The Rural Alberta Advantage

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The Rise& The Fall is the fifth studio album from award winning, charged folk-rocktrio The Rural Alberta Advantage. It is the first album featuring the return oforiginal band member, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Amy Cole alongsidePaul Banwatt (drums) and Nils Edenloff (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard).

Earlier thisyear, The RAA wrapped up a tour of the East Coast of Canada and were talking toa fan after the show, recalled Edenloff. “They said, ‘Your music makes me long for things I didn’t know I wanted.’” Andthat captures what I think we’re trying to do as a band.” The Rise & The Fall is 13 tracks, including songs from theband’s 2022 EP The Rise, as well asseven new songs, including the dreamy soundscapes of “Real Life,” synth-ysingalongs of “Our Youth” and a live-off-the floor, one take recording of theheartfelt “FSHG.”

Says Amy Cole, “The last couple of years really tested usas a band, and made us ask ourselves: Why do we want to make music right now?And I think the answer is that, when the three of us get together, somethinghappens that we now know is rare and special. We made this record so we canshare this feeling and bring others into that experience with us.”

All of ourmusic is rooted in a certain amount of heart and honesty. The songs themselvescome from a very earnest place and they are really extensions of who we are.Sometimes we hide those emotions with a lot of noise and sonic energy, whileother times we leave them raw and bare. I see our albums more as diary entries,or snapshots in time and this one certainly fits that bill, saysEdenloff. 

The Rise & The Fall is the product of the band’snavigating the pandemic and its aftermath: songwriting over Zoom meetings,collaborating on demos online, distanced rehearsals in borrowed warehouses, andnever giving up on the hope that the day would finally come when the band couldshare new music on stage together again. Along with a few smaller tour runs in2022, the band returned to the studio with GavinGardiner (Born Ruffians, The Wooden Sky, Evening Hymns). Piece by piece,they built The Rise, and are nowexcited to complete this chapter with the full-length culmination of thisjourney, The Rise & The Fall. The lead single from the 13-songcollection, “Conductors,” is arousing track dedicated to the universal question of why we run from the thingswe love.

Edenloff explains the genesisof the song: “There is so much I loveabout being in a band. But one of its most fundamental aspects causes me moremental anguish than anything else, and that’s actually writing songs. When I’mable to tune out the doubting voice in my head and get it done, there’s nogreater feeling. But often the devil wins and it’s easier to just run away.”

Edenloffcontinues: “Paul and Amy know about this struggleand are usually very supportive. But when the world was first getting swept upin ChatGPT and we were deep in the songwriting process, Paul found it hilariousto ask the bot to create lyrics in the style of ‘The Rural Alberta Advantage’.I guess being reminded that you’re easily replaceable got me thinking about whyI run from something I know can, and often does, bring me so much joy. I can say with total honesty none of thelyrics Paul coaxed from the AI made it onto the record, nor did anyparticularly move me. So for now, good old fashioned sweat, pen to paperinspiration still won the day for us.”

The divisionbetween what is assumed to be objective, real and tangible, and what is not isfurther explored by Alberta photographer Leroy Schulz’s work that continues toprovide the visuals for this new music from The RAA. Schulz flew drones overAlberta landscapes and took photos from above, looking down on rows of firtrees, barns, crops, and roadways. From this perspective, the settings lookunrecognizable, even unreal, like some alien planet. In fact, the album coverart is a photograph that was picked out by the band when they first startedwriting as a visual focal point for the record: the shapes, shadows, lines, andtextures may seem foreign now from some of these new angles we’ve been shown inrecent years, but they are all scenes of home.

Mariel Buckley 

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