Next week Deep Dark Woods will emerge from the forests.
When they do, to play Communitea Café on Wednesday (June 19), they’ll be joined by Frontier Ruckus, an American folk pop band from Detroit.
Frontman Matthew Milia spoke on behalf of the band.
“Our music, it’s extremely lyrically-driven – to me as a songwriter, the lyrics are the engine to all the songs and what I prioritize when I’m writing – and they’re based on locality and memory and this personal mythology I’ve created around growing up in suburban Detroit my whole life,” he said. “I’ll write a song and bring it to the band, and then we’ll shape it into a Frontier Ruckus song. It tends to change rhythmically with the band.
“Musically, there’s definitely folk elements – we started as a very acoustic band, but since then we’ve delved into different sorts of instruments, like ’80s and ’90s keyboards – we’re nostalgically-driven folk rock, I would say.”
Since 2006, the band has put out five albums including Eternity of Dimming, released in January. Despite it only being five months since the last album, at the time of the interview, Frontier Ruckus was back in the studio at work on their next release.
“We’re actually overly prolific, but when you finish a record you have to sit on it for a year for external factors. But now we want to get things rolling,” he said. “The album we just released was a double album of 20 songs and the one we’re working on now is a little more concise.
“I love everything we’ve done, but by the time a record comes out I’ve basically written the next record,” he added. “Life happens and changes and there’s new things to write about – even though I tend to dwell on the same themes – the record I’m working on now is a breakup record, which is a first for me.
“I usually dwell on place and memory, and this is more of a present-tense record, more current affairs of my life.”
Though folk is often the word used to describe their music, this is a label the band is getting away from, he stressed.
“We listened to awesome Canadian bands growing up, like Sloan, so there are tons of environmental influences that are starting to rear their heads, and we’re getting away from the purely folk thing.”
Despite having formed 10 years ago, this tour marks Frontier Ruckus’ first time playing in Canada.
“Never in our lives (in Canada), which is such a shame, because I live in Detroit, right across the river from Windsor, Canada, and my family lives in upstate New York, and we drive through Canada to get there,” said Milia. “So we’re super excited, we get to play our first shows ever in Canada.
“And the Rockies seems like a beautiful part of the country to be touring – I’ve seen photos of Banff, it seems majestic.”
Getting to play small venues like Communitea is something they’re also looking forward to.
“I actually prefer an intimate setting, especially for this tour, because it’s the first tour in a long time where we’re not bringing a drummer with us. We’ll be a trio, more of an intimate affair, so the smaller the better.”
Doors open for the Communitea show at 8 p.m. and tickets are $18.
