Mr. Pine

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Mr. Pine, Winnipeg, July 2006 Left to right, standing: Richard Caners, Matt McLennan, Ken Phillips, Matt Hildebrand; seated: Kevin Scott, Leslie Workman

Mr. Pine are a Canadian psychedelic folk rock band based in Winnipeg, whose music combines elements of acid folk, classical music, pop, and several kinds of roots music, especially British folk music.

The band was formed in 2003 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by Matt McLennan and Kevin Scott. A friendship had formed between the two gentlemen after they discovered they had mutual acquaintances in the Winnipeg music scene. Matt had been involved in bands since being in high school, and the one with the most longevity was Cone Five who were a kind of noise-pop band. Kevin had been involved with the University of Manitoba radio station UMFM as Music Director and DJ, and had come to know Matt both through Cone Five's performances and through double-bills with the band Cheatron where he served as the keyboardist.

Matt, coming from a background of punk, noise, pop and folk, and Kevin, coming from a background of college rock, traditional folk and especially classical music (he has a Grade X Royal Conservatory diploma for piano), had many discussions about a kind of music that they could create, containing several disparate elements. The desire was to write in a unique, diverse style, employing everything from minimal accompaniments to lush and expansive ones, utilizing a wide array of instruments such as dulcimers and harpsichords in addition to conventional instrumentation. The idea was that each song would be treated as an individual thing without concern about how they would "blend" on the album - the more disjointed in fact, the better.

Recording the debut album took over two years, primarily due to the fact that Matt has been temporarily based in Ottawa furthering his education, and recordings were done in fits and starts as Matt returned to Winnipeg for visits. The recordings employed a great many friends and guests to flesh out the desired sounds. While Matt and Kevin played the majority of the key instruments and overdubbed parts where necessary, guests were drafted to play many different string parts, drums, percussion, and occasional vocals. The track "Jack Tar," for example, scored for string quartet by Kevin, utilizes the talents of the Animata Strings.

The resulting debut album, The Gift of Wolves, was released in April, 2006 on their independent label Whiskey Lad Recordings, to great acclaim from the Winnipeg Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press who hailed the album as a "mini-masterpiece." It charted extensively on college stations across Canada through the spring and summer of 2006, reaching the #1 position at UMFM for a couple weeks.

To develop the band's abilities in the live arena and to solidify a cohesive recording unit for the next album, four people were added to Mr. Pine's ranks in the spring of 2006: Ken Phillips from local band The Honeybuckets was brought in for bass and classical guitar duties; Matt's former bandmate Leslie Oldham was also added as a second multi-instrumentalist and vocalist; Kevin's former bandmate Matt Hildebrand was added as Mr. Pine's drummer; and Richard Caners was added on violin. Oldham, Hildebrand and Caners all appeared as guests on The Gift of Wolves.