Bio.
HORSEBATH are a band open to serendipity, always searching for that spark of creation that allows them to express something they couldn’t otherwise put into words. That’s exactly what happened one morning when they started jamming together during sessions for their much-anticipated debut album. After a few moments of aimless playing, they stumbled onto an idea, which they allowed to grow into a song none of them could have written by themselves. “It started out as this Tex-Mex-style tune and evolved from there, but it always had a cool energy,” says Keast Mutter, one of the band’s three lead singers and four multi-instrumentalists. That energy thrummed even as they devised excited harmonies, gave it the title “Hard to Love,” and wrote lyrics about a very particular kind of restlessness. “It turned into a song about staying in one place for too long and knowing you’re going to leave, even if you’re not sure when. The result is a lot of pain in your relationships.”
Despite its crackling guitars, piano gymnastics, and rambunctious vocals, “Hard to Love” has a deep melancholy at its core, as HORSEBATH balances excitement and emotion, joy and doubt, the lure of both home and the road. These four musicians are intimately connected to various rural corners of Canada, yet they are all drawn to the places in the between, driven by the constant motion of touring in an electrifying country-rock band and nourished by all the new sounds and ideas they find along the way. Another Farewell is, perhaps inevitably, an album full of sad departures, but there are just as many exciting arrivals. “Canada is so spread out,” says Dagen Mutter. “We spent a lot of time driving all night just for the sake of adventure. Honestly, that’s where a lot of the songs start. You’re in your own thoughts with your eyes on the road, and you just start humming.”
Fittingly, the band sprouted from a chance meeting. It was mere coincidence that Mutter and Connolly ended up in the same drugstore parking lot waiting for the same rideshare in 2018. Small talk quickly faded as they realized they share a deep appreciation for music and a deep respect for the people who made it. They’ve been sharing rides ever since, first in a Honda CR-V with a giant piece of driftwood strapped to the roof and finally in a tour van barreling through the plains and mountains of Canada. About that driftwood: They drove that rig all over the country and interviewed artists, poets and characters along the way, all as the foundation for an eccentric series of short films about their home country. “By doing the documentary and being on the road, we became friends first and were able to let our music develop afterwards,” says Daniel. “It ended up as a research trip. Themes would present themselves as we crossed the land, and subjects like alternative schooling and sustainable, off-the-grid living kept coming up.” (The films are still being worked on by writer and artist Enora Sanschagrin.)
Another bit of good fortune: The duo ran into bassist Etienne Beausoleil at a softball game in Montreal, and immediately developed an intimate musical rapport. HORSEBATH, as they called their rollicking band, represents so many different places and cultures within their home country, but they thrive on their differences as well as their similarities. “Despite being from different parts of Canada,” says Beausoleil, “we all bonded very quickly on having similar rural upbringings, similar values, and—most importantly—similar taste in music.” Similarly adventurous taste, it turns out. Another Farewell reflects the dizzying breadth of their interests: the Tex-Mex rhythms of the Sir Douglas Quintet, the cowpoke eccentricities of Lee Hazlewood, the cosmic country of Gram Parsons, the somber self-reflection of Leonard Cohen, the out-of-time storytelling of The Band.
Like that legendary Canadian/American quintet, HORSEBATH functions as a creative free-for-all, with nearly every member taking songwriting and vocal duties. They change up instruments from one song to the next, the better to coax out new sounds and ideas. Already they’ve earned a reputation for rip-roaring live shows, thanks to lively sets at the Mariposa Folk Festival, the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, the Halifax Urban Folk Festival, and the Canadian East Coast Music Awards. They’ve managed to do it all without releasing a full album, although their debut EP, Studio Le Nid Sessions, has garnered tens of thousands of streams—a remarkable word-of-mouth feat for an unsigned band.
To record their debut, they piled in a van and drove from their home base in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Montreal, where they set up camp at the Treatment Room. “As soon as we entered the studio and met Gilles Castilloux, the owner, we were immediately put at ease,” says Dagen. “He had a beautiful array of instruments and vintage gear, but more than that, there was just something in the air.” They had ten days to jam, write, and record, which might have intimidated other bands. HORSEBATH thrived on the intensity of the experience. “It created a flurry of writing,” says Keast, “and that became the theme of the album. Everything we did was an experiment of some kind. We were improvising with instruments and lyrics.”
Together, they strove to capture the anarchic spirit of their lives shows and every moment of musical serendipity. “We wanted to take an ego-less, music-first approach that features as many musical genres and influences as possible,” says Beausoleil. “I don’t think it can be categorized as a specific musical genre, but more as a feeling—of adventure, of the road, of beauty and heartbreak.” In other words, they wanted to make sure the listener would get it even if they didn’t know the difference between the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados. “To feel it, you only need to hear it.”
And you can feel it in songs like the tense story-song “Long & Lonesome,” the tender waltz “Don’t Know What It Is,” and the wearily anthemic title track. “I’m gonna let you down lightly before I go,” Keast sings on the chorus of “Another Farewell,” his voice ragged from all the miles they’ve traveled together. But when he sings, “Bid yourself another farewell to love,” he’s singing to his bandmates, who are all bound by their shared wanderlust. It’s also a reminder that they can’t make this music alone. “We’re a brotherhood,” says Beausoleil. “We’re all different in our own little ways, but we’re cut from the same cloth. This album is what happens when the four of us finally come together in the recording studio and the tape starts rolling.”