo Crown Lands, multi-instrumentalist Kevin Comeau always has his hands full

- Amit Sharma

The last two decades have witnessed the rise of some impossibly thunderous two-piece bands, from the lo-fi vintage crackle of The White Stripes and The Black Keys to the modern-voiced heaviness of Death From Above 1979 and Royal Blood – all of whom have somehow been able to defy the laws of physics in terms of sheer dimension and spread. You can now add Canadian duo Crown Lands to that list, given how singer/ drummer Cody Bowles’ melodies and rhythms are elevated  far into the cosmic beyond by multi-instrumentalist Kevin Comeau, who – much like a mad professor – beavers away behind a fortress of equipment in order to bring their sci-fi prog orchestrations to life. Instead of signal splitting as per bands of the past, he switches between Rickenbacker guitar/bass double necks, vintage Gibson SGs, inexpensive Strats, 12-string acoustics, Moog Taurus pedals and synths to create a world of sound that truly needs to be seen in order to be believed.

“When we started out, I was really influenced by all those two-piece bands,” Kevin says, speaking from his home in Oshawa, Ontario. “I was doing that dual mono setup where you split your signal, sending your dry to one amp and an octave down to another. But I found it was muddying up what I was doing with the Taurus pedals. A lot of those other bands tend to play just one part and split. My bass pedals have their own lines. I do a lot of counterpoint. If I’m staying static on my guitar, I’ll play the melody on my Taurus and vice versa. I prefer to let my guitar play a traditional role – it gives me more low-end space for bass pedals.”