By Jim Barber
Canadian prog-rock sensations Crown Lands can dazzle listeners and audiences with their intricate compositions, blow you away with their exceptional musical prowess, keep you rapt with the literate majesty of their lyrics, and leave you with a sense – especially in a live setting – that you have experienced something unique, mind expanding and eminently memorable.
All that is to say, and hopefully the duo of Kevin Comeau (guitar/bass/keyboards) and drummer/vocalist Cody Bowles won’t mind the term, Crown Lands are storytellers. Not in the sense of the types you get at a library reading to kids (although if it’s Clifford The Big Red Dog, count me in!), but more like those of an epic bard from the times of Norse sagas, or the tales told to the accompaniment of drums and other homespun instruments by the indigenous peoples of North America.
The way the pair are able to deftly and dexterously weave together compositional and lyrical complexities that carry an emotional arc is rare … and frankly, quite brilliant.
As if to put an exclamation point on that assertion, Crown Lands released their new musical magnum opus, Apocalypse, in May. It is a sensory excursion beyond time and space; a captivating conceptual roller coaster ride that delves not just into the well-trod tropes of science fiction, but instead using the infrastructure of sci-fi and fantasy to convey prescient observations and opinion about today’s world.
It is a journey in the sense that one song leads to the next, which leads to a resolution (of sorts) at the end of the brilliantly epic title track, but it has also been a journey for the band in getting to this point, as they have had to navigate through some professional challenges over the past couple of years.
As often happens in the music business, the ‘business’ side of the ledger can interfere, or at least distract from the music side. After fulfilling their contractual obligations with Universal Music, Crown Lands was essentially an independent act for a short while, and used the time to write and record two inspired, musically intricate, yet still powerful albums, Ritual I and Ritual II, which were released shortly after signing with InsideOut Music last July, two and a half years after their last album with Universal, the popular and critically acclaimed Fearless.
“A big reason why it took us so long to make Apocalypse after Fearless was we were going through this big transitory stage where we had moved away from Universal Music Canada and it took us a long time to sign a new deal with InsideOut Music who we’re with now. In that time we wrote, recorded and mixed Ritual II, which was actually nominated for a Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, which was really nice. It was also the first Crown Lands record that was truly written, engineered and mixed entirely by ourselves in this space,” said Comeau.
“That was the record that gave us the confidence that we actually could do everything ourselves. It takes a long time to trust yourself and trust each other with a process that you’re normally used to paying somebody upwards of $500 a day to do those things for you. We’ve been lucky enough that we’ve worked with such great engineers and producers over the years, people like David Bottrill [Peter Gabriel, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Muse and Rush] and Nick Raskulinecz [who produced the last two Rush studio albums as well as working with Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains, Deftones, Korn, and Evanescence] and Terry Brown [every Rush album from Fly By Night through to Signals], all of whom have worked with our heroes. We’ve seen first-hand what they can do for our art, how to make things better.”
Bowles and Comeau did produce Apocalypse but still chose to bring in two of those pivotal mentors just to offer a third and fourth set of ears on the project.
“For this record we did choose to collaborate again with Nick and David on a few elements. Nick helped us write a couple of parts of the music for ‘Through the Looking Glass,’ and helped us produce that song in particular. He also helped us record the drums for ‘Apocalypse.’ Then David helped with some of the vocal top lines on some of the songs like ‘Blackstar,’ and ‘The Fall,’ ‘Foot Soldiers of The Syndicate.’ And then of course David mixed it,” Comeau explained.
“When you’re making this kind of music, you can often lose objectivity. So, in this case, from starting to write the record to finishing the mix it took almost a year and a half. Most of that was because we were doing other things. We had started writing it and then we went off and did Ritual and then we recorded another instrumental record with Terry Brown and David Barrett, which is going to be coming out late this year, and a number of other projects. So this kind of ended up sitting around for longer than it probably should have. Most of the work for Apocalypse got done in the fall of 2025 and in a more concentrated period of time.”
Regardless of the peripatetic nature of the process leading up to the completion of the album, the thematic and musical focus never waned, with Apocalypse representing the next stage in the evolution of a band that has always pushed themselves forward both as musicians and as songwriters. Bowles and Comeau are minstrels at heart, with both the music and the lyrics and telling tales that engage the mind, body and spirit.
That aspect of the band’s approach and ethos is on display to an even greater degree on this new album, which features a deep, comprehensive and compelling narrative tale underpinning every word and every note, all wrapped up in a prog-rock fan’s dream concoction.
“We’re doubling down on our progressive tendencies and especially our desire to tell more of a cohesive narrative story which we’ve been turning up with every release. I think this time around, we have a fully cohesive storyline kind of from start to finish, ending with ‘Apocalypse.’ I feel like we’ve really started to develop that to a great point where it’s almost like a launching off point for even our future projects,” said Bowles.
“I think we’re just going to keep doing this even more and just amping it up. Each release we’re getting more progressive than the last musically and conceptually. I especially get bored with of doing the same thing. Yes, we do have a certain sound at a certain point and you do sound a certain way. But I always want to incorporate new stuff. We’re big lovers of music and lifelong learners of life, so we’re always trying to push ourselves musically. So, whatever we’re trying to learn in the current moment, we try to incorporate it in some way, shape or form into the next thing we’re doing. Like, for instance, Kev just got a really cool new instrument – a Chapman Stick, and he started learning it. So we’re now going to try to incorporate that in some way on this next record that we’re writing right now. We’re just always exploring, I guess, new territory and finding new textures, finding new polyrhythms – all the good stuff.”
Taking elements of popular fantasy, science fiction, and even some themes and contextual energy from today’s click-bait news headlines, Apocalypse continues with some of the settings, characters and soundscapes utilized on previous releases, adding layers, emotional and story complexity and drama to what is becoming a true epic.
“The concept came before we figured out a lot of the other stuff. It was inspired by this jam Kevin sent over to me; this little segment that had this really cool and inspiring section. It sounded like Pink Floyd and I really loved it. Then we kind of branched off from there and started jamming stuff. As we progressed, it became apparent that this was a prequel telling the story of the rise of The Syndicate. We have a narrative universe spanning our albums. It talks about this planet called Karagon, this hero character called Fearless, who is the last of his people, and there’s this evil force that’s colonizing other planets called The Syndicate. They’re coming and colonizing and taking the resources of these planets, namely the energy from their suns and firing it back to their own home world because their world is dying. The whole premise of this new story is talking about the conditions that arose that allowed The Syndicate to rise to prominence on this planet and the rise of the nemesis of the hero Fearless, the antithesis to Fearless and everything he stands for, Blackstar, who is kind of like our Darth Vader character. The Syndicate could also be an Empire analog for Star Wars nerds,” said Bowles, who is responsible for the textual narrative.
“Essentially what happens is the story takes place in the time when Fearless was asleep, before the events of the Fearless album, ‘Starlifter: Fearless Part II’ where this Syndicate comes to Karagon and clashes with the militant faction of Fearless’ people, and they ride these dragons in space, which is pretty hilarious. So we have this crazy clash between these people who are very in tune with nature, people with lower technology, who have to resort to guerilla warfare down on their own home turf. But it’s no match for the super technology of The Syndicate, because they’ve pretty much mastered this whole intergalactic conquest game – they pretty much eradicated them and they start strip mining the planet and putting in place this big mechanism around the sun, this Dyson sphere thing that takes the energy from the sun back to their planet. So this story is about that conquering of Kerrigan and how they’ve stolen these resources.
“But then there’s this infighting that happens on the way back with Blackstar and the people on his ship and the rest of the fleet about what they should do, how they should split the resources. But then they hear back from their home planet that there’s been an uprising and The Syndicate has assumed control. A civil war had broken out and in the chaos, there’s been a lot of bloodshed. When Blackstar gets back, he realizes his family has been murdered and everything he once knew is destroyed. The story really cements this whole concept of how hate begets hate; violence begets violence. What you sow out in the world, will eventually come back to you, especially things like violence and oppression.”
It should sound familiar to those who have been paying attention to the history of the world, particularly the interplay between the so-called Old World of Europe and the ‘New World’ of North and South America, where European colonizers and empire builders came, saw, destroyed and imposed societal and economic structures that are still harming the indigenous communities of the western hemisphere. Of course, the entire world was a giant shopping mall of resources, including millions upon millions of humans (slaves), for European imperial powers to tromp in, raise some flags and declare centuries-old civilizations theirs.
“Sci-fi has always pulled from the headlines. Sci-fi has always been a reflection of the world around us. It just takes the reality a little further. And all art is just a mirror that’s held up to the reality that you’re facing, right?,” added Comeau.
“This album was largely inspired by what we’re seeing out in the world. And colonization of indigenous peoples, the whole reconciliation thing, residential schools, missing and murdered indigenous women – that’s the core of what we do. It’s central to who we are, even still. We’ve always wanted to elevate those voices. It’s a scary place [the world] and every day is a new tragedy and we needed a place to put that cathartically into a creative outlet,” continued Bowles
Comeau also commented not only on the different emotional tonality of the new record, but also the different look the band will have on stage during parts of their shows moving forward.
“The subject matter is noticeably darker on this record because it’s not just dealing with themes of colonialism, but it’s also dealing with the rise of fascism that we’re seeing around the world and how easy it is to radicalize a normal person and get them to identify with something that’s actually going against their own interests. If you make a normal person have no other potential options, they become a foot soldier of something like The Syndicate. And of course the music is going to reflect that. But it also has given us an opportunity to add a real dramatic element to the live show. We just finished a headline tour where for that bright, sparkly sound of Fearless, Cody and I perform it as a duo. Then we have a 20-minute intermission and we do a big costume change and we come out with two extra members and we perform the Apocalypse material. Cody’s dressed up as Blackstar and I’ve got my kind of dragon-riding outfit on and we duke it out onstage. It’s fun. It’s fun to play that heavier kind of music and embody these characters and at that sense of theatricality. It’s operatic,” he said.
“We even have our guitar tech dress up in a dragon costume during ‘Through the Looking Glass,’ which is our epic dragon-riding ballad, and he runs around the stage causing mischief until we slay him during the climax of that song. Then, somehow, the poor guy drags himself off stage, gets out of the costume, and hands me my next guitar. So, he is a true professional in every sense of the word. I love Austin. We wanted to push those visual elements just as much as the musical elements to tell the story we want to tell.”
The two ‘new’ band members are bassist Daniel Walton, who also does some harmony vocals, and drummer/keyboardist Adam Enrig.
“They both play in this fantastic band called Dreamland, and I produced their latest record and I believe Terry Brown is going to be mixing, just like he did for another band that I produced, called Brass Camel. When we finished tracking the music for Dreamland record I was blown away by how good these guys were. I showed them the new Crown Lands record that we were just about to finish and it just all kind of made sense to bring those guys in to join us onstage,” Comeau explained.
“Because musically we all click the same. Artistically we have similar viewpoints and have the same things that we’re passionate about. Like, we’re all big Star Wars nerds. So they’re a great addition to the show, and I know the audience is going to love it as much as we do.”
With the myriad connections to Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Rush – knowing them personally, working with a number of the same people both in a live and studio setting and unabashedly allowing the legendary trio’s musical DNA to infuse their own music, Crown Lands ‘gets’ the joke that for much of their career, Rush’s fan base was skewed in a predominantly male direction, and acknowledge that there usually is more men than women at their shows as well.
“As far as gender goes, it’s always going to skew more male. I do think our audience is a bit more balanced that Rush’s, especially when they were at the same stage in their career as we are. But it’s still going to be 60 or even 70 per cent on the male side. But that’s just from looking out into the crowd. It’s harder, sometimes, to tell what the demographic of your fan base is, especially because there’s a difference between streamers and those who buy the physical product,” Comeau said.
“We’re always talking about data these days, right? And the cleanest way to get data is from something like Spotify. But the problem is that only tells the data of the people who are using Spotify. And that’s a problem for us, because if you look at our demographics, the majority of people who came to our headline tour that we just finished probably wouldn’t use Spotify because the overwhelming majority were Baby Boomers who are not using Spotify. On Spotify, our largest numbers are males in their 30s and 40s. And also, the majority of our fan base is still in Canada as far as streaming goes. If you take record sales, like physical album sales, I do think those numbers are actually stronger in Europe than Canada, and that’s probably because our new record label is based in Europe, which was also why we got our label in Europe in the first place, because we feel Europe is going to be a good market for us. There was overwhelming demand for the last record, Fearless; there was so much demand to get it over into Europe because there seemed to be a much more vocal fan base. So it’s hard to put a finger on who exactly is our ‘audience.’”
As for touring in Europe … perhaps someday. Geo-politics, economic uncertainty, inflation, and an increasing lethargy from the population towards live music make the expense of travelling across the country tough enough. Crossing borders is another matter, and crossing oceans next to impossible for most bands, unless you have deep pockets and an already entrenched fan base who will flock to every show and fill every venue and drop every dime they have on merch.
“We are doing a few festivals in Canada this summer and we’re doing another headline run throughout Ontario in the fall. We wanted to do a whole run across Canada but just logistically it doesn’t make sense. The promoter doesn’t want to pay us enough to actually even pay for our gas to get out to British Columbia and back. So we’re not going to do it this year because we can’t. We can’t look at a $20,000 loss to drive to Vancouver and back, which breaks my heart because that’s all I want to do is play music, play shows. The state of the industry says we can’t do that. It is what it is. We’re working as hard as we can right now to find a way to make a U.S. run in March of next year work,” Comeau explained.
“And we’re also trying to figure out the logistics of what a European run is going to look like for us in the fall as well. But I won’t lie to you, it’s not looking good. Every time you want to go on the road, whether you’re going to B.C. and back, whether you’re going down to Florida and back, or you’re going to go to Germany and back, you’re looking at a hefty investment for any of those markets. It’s hard to take that hit unless you happen to have $60,000 to blow on six weeks of hitting the road with your pals – most people don’t. I mean, Canada has its own challenges too, as I’ve said. Canada is a very big and very empty country. And it’s so gut wrenching to look at the numbers, to see the cost of what it would take to go out west and do a run from Vancouver to Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg and on the Thunder Bay. We wanted to do it super slick and bare bones. So it was Cody and I, one stage tech, who is going to help us set up the guitars and drums and stuff while I’m going to do the merch. And then we have our sound guy Graham who helps do front of house audio to make sure the show is good. That’s pretty lean and mean to crew guys, but they’re friends. They’d be giving us friendly rates. But we don’t want to take advantage of them because they have bills to pay too. We would fly out there and then rent an RV, not a bus, so we also didn’t have to deal with hotels.
“All of that versus the [financial] guarantees [from the promoters] that we were being offered, we were going to lose $20,000 to do that for two weeks. So what’s the point because you’re doing all that driving and killing yourself. You know, you do three shows in a row and you’re playing a show in Regina and then you have to pack up and drive 10 hours to make it to Winnipeg, and so on. And you’re lucky if you don’t crash, because if you’re doing this in Canada any time from November on, you’re very likely to hit a winter storm. It’s tricky. In Ontario, we play in front of five or six hundred people or more. Out there, we’re probably going to play in front of 200 or 300. So out of that 200 or 300 hopefully they buy enough merch. If you do 10 of those shows, and sell lots of merch, on paper it maybe becomes a break-even proposition. But you’re still losing money outside of merch. At the core of the issue, it’s because of how expensive everything has gotten: between truck rentals, fuel, getting permits printed if you’re crossing borders to be able to register all your equipment, dealing with work permits, dealing with all of that, and then gambling every night that you can break even or only lose a little bit of money before you sell merch.”
But they have chosen to stick it out, and make those computations and look at all the permutations and hope that hard work, good press and reviews, word of mouth buzz (both real and online), improving record sales, and the most valuable, but also most nefariously fickle of factors – fate – can help Crown Lands get to the point where they just have to focus on the music, the playing, the show and the audience.
In the interim, Comeau and Bowles just keep diving deep into their imagination, their prodigious talent, and their desire to build a catalog of memorable, sophisticated musical tomes to engage, enlighten and engender reflection that will endure the test of time … and space.
For more information, visit https://www.crownlandsmusic.com/
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
