Winhara

Tom Thomson's famous painting The Jack Pine. Oil on canvas. 1916.

It’s the stuff of Canadian legend.  Artist and avid outdoorsman, Tom Thomson, paddles out into Canoe Lake just as he has done countless times before.  This time he disappears.  After days of searching, his body – bloated and bruised – surfaces.  It doesn’t make any sense.

More on the extraordinary story after these extras we’ve put together for you.

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Additional Blog:

After researching the painter’s mysterious death I had to see the locations for myself.  Click here to read about my solo trip on Canoe Lake along with pictures of Tom Thomson’s Algonquin park (including the cairn and totem pole that are now standing at his favourite camping spot).

Behind the scenes video:

Acoustic version:

Lyrics:

While the official coroner’s report claims that Thomson’s death was accidental there are many conspiracy theories – and for good reason.  Tom was a strong swimmer and experienced outdoorsman, he even had a license to guide in Algonquin.  It seems quite unlikely that he just fell out of his canoe and drowned on a clear day.  In addition he had a bruise on his temple and there was a piece of fishing line wrapped around his ankle no less than seventeen times!  There also wasn’t any water in his lungs, an indication that he died before he drowned.  These facts, and many others, have raised questions surrounding his death.

Tom was just entering his prime as a painter and was starting to get recognition for his work.  He grew up in Owen Sound but had moved to Toronto to pursue his career.  He spent his summers in Algonquin park doing small oil sketches that he would transfer into larger works at his studio in the section of Toronto now known as Rosedale.

The best site I found for research is Death On A Painted Lake if you’d like to do some of your own digging.  For a more entertaining read you can check out ‘Canoe Lake‘ by Roy MacGregor.

Go to winhara.com

Although I had done many trips in Algonquin Park I had never been to Canoe Lake.  When I started penning lyrics for this song I started feeling like I wouldn’t really be able to finish them until I had seen the places I was writing about – Joe Lake Dam, Winnie Trainor’s Cottage, where Mowat Lodge had been, where they found Thomson’s canoe, and also where they found his body.

So in late October (2009) I rented a canoe from The Portage Store and paddled north, much like Tom did 92 years previously.

I stopped for lunch at the site I wanted to see most – where Thomson’s favourite camp site had been (see 15 on the map).  After his death, a cairn and totem pole had been constructed there.  I ate my lunch while reading the commemorations and looking at the view of Canoe Lake (directly below).  I could see why Thomson loved this spot so much.

The southward view of Canoe Lake from Tom Thomson's favourite camp site.

Below are the cairn and totem pole erected on the site in memory of Thomson:

After lunch, I portaged past the Joe Lake Dam (13 on the map) where Thomson was going to do some fishing on the day he disappeared.

Canoe Lake was used for logging in that time and one of the theories is that a submerged log or stump overturned his canoe.  I got an eerie feeling after a barely submerged stump nearly ripped the bottom out of my own canoe.  I didn’t see it coming and passed it within inches.

I spent the night there on Joe Lake, made friends with a fox (below), and spent most of my night trying to stay as warm as possible.  (Being late in the fall, the temperature was dipping well below zero at night).

My fox friend named "Boots."

In the morning I had the most beautiful paddle back south. Thick mist hung just above the water’s surface while frost covered every little twig. Everything was white.

The sun was burning through the fog as I portaged back into Canoe Lake but there wasn’t a single ripple on the water as I passed by the spot where they found his body eight days after he disappeared (2 on the map) and the place where they found his canoe floating without its pilot (16 on the map).

Although it was only a quick overnight trip, I accomplished the main thing I set out to do: to make sure that my lyrics held authenticity.  Tracing Thomson’s steps and having seen first hand the lake he loved so much, lets me sing this story with confidence.

My campsite at sundown on Joe Lake.

Back to: extras.

Go to: winhara.com.

Winhara in mid Hugh-hazing about to hit up Toronto's Resevoir Lounge

Last weekend we took our best friend and bass player of over 5 years out for his exit hazing.

Hugh dropped the bomb on us as soon as we had all regrouped from New Years. He told us that while he loved making music, for many reasons (all of which make complete sense), he is moving on. I can’t say we weren’t shocked. The four of us sat around our kitchen table in complete silence until Steve said “I feel like you guys are listening to me chew.”

It is one of many massive changes that has happened in the last month, and while we’re sad to have Hugh leave, we are extremely excited for what is coming up.

So what is coming up?

• A new website is live right now.  Go to winhara.com to check it out.
• A new album that we’re going to give to you while we write it!  (More on that later, make sure you sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of this post to get updates).
• We’re putting the finishing touches on the first song, Tom Thomson, which will be available for download next week.  (Again see winhara.com).

Needless to say, Kent, Prevost and I are going to continue fighting the good fight.  We won’t be getting a new bass player – the dynamic wouldn’t be right and we don’t have money to hire someone.  So how are we going to play live?  We’ve done it once already and let’s just say we get pretty creative with samplers and trading instruments!

We’re about to head up to Kent’s cabin, nestled into the woods beside the Muskoka River, for a focused four day writing session.  One thing’s for sure… moving forward won’t be the same, but we absolutely wish Hugh all the best with his future endeavors.

Get on the newsletter:

Starting NOW until August 30th we are running The GREAT Hold Back Light Show Scavenger Contest.  Up for grabs is the new HOLDBACKLIGHTSHOW t-shirt (pictured below) and a $20 gift certificate to iTunes or HMV (your choice)!  It’s easy!  Here’s how you get into the fun:

Head to our new site www.holdbacklightshow.com.

Hidden on the backs of 10 of the photos you see there are items of information you need to find and send to us.  Some of these things will test your wit (answering questions), some will let you show off your life experience, some won’t prove anything at all but we hope you have fun!

Once you have gathered all you can, e-mail your snippets of information to winhara@winhara.com.

You’ll notice that for some questions you have to include some visual evidence as well – pictures and/or scans for example – and you can do this any way you like: attach it in an e-mail, give us a link to your Facebook or Flickr page, you can even snail mail them to us if you want.  Have your answers in by August 30th.  The winner will be announced shortly thereafter and sent the most excellent grand prize mentioned above (we will get in contact with you about sizing etc.).

Happy scavenging!!!

We hit the Queen and Spadina neighborhood last night armed with acoustics, glockenspiels and electronic gadgets to busk for the NXNE concert goers.

Before we had even settled in to play a tune, a traveling minstrel struck up a conversation and told us he had been playing the streets since 1984.  He thought it would be a good night if the rain held off.  He played us a song about skinny-dipping in Halifax and in exchange we played him ‘Science’ which is not about skinny dipping or Halifax at all.

At times we had a crowd cheering for us and sometimes we were playing to each other and curious passers-by.  But all in all it was a great night.  Plus we sold CDs which was completely unexpected.  We were mainly out to promote our upcoming show at the Mod Club (event details).

Perhaps this was the highlight:

An excited young gentlemen raved, “These guys are better than Lady Ga-Ga… and they’re free… and they’re all mine!!!  (We had set up next to a MMVA party hosted by Lady Ga-Ga which makes it a little less random).

Hugh snapped this shot while taking an all-natural iced tea break.

A fight happened right next to me on the subway.  Two girls.  I didn’t even know they were serious until the profanities escalated into one of them used the C-word.  Then I knew it was for real.

An observation: guys can do nothing in this situation without looking like an idiot or getting punched in the face.  For this reason I used all my concentration to attain invisibility.  Even when one of the girls hit me with the back-swing of her purse (yes she was actually swinging it at the other one) I didn’t turn around, didn’t even acknowledge that it happened.

Also, trying not to laugh out loud when this is happening takes a lot of effort.

I am spending some time this afternoon watching the snow fall while eating pea soup and listening to The Album Leaf.  This band – which was suggested to me by a contact at our Facebook page – is quite good, using electronica beats that remind me of Four Tet, but with the melodic ambiance of something like Zero 7 or The Cinematic Orchestra.  (The album I’m listening to is their newest – Into The Blue Again.)

But I’m not really thinking about the album.  I’m thinking more about the snow and the pea soup.  I’m also thinking about the money that’s floating around out there and how to get my hands on some of it; I’m thinking of a terrifying dream I had the other night that to get out of my head I’m putting into a song; I’m thinking about what things mean, but actually mean.  Above all I’m thinking about what I’m thinking about and I think it’s because I’m two thirds of the way through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  It swirls up a certain self-reflexivity in me which is why I’m writing about thinking about what I’m thinking.  This is about to go in circles so I’ll stop before my thoughts crystallize and I lose my sanity.  Instead I will do dishes.  Read the book though, it’s really good.

We were strewn across the internet, fragmented into little social networking sites, links like telephone wires randomly assigned, a mini and tangled web in their own right.

We haven’t condensed, we have organized, we have syndicated.  The corporate head is at www.winhara.com.  It is one simple page.  All the essentials are there, but it is only the start, it is where one can branch out from, it is the first page of a choose your own adventure book.

Click.

This song is a bit unsuspecting, hidden at the end of the album.  It isn’t complicated or flashy and it was basically two song ideas that were put together to make one.  But somehow it is one of my favourites.  Here are some facts about Won’t Be Missing You:

• At Byron’s suggestion, the lyrics of the finale changed from “I’ll be missing you again” to “I won’t be missing you again.”
• There is an amazing cello line in the verses that we didn’t include on the album because it made it a little too pretty.
• Hugh plays his bass through three (count ‘em) three distortion pedals for the outro which is why there is that crazy distorted squeeling going into it.
• The beat in the final verse is made by a 70’s drum simulation pedal that we found randomly in Byron’s place and just had to use it somewhere (I think it’s used in the background of Baby Steps as well).
• This is the first song that Hugh started playing keys on.
• The “ahs” at the end actually started as an arrangement idea we recorded so that we would remember it.  We ended up just using those vocals.  Once we doubled and repeated it at the end of the song we knew it would be the album ender.

[Listen to Won't Be Missing You]

Some songs refuse to stay dead and buried. Mercy Please is a reincarnation specialist. Or it is a cat and it has used up six of its nine lives, which are as follows:

Life #1: It started out as a song with what I thought was a clever title – Amee. I thought this title was clever because it was the name of a girl and also the chord names, Am, E, E. There were two problems that we chose to completely ignore. 1) Most girls with this name spell it Aimee, or if you’re conventional, Amey or Amy. 2) The chords in the song are Am, Em, F. Oh well.

Life #2: For some reason we thought that we could get away with putting a punk chorus in the middle of a set of ballads and nobody would notice. When we realized this might not work we slowed it down and turned it into a long (emphasized long) jam song. I can’t really remember it but I’m quite sure it sucked so we stopped playing it.

Life #3: We went back to it for some unknown reason and wrote a new chorus and lyrics about the tortures of dating (gasp!). Renamed ‘Helicopters’ (thank God) this was a staple in our set for a while. People actually liked it!

Life #4: During the writing sessions we did with Byron in preparation for this album, it got a new chorus. It was recorded in that state.

Life #5: Listening to this song we realized that the new choruses were about a hundred times better than the verses. Byron and I jammed out some chord and melody ideas for the verses and all of a sudden it was a completely different song.

Life #6: It was okay but something was off and it almost got the axe again. Because it was put together in such a bizarre way it didn’t have the live energy that the other songs did. We decided it would only have a chance if we re-recorded it and (partly because we were running out of time) went with the simplest way possible. I went into Canterbury Studios on May 16, sat in front of a Baldwin Grand and a vocal mic, click in my ear, and played three takes. I think the one on the album is the middle of the three.

[Listen to Mercy Please]