They spoke with us about their exciting show-filled year, their favourite aspects of folk music and how they came up with their attention-grabbing name.
How did ‘Two Crows for Comfort’ start?
Cory: I don't want to say it was a completely random start, but it sort of was. I was playing in a different group a while back, and Erin would fill in from time to time. That [band] sort of fizzled out, and of course we can't stop playing music so we just decided to start doing our own thing.
We started playing just for fun; playing some coffee shops, and local events, things like that and it just stemmed from there. We started getting asked to play other events, and it just kept snowballing.
Have you both always been playing roots and folk or in your other bands were you playing different genres?
Cory: Way back when, I started in a rock band. My favourite and my go-to instrument is the drums, so I used to play in a rock band. I played drums for that and stemmed off into playing other things. I was in a folk band a few years back and it was a country, folk-pop kind of thing, so I've sort of been in that same world for the last few years, same with Erin. She jumped into the project we were doing.
What are your favourite elements about the folk/roots genre?
Erin: I would say the style.
Cory: Yeah, I would say, the freedom of what you can do in the folk world. Folk is a very broad spectrum. It’s very unlimited in what you can do and what you can write. When you think of rock or country, it's very structured. It's very strict on what you need to do and what you have to do to fit in or to sell records, whereas, I think you have a lot more freedom and can get away with a lot more [in folk]. I think that's what we like because our style and our songs are so atypical. They have different structures...
Erin: And they are so different from each other.
Cory: I just think to have that freedom is probably one of my favourite things as well as the community. It's just this friendly and fun-loving community. I am definitely appreciative of that.
What's the meaning behind your name?
Cory: We were talking about this the other day. Any publicity is good publicity and with the name, people walk by, and they would see our name displayed and kind of give a chuckle. We weren't sure if we should take that as they're laughing at us, or they like it but it's memorable either way!
Where that started, it was intended just to be a lyric in a song. I have a notebook of little one-liners, little blurbs I want to put in a song that I don't know where to put yet. There was a line in there that mentioned 'two crows for comfort' and basically, we started playing shows that we, not necessarily planned on doing but we started booking shows and we needed a name instead of just 'Erin & Cory' or whatever we decided to call ourselves that night. It just kind of popped up one day and it works for us. We're a duo so it made sense.
Erin: Sometimes we play with one or two other guys, and then the pun doesn't work so much anymore [laughs].
You just released your debut album. Can you tell me a little bit about that and the whole process of writing and recording?
Cory: That album is technically released, but it's only kind of a soft release. We picked a horrible, horrible time to have it ready and in our hands. With festival season and summer, it's a terrible time for a CD release. We have it out there available for people that want to have it. We have it at shows but we will do a formal release in the fall. Once festival season and summer calm down, we'll do an actual proper CD release and throw a little bash for that.
But yeah, the process was great. We did it mostly ourselves and with a friend, Ben Mak-Wiebe whom I've been playing in bands with for years and years and years. He has a home studio. It has a full band on the record.
We recorded the drums [in the studio], and we did the rest of the recording at mine and Erin's house. It was a whole bunch of songs that we put together over the last couple of years that I had written and were just kind of sitting there. We recorded them, and it was all mixed and mastered by us as well as [Ben]. He helped with the mixing and the editing and all that, so it's pretty much all self-done.
Do you want to go into some of the influences and the things that inspired the album?
Cory: Yeah, influences are tough, but in terms of artists, we listen to a huge array of music so it's hard to talk about artist influence. We listen to everything, and we'll steal ideas from pop songs for melodies and writing styles from different areas. A lot of influence on the album itself is a lot of songs and themes around our small-town lives as well as traveling.
There are a lot of songs about people and places and things that happen around us. We're both from Stony Mountain and Stone Wall. News travels fast in these towns and there are a lot of those sorts of stories and a lot of travel-related songs as well, as we're both big travelers. Those were kind of our influences.
So this is your first time playing Harvest Sun.
Cory: It will be. We've heard about the festival from, you know, everywhere. It's a pretty well known little festival, especially with Manitobans, and we're super psyched to be in the line-up of a lot of people that we see in the industry and follow and want to belong with that crowd.
Erin: And so many we've played with at local shows. We're excited, really excited.
You debuted last year as a duo. What has the past year been like for you guys since you started?
Cory: It has been crazy!
Erin: It kind of slowly got more and more busy.
Cory: Yeah, like I said, we started off just doing it for fun, playing coffee shops and local small events, and then it just snowballed from there. It has been crazy busy with house concerts, and we played the Winnipeg Tattoo Convention; we've played people's album releases. We got a couple of festival-related things this year. It has just been non-stop, and with the album, it’s been a crazy busy year.
Erin: And more of making friends with people in the industry, then you're playing with them and meeting even more people, and you're playing with them.
Cory: And we've been so busy with just every type of show, from small 10-person apartment rooms to something like Folk Fest where we have thousands of people walking by us all day. It's been crazy but really fun!
Catch Two Crows for Comfort at The Harvest Sun Music Festival in Kelwood, MB - August 17 - 19th. Tickets are on still available but they're going fast!
Follow Two Crows for Comfort on Facebook, on Instagram and on their official website. Their full-length debut album will be available for $15 at Harvest Sun Music Festival.
Be sure to check out @harvestsunmusicfest on Instagram on August 8th, as Erin and Cory take over our account for the day!
Janet Adamana is the Founder/Editor-In-Chief of Sound, Phrase & Fury Magazine - a Winnipeg-based digital publication dedicated to promoting independent artists and industry professionals from all over the world. More than just about inciting hype, she interviews/writes to capture an artists’ essence and their greatest passions to ignite meaningful connections between fans and really great bands.