Elliott Brood touches base with their Windsor roots
By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
September 10, 2008
 Canadian death country trio Elliott Brood have a lot to be proud of. Besides having released their second full-length album Mountain Meadows on Six Shooter Records, Elliott Brood are currently preparing for yet another tour across Canada and Europe, and are nominated best band of the year and best album of the year in the XM Satellite Radio Verge Awards.
Founding members Mark Sasso and Casey Laforet went to high school together in Windsor before moving to Toronto and forming a band. They were later joined by Stephen Pitkin. Their Windsor roots still play a large role in the band.
The Ambassador Bridge theme of their 2005 album Ambassador came about after the songs were written. Their video for the song “The Bridge” focuses on the bridge’s designer Joseph Bower and incorporates some history of the bridge as well. “It’s kind of an homage to Windsor, we’re proud of being from Windsor,” said Casey Laforet.
Elliott Brood was able to spend more time recording Mountain Meadows than they did with Ambassador, which was recorded very quickly and on a tight budget. “We tried a lot of things and had a lot of time to try different instruments and stuff,” said Laforet.
Mountain Meadows references the Mountain Meadows massacre where 120 people were slaughtered by a Mormon militia in 1857 in the Utah Territory in an area known as Mountain Meadows. Men, women, and children were emigrating to California from Arkansas when they were attacked shortly before the Utah War started. Seventeen children were spared and adopted into Mormon families who believed the children were too young to remember the tragedy.
The album isn’t a direct account of the Mountain Meadows massacre, but the theme is present throughout the songs. “We always want there to be a theme. That’s what we’ve done in the past, there’s always an underlying theme to it, but it was never really understood what it would be. It kind of came after we had all the songs, then we’d try to draw parallels between the stories and the song,” explained Laforet. “The songs are tied together. It’s a feeling in the whole record rather than the individual songs,” he continued.
The idea for the Mountain Meadows massacre theme came from Sasso, who watched a documentary about the event and suggested the name to the rest of the band. “Mountain Meadows sounds so nice, but then you find out how many people were murdered there, it kind of changes the feeling,” explained Laforet.
As for the Mormon reaction to the album, Laforet says he hasn’t heard much from them, but there have been a few CD orders from Utah. “Hopefully we’ll get to see the place one day, travel through and see where it all happened. It’s nice to know that people from there are finding out about it and ordering it,” said Laforet.
The song-writing process is always different and always evolving for Elliott Brood. Previously, Sasso would write the majority of the songs while Laforet would fill them out and arrange them. Now with three members, the band collaborates more often.
“There’s a song we’re working on right now that we started as practice. We started throwing ideas out and then we wrote some lyrics. There’s no set way. A song comes in that’s already been started or it starts from scratch and everybody listens,” he said.
One of the band’s major objectives is to tell good stories. “We look up to good songwriters, like Neil Young and Bob Dylan and those people that can make your imagination work. The songs aren’t a literal thing. Hopefully people can listen to it and make up their own conclusions,” said Laforet.
Playing with Wilco was a definite standout experience for Laforet in his music career. “It was really cool being on stage with them. We did four shows with them and it was just crazy because it introduced us to a lot of people who never heard of us,” he said.
Laforet also found many travel opportunities thanks to being in the band, traveling to Australia and Spain. “I would have never gone to any of the places I’ve been if it wasn’t for music. I’d be working full time and all that,” said Laforet.
The band is set to begin their new tour on Sept. 11, where they’ll be playing across Canada and Europe, with a couple dates in the U.S. “We have to focus on that and trying to stay healthy for it. We’ve made a commitment to eat better and not party as hard as we have in the past because we’re getting old,” laughed Laforet.
Laforet says the band is working on playing more dates in the U.S. as well. “We’d really like to get into the States. That’s the only place we haven’t gone yet,” he said.
Besides the tour, the band is discussing doing film scores and writing music for movies. “There’s a few offers on the table for that that are coming about,” he confirmed.
For more information about Elliott Brood, visit them online at http://www.elliottbrood.ca.
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