Miracle Fortress: One-man band makes alienation totally relatable

It’s been a busy four years since Graham van Pelt, the man behind Miracle Fortress, released his critically-acclaimed and 2007 Polaris Prize-shortlisted debut album Five Roses. Despite having been occupied with his more extroverted project Think About Life in the interim, Graham managed to find the time to create Was I the Wave?, an electropop-influenced follow-up to his 2007 breakthrough effort.

Graham sequestered himself while making the record, acting as composer, producer and engineer for a totally DIY recording process. The secluded recording process informs the message – obscure as it is, swathed in reverberant electronic sounds and ambient synths – of feeling alienated in the hyper-social, hyper-prying online social sphere.

“I did a lot of building my own software instruments, creating my own sounds based on samples, playing things and sampling myself… I decided not to limit myself to any kind of pallet. I just kept messing around if the song needed more,” Graham said. “I went through different practice spaces and studios and I sort of took everything with me on the road when I’d go on tour. I’d set up microphones in hotel rooms or set up in the back of the van; I probably recorded in about 10 different spaces.”

Stranger in a Strange Land
Naturally, the resulting album exudes an urge to stay in touch with our intimate selves in spite of our online presence that’s becoming more revealing all the time. The stylistic departure towards a very ‘80s electronic sound ties into the album’s thematic concern, channeling this contrast between intimacy and our outer personas through build-ups of anxious arpeggios of synthetic sound assuaged by waves of layered, ambient vocals.

“Writing the songs, I was trying to touch on the feelings of alienation with lots of information coming at you and how that can kind of overwhelm you. I was trying to also keep the perspective focused on the individual and write songs about the isolation that comes with it – with what the lifestyle has turned into for young people. Some people have keyed into it and enjoy it a lot but others feel a little alienated by the whole thing.”

With such emphasis on introspection both in the album’s concept and in its execution, Was I the Wave? is like a privileged peek into the artist’s internal dialogue. The album’s instrumental tracks present contemplative dreamscapes amid simultaneously upbeat and broody songs like “Miscalculations,” in which Graham sings, “they put you in the New York Times, but your roommates tore it up. It’s no reflection on you, people just despise and hate your guts.” Moments like this shine through as particularly personal introspections, cleverly conveyed through a typically frothy electropop aesthetic.

“I consider Miracle Fortress to be a very personal project. It’s pretty autobiographical at times. I went through a period where I was trying to shut myself off from the world a lot, and going through one of those times in your life tends to have an effect on your creative work.”

Miracle Fortress
May 20th | Torn Curtain
6595a Saint-Urbain
with Mozart’s Sister and Hear Hums
www.miraclefortress.com