To celebrate the release of their third long player, Die Stadt Muzikanten, in their native Canada , Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton found a bunch of answers to go with the questions we sent him. Amazingly, they match up. Almost.

While you read this ingenious coupling of question and answer, have a listen to Empty-Hall Sing-Along from Woodpigeon’s new album.Empty-Hall Sing-Along

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Whenever I’m asked this question, I always think of the most recent song I’ve recorded or written. I think the most recent song one finishes is always the most accurate portrait of who you are musically at that exact moment. (And the song I’m thinking of is part of an EP project for later in 2010).

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Most likely something timeless. There’s a piece by Brahms that wakes me up every morning that I don’t think I could live without. (More specifically, it’s the Concerto for violin, violincello and orchestra in A-minor).

What was the last album you bought?

John Jacob Niles’ ‘The Ballads of John Jacob Niles’.

Tell us an interesting fact.

It’s impossible to keep your eyes open when you sneeze. (Your eyes would fall out).

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

A trio of wonderful friends: Laura Leif (aka The Secret Brothers), Ryan Doyle, and Kris Ellestad.

What film would you be a character in?

Sometimes I feel that my life is enough of a movie as it is. But since I get to choose, I’d probably select someone who lives a long happy life (and scores the hottest guy).

Recommend a book.

‘Life: A User’s Manual’ by Georges Perec.

What’s the worst record in your collection?

It’s long gone — I did a clear-away of that stuff about 8 months ago and haven’t looked back.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

Write your own questions! Otherwise, how about, “Would you prefer cash or cheque for your time?” Ha.

Die Stadt Muzikanten is released on January 12th on Boompa Records in Canada.

Around eighteen months ago, when I first stumbled upon Woodpigeon by clicking a link from Edinburgh band Eagleowl’s website, all that was available was the free six track e.p. Houndstooth. It was a delicate collection of tentative folky songs and I loved it right away. Now, a year and a half later, the song count on my i-pod has reached 120 and I’ve seen them live more times than is probably sensible or indeed plausible given the thousands of miles of land and ocean stretching between their home and mine. To say that Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton is prolific would be a serious understatement.

Die Stadt Muzikanten is Woodpigeon’s third album and is the sound of a band growing in confidence and enjoying exploring the parameters of their own music. At the core of this record is the same sound and feel as that on the Hounstooth e.p. but now the music is stretched and pushed in all sorts of different directions. There are brass brands, plucked strings, loops, drones, fuzz and distortion, rich orchestration, accordions, ethereal backing vocals, speeded up tapes – this is an ambitious and expansive record, by turns stark and lonely and pulsating and intense.

After the disarmingly frank autobiographical content of their first two albums, this collection of songs is more third-person, inspired as it was by Hamilton’s ancestors’ journeys from Europe to a new life in Canada. His vocals are no less heartfelt though. What marks Woodpigeon out from the rest of the indie-folk pack is Mark Hamilton’s voice which has a bleeding quality more reminiscent of Chairman Of The Board’s General Norman Johnson or Al Green than Simon & Garfunkel.

Those quick off the mark with the album will also get an additional album entitled Balladeer: To All The Guys I’ve Loved Before which contains songs recorded since the Die Stadt Muzikanten sessions. Hamilton is keen on giving his songs away, hence the 120 on my i-Pod.This time he’s given away the best song he’s ever written: An Entanglement Of Weeds. Sweeping strings over a ghostly echoing loop, it tells the tale of a twelve year old boy drowning while trying to save his friend and was recorded recently with Steve Albini – proof if needed that Woodpigeon will continue to push their music to its limits.

Die Stadt Muzikanten is released in Canada and Japan on January 12^th, In the U.K. and Europe on March 1^st and in the U.S.A. on March 9^th.

Woodpigeon will be playing a string of dates across Canada over the next two months, details on their MySpace here.

I(Heart)Music have made a live Canadian radio session by Woodpigeon, with the help of the Voicescapes vocal ensemble, available for free download. What are you waiting for? Click here.

It’s in the middle of nowhere and difficult to find. It’s ridiculously small, only 100 people can squeeze inside. There are no acoustic elements to its design – it is a wooden hut. The stage is so tiny that some members of the band are unable to access it from the dressing room and have to clamber up from the audience side. There’s no bar and the toilets are outside. The seats are uncomfortable. The Band Room is easily the best venue I have ever been to.

It would appear from the way they play that it is one of better venues that Canadian folkestra Woodpigeon have played too.

It’s all too easy to dismiss Woodpigeon as wistful, romantic folkies (not that there’s anything wrong with that and singer Mark Hamilton’s opening solo set is equal parts wistful, romantic and folky) but tonight’s line up shows off their more muscular side with the songs bolstered by a full band and a sound which swells and rolls like the sea. Which is ideal as the centrepiece of the show is ‘And As The Ship Went Down You’d Never Looked Finer’, a song about drowning to death. It ends in a melee of looped vocals, distorted guitar, swirling keyboards and crashing cymbals. For five minutes or so, Woodpigeon are My Bloody Valentine. It’s their finest moment to date.

In fact, and I’m not sure if this is a reflection on me or Hamilton, but many of their best songs seem to dwell on the subject of death and loss. Either in powerfully emotive ways such as in ‘And As The Ship Went Down…’ or in the blackly comical murder ballads which they specialise in. Tonight we are treated to two songs detailing the disposal of a corpse. In such a small and intimate venue it is probably best not to catch the eye of Mark Hamilton as he sings these. It’s dark and remote outside!

Check out the Band Room HERE.

or Woodpigeon HERE.

Woodpigeon - A Fiery Breeze

A huge thank you to Calgary’s Woodpigeon for dragging themselves out of bed and cabbing it over to our school to play for our wee four and five year olds in between scheduled performances in Stockton-on-Tees and Derby.

When Alan McGee released his Creation compilation album ‘Doing it for the Kids’ I doubt he quite had this in mind.

Armed with a guitar, a cello and a ukulele, the Canadian folkestra needed only a quick raid of the school’s music resources to enrich their sound with a xylophone, some maracas and a guiro before they were off.

This was the group’s first ever gig in a school and they played it perfectly. They taught the children about the instruments, encouraged them to take up music as a hobby and then played a thirty minute set including ‘The Book of Love’, ‘I Live a Lot of Places’ and a cover of Kris Ellestad’s ‘The Secret’. The Ellestad song is about as inappropriate as you can get for a primary school but by cunningly replacing the frequent references to body parts, fluids and functions with blanket use of the word ‘alphabet’ nobody on the staff needed to lose their job.

The end of the performance prompted one little boy to leap to his feet and shout ‘I just LOVED that’. As the band themselves would say: Awesome.

The secret it shot out in alphabet and alphabet alphabet.