Canadian prog duo Crown Lands have premiered a brand new live performance video of Context: Fearless Pt. 1 with Prog, which you can watch below.
The new video, which was recorded at Toronto's Revolution Recording in March, shows how the duo, guitarist, bassist and keyboard player Kevin Comeau and drummer and vocalist Cody Bowles can make such an impressively huge prog rock sound in a live setting.
"Context: Fearless Pt I encapsulates what the band is all about - how far can two people push themselves in a live setting," explains Comeau. "I think it showcases who we are and what we’re capable of just the two of us: no backing tracks or click track. The bands that we admire usually come into their own on live records so we decided to embrace that ethos early on in our career.
"Crown Lands has always been and always will be a live band. We do our best to arrange our music in the studio so that we can pull it off live. When we released the Studio version of Context, comments predictably (and amusingly) poured in: “how will they pull it off live tho?” ...I’m really happy to have a high quality document of what it sounds like live now. It’s only going to get wilder from here."
The duo, who recently announced they'd signed with Spinefarm Records, had previously released a wild Star Wars-themed promo video for the song, which has seen the pair working with three different producers of the pair's fellow countrymen and musical heroes Rush.
"The story of Context is probably more epic than the music itself to be honest," adds Comeau. "We started working on this song before we recorded our debut LP. We had met Terry Brown through a great friend of ours. We arranged it with him and cut an early version.
"We started writing it back in 2017, before we began touring at an International level, before signing on with agents, management, or label. We were still just kids obsessed with our favourite music and trying to write the best thing we could. In 2018 we started working on it with Terry and then we were whisked away on tour after tour. In just two years we supported Coheed And Cambria, Protest The Hero, Jack White, Rival Sons, The Hu, and Primus on the road. The arrangement of Context started to take on a new shape after touring it and we decided it needed a new take to reflect those changes.
"After touring across the USA in 2019 we prepared to record with Nick Raskulinecz in Nashville. The day before we were to drive down to Nashville to record with Nick Raskulinecz, the news of Neil Peart passing broke. Cody and I were heading home from a meeting with our label and Andy, our creative director, texted us with the news. It was one of the hardest drives I ever made. Cody and I cried the whole way home. We lost our hero. The world lost a light. Nick texted us saying that it was now more important than ever to record these songs. He told us that we had to carry the torch. That meant (and still means) the world. The fact that we have been able to work with our heroes and now call them friends is one of the greatest honours of my life.
"After recording the music, the vocals still weren’t quite right so we worked on them with David Bottrill (Tool, Peter Gabriel) and it felt like we unlocked a whole new sound.
"We decided to work with him again and we just finished another body of work with him. I feel that we are truly coming into our own right now. We turned the corner with Context and now we are firing on all cylinders. I always loved the bands that could blend prog with accessible songwriting. I hope we can carry that torch for our generation."
