East Coast powerhouse duo Cousins’ — Aaron Mangle and Leigh Dotey — new album, The Halls of Wickwire, is a big, bold and brash musical explosion. We caught up with Mangle to talk about his musical inspirations, and what to expect from their Toronto show this Saturday.
You make quite a ruckus for two people, but why a duo?
Well, for one, we are blessed with a lot of space in our vehicle when touring. We’re going on tour in May, and we were considering sharing a vehicle with another band, and we realized it was so long since we had to sit beside someone in car — big advantage.
What are the halls of Wickwire?
A proposed title for a murder mystery novel to be written by my sister as encouraged by our late grandmother. Wickwire was the old folks’ home where my grandmother lived. She was an avid reader of murder mystery novels and, in her later years, before she died, she was reading a lot of them as usual. My sister is a writer, and my grandmother wanted to write about the murder mysteries going on at the old folks’ home. She was imagining them in her dementia.
The song “Death Man” is pretty crazy. How did you come up with that?
That song came out of just like a jam, and at first it started as a joke conversation. I was originally playing both characters — death and the victim of death, and I mean that’s basically it. It’s very rare for us to do a song on the spot like that. But we played it live and it turned into actually a decent song.
What can we expect from your show here in Toronto?
We’ll be playing some new songs. We’re very honoured to have some really great shows in Toronto.
Who are some of your musical inspirations?
Well, I come from a musical household. My father is a music teacher, choir director. There was always music at home; it’s always been part of my life. As far as inspiration, when I was in university in Halifax, I wasn’t really interested in songwriting too much until I started to see shows by Julie Doiron (and others). I was more interested in experimental music.
Cousins perform at Lee’s Palace on May 24.
