Friday's release of Exit Strategy not only brings some great new music to the scene – it also celebrates a key achievement for a local group that has rebranded itself as it goes into its third decade together.
North Hope – Ian Jack (vocals, guitars, keyboard), his wife Cara (vocals), his brother-in-law Geoff Bemrose (bass, vocals) and his long-time friend Dan Stokes (drums, percussion) – are all teachers and also are all musicians. The foursome began this century as a group called Headpets.
“The idea was, there had been so much time from when we released our last album,” Jack said.
“And I felt it was one of those names like a typical punk name that had a double meaning, like The Pixies - but really elementary-school slang for lice - that suited our younger years where we were at the time. I felt it had been a number of years since we had recorded together, and I felt we needed a rebranding,” he explained in an interview this week.
“We lived in Port Hope more than 26 years until we moved back to Cobourg last year, and North Hope was actually the last school I did my placement at. And my mom lived in Garden Hill.
“All those connections – and I thought it was an optimistic name, so we decided we're going to go with a new name.
“But it's the same four people.”
The term Exit Strategy has been the name for this new release since work began on it in 2016. The group's press release acknowledged the typical negative connotations of the phrase, but also noted that it can apply to anything a person experiences that goes through changes – relationships, occupations, paths in life, periods of time and pain.
It was co-produced by North Hope and Kevin Komoda (Rational Youth, Pest 5000, Plunt), and is the third collaboration between Jack and Komoda – after the 2002 Headpets record Plain Clothes Heroes and the 2010 electropop release by Ian and Cara Jack called The Loft Party.
“That was our focus in between where life takes you – Cara has done musicals, Geoff is involved in theatre, Dan has run a number of sports things at Cobourg West and CCI and some musicals, I have run choirs in school for the last 20 years,” Jack listed.
“You get sidetracked. It's nice to come in fresh.”
Jack uses the word focused to describe Exit Strategy, calling its 10 tracks melodic rock with harmonies.
“The whole rock thing, the whole indie rock-melodic rock thing was more prevalent at the turn of the Millennium, the '90s, the early 2000s,” he said. “Nowadays it's not really something that exists as much. Most of the kids aren't into that, and we are not really into trying to chase trends. We are most interested in that whole stay-true-to-what-you-know, and this is what we know. Melodic rock, music with harmonies. That's what we like, that's what we grew up with, that's what we still enjoy listening to.”
Jack imagines the 10 tracks would go perfectly on vinyl - “if we had the budget.”
When Headpets began to record, vinyl wasn't really on anyone's radar. Now people love the vinyl format and the 40-to-70-minute time span. It's something Jack used to make fun of and then, to his surprised, rediscovered with great enthusiasm for the last couple of years.
“I wish we could have put this out on vinyl, but we aren't there yet. Maybe next time,” he said.
Meanwhile, Exit Strategy's release on Friday is not a release in the old-fashioned sense of the word.
“It has been released in kind of a slow-drip fashion. We put out a few of the songs as singles, and we actually released half of it as Exit Strategy One and Exit Strategy Two as EPs. But I knew we would release it in some physical form, and we do have a CD available at ZAP Records in Cobourg and Blue Streak in Peterborough.”
The release date was chosen by Jack in a manner consistent with his predilection for numbers – Feb. 12, 2021 works out to the palindromic 12-02-2021.
Given the way they had picked up the pace, they planned to have it done by 2018. But, as Jack puts it, life got in the way.
“Kevin had things he was dealing with in Montreal and Dan, for a while, wasn't sure he wanted to play drums any more, whether his hearing can handle it.”
Montreal matters got resolved and Stokes decided he could continue playing drums.
Along with their teaching careers, all four are parents now, the children ranging in age from 12 to well into their teens. And Bemrose now lives in Peterborough. But they find ways to make it work – like an app called Acapella with split-screen videos.
“I can send a guitar part to Dan, and he can drum over top of that, and you can actually see him perform,” Jack said.
Then, of course, there was COVID-19. But there was a silver lining.
“All of a sudden, people had maybe a little more time to focus on getting things done,” Jack said.
“That's one of the things that has kept my sanity – getting this project done. I normally would be singing with the kids, playing with people, having that kind of excitement. You can't do that any more. But this has kept me afloat.”
Asked if any of the tracks has special significance, Jack draws on an entirely different experience – as a music journalist and co-author of the 2001 book Have Not Been The Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995.
Artists asked that question sometimes feel like parents being asked which of their children are their favourite.
“I like to quote one of my favourite musicians, Chris Murphy of Sloan. I did a lot of interviewing bands and writing in my day, and he said, 'You learn very quickly – if you are going to play or listen to the same song over and over again, you have to really like your songs.'
“I'm really happy with the entire collection – and I had to listen to these songs over and over again. Certainly we picked three out as singles,” he said.
“Naive and Right was the first one we managed to finish. It had more of a collaboration between the three gents in the band writing it.
“Snow Globe was melodically special to me, and Sleeping Giant.”
Jack finds North Hope has something a little different in the synergy between himself and his drummer.
“Dan and I have a strange thing,” he allowed.
“It's usually the bass player and the drummer that are the ones that rock together, for the most part. But Dan follows my guitar. I'm not a lead guitarist by nature, but Dan follows the physicality of my playing. Geoff is somewhat of a lead bass player. It's something that is unique about us.”
One of the great things about the group is that it has been a family for so long – in spite of the fact that Stokes is not technically related to them. And he includes Komoda in that group, feeling lucky to have connected with him.
“That's what keeps people together – the idea that you know someone else so well that you end up with a shorthand. Even with Geoff being in Peterborough and we don't get to play as much as we'd like, we're all friends.
“I have played with different people before where it's really a struggle. That chemistry, I think, is not just a cliche.”