One of the better - if not most daring - album releases during this tender end of the year would have to be The Darcys' take on Aja. A dramatic re-interpretation of Steely Dan's hallmark record, it reimagines the original's peerless jazz-rock fusion with the Canadian outfit's own glacial wash of agitated guitars and loping drums, an icy ambience of droning keys and moody tension.
AMR's own review already praised the album, but I've since been itching to know some details behind the record's conception and intentions. What better way than from the mouths of the band themselves? (None, if you can't think rhetorically).
Though currently touring in support of both their cover album, as well as their excellent self-titled release (both available from the band's website), the band were kind enough to take time out from their trek across Canada and North America to discuss their take on the 1977 classic.
Steely Dan fans can be a fussy lot, but when it comes to covers and tributes, they’re also a starved lot. There’s probably a fairly good reason for this, less to do with their brand of seventies soft-rock falling out of vogue and more to do with the sound musical knowledge it takes to tackle Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s imposing catalogue; that, and some major chutzpah. As it turns out, Canadian band The Darcys aren’t lacking in either.
