For Canadian music junkies the list of associated acts behind Rococode is more than impressive.
Johnny Andrews and Shawn Huberts have spent many years as the rhythm section for Tegan and Sara while Andrew Braun — guitarist, vocalist, bassist and keyboardist — spent two years playing with Hannah Georgas, and Rococode’s female vocalist and keyboardist Laura Smith has performed also played with Georgas in addition to Juno Winners Said the Whale and Dan Mangan.
“Recording our first album was an adventure,” said Braun. “We really had no idea what we were going to do. It wasn’t as though we worked on all these songs as a band and honed our sound.”
Braun said that he and Smith had six or seven songs that they decided to work on when they went into the studio with Ryan Guldemond (of Vancouver’s Mother Mother.)
“We just totally sort of stripped them bare and slowly, gradually built them back up and when the album was finished that was what the band sounded like,” he said.
Guns, Sex & Glory combines haunting vocals that mirror Arcade Fire with the driving rhythm section of some of the best rock bands.
The formation of Rococode seemed to be somewhat meant to be.
Braun met Smith while attending music school at Capilano College.
“I actually graded her papers — that was one of my first Laura experiences,” he said.
It was at a wedding when Andrews and Huberts came into the picture.
“Through a mutual friend I randomly played a wedding with them and we were all kind of playing kind of silly music. We had a great time playing together,” said Braun.
Their paths continued to cross until a year and a half ago when Smith and Braun were in the studio beginning to record Guns, Sex & Glory.
“At first they just played and had to go on tour and left but by the time they came back they could tell that this was a band they wanted to be part of full time,” said Braun. “Now it’s the four of us working away here.”
If the list of names that Rococode has worked with isn’t enough, they managed to enlist more Canadian music stars to help create their first album.
Shawn Penner, who has worked with Mother Mother, Hannah Georgas and Elias and mixer John Congleton who joined forces with St. Vincent, Polyphonic Spree and The Walkmen helped fine tune Guns, Sex & Glory, which has only been on record store – and iTunes shelves for a few weeks.
With their first album under their belt, Rococode is now preparing to hit the road and share their music with the masses.
“It’s great we’ve all toured a lot and sort of made our living on the road so it’s not a frightening task or something that we know we can’t prepare for,” said Braun. “We’ve sort of been through all the paces and it’s a lot of work to get ready to go out there but I think that we all know as soon as you are packed up and pull away and you hit the highway, you relax because you know what your life is going to be like for the next month: drive, eat, sleep, play, sleep, drive…”
Rococode plays Spiritbar Friday night. Doors open at 10 p.m. and tickets are $10.
