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Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Windspeaker.com
Midnight Sparrows, a Vancouver-based hard rock group, has released full-length studio album Arrows, Arrows, Arrows. The release follows debut album Rock & Roll City (2020) and six-song EP Born in the City (2022).
Blair Bellerose (Métis, Cree, Dene), lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, is a member of the Fort McKay First Nation in northern Alberta. He grew up though in St. Albert near Edmonton.
“I would say it leans towards hard rock, reminiscent of music from the 70s, 80s and 90s,” said Bellerose of Arrows, Arrows, Arrows. “Songs range from tunes that lean almost country sounding to more of a heavier rock sound. There are 10 songs on the album and it’s fairly diverse.”
Bellerose wrote the 10-tracks on Arrows, Arrows, Arrows as a reflection of his childhood and growing up Indigenous in an urban community. A few songs were written back in the early days, he said, but never recorded for an album.
“I grew up in a family of five kids and I was the youngest; the youngest by almost 10 years,” Bellerose said. “From a very young age I looked up to my older siblings and my older cousins who were all rock and rollers and that was in the 70s.”
KISS was one of the bands Bellerose and his family listened to and “that’s really what introduced me to music,” he explained.
“Ever since the age of three, four, five years old, I loved rock and roll music,” he said. “It was a big part of my family, my community. I just knew that I wanted to grow up and play rock and roll.”
Aside from a few guitar lessons when he was younger, Bellerose’s ability to play various guitars was honed by experimenting with the instruments on his own.
“I have a little bit of some music knowledge but largely I am self-taught. Largely it’s just me over many, many years playing guitar and fiddling about trying to figure things out on my own. My focus has always been on creating and writing,” he said.
Almost 22 years ago, Bellerose moved from Alberta to Vancouver where he works as the director of operations for a non-profit organization that provides training and employment services.
Last September, Bellerose took the songs to the other band members—Jared Whitehead on drums and percussion, Jason De Couto on piano, organ and keyboards, Goby Catt on bass and backing vocals, and Luis E. Carrillo on rhythm and acoustic guitar and backing vocals. Additionally, Steve Dawson, a Nashville-based pedal steel player, is featured on tracks 3 and 10.
They started rehearsing prior to stepping into the studio and wrapped up recording in February.
The album was recorded by Juno and Western Canadian Music Award winner Sheldon Zaharko at the Warehouse Studio and Hipposonic Recording Studio. For Bellerose, the songs were crafted during one of the most creatively productive periods of his life and he wanted to honour that by recording it in a studio rich in musical history.
“He (Zaharko) works out of some of the best studios here in Vancouver, so that was part of it. I knew that I wanted to go into some of the world-class studios that Vancouver has to offer.” Warehouse is owned by rock star Bryan Adams. Hipposonic Studio was the location studio called Little Mountain Sound back in the 1980s, said Bellerose. “Everybody from Bon Jovi to Motley Crue to Aerosmith recorded in that space,” he explained.
As the album’s recording engineer, Zaharko, owner of ZED Productions, oversaw all of the technical aspects of recording the instruments and vocals and then mixed them with guidance from Bellerose until every song was finalized.
Arrows, Arrows, Arrows has a flow to the 10 tracks that Zaharko hopes listeners will enjoy and “have a good time because it’s good time music.”
“Listen to the whole thing exactly in order of the songs from top to bottom, like an experience,” said Zaharko. “What’s cool too is Blair even knew the order of the tunes, like how they’re going to be on the CD, before they were even recorded, which I think is cool… I hope that people will listen to the whole thing, not skip around or just download one song.”
The first single, “The Good Times”, was inspired by rock and roll legends Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) and Angus Young (AC/DC). It brings the 1980s heavy metal back to life with guitar solos and rock anthem sounds.
“They are pretty high energy tunes, like you would totally stomp your feet and clap your hands to a lot of those tunes,” Zaharko said.
The title of the album was inspired by the arrows consistently coming at people in today’s divisive society, said Bellerose, who hopes to bring the songs live onto a stage in Alberta.
But for now they are available on any streaming platform, and at www.midnightsparrows.com