Liam Cole is a drummer and songwriter from Kingston, Ontario. A remarkably deep and lyrical percussionist, Liam studied jazz performance at Humber College before becoming vibrantly active in the Ontario music community, performing live and on records with Little Kid, Michael Cloud Duguay, Dorothea Paas, Poolblood, HIGHS, Chris Brown & Kate Fenner, and many more.
After years of patient urging from his close friends and bandmates, Liam turned to his longtime collaborator, producer and composer Michael Cloud Duguay (Scions), to help refine years of private songwriting into a cohesive collection of recorded material. Duguay encouraged a simple process, working with their mutual friend and regular bandmate, engineer and bassist Jason Mercer (Ron Sexsmith, Ani Difranco) at his studio on Wolfe Island, Ontario. The trio worked out the artful and sensitive arrangements heard on Warm Soup At The Big Rain in the studio, showcasing Liam’s distinctive jazz-influenced expressive syncopation, Duguay’s trademark emphasis on drone and rich and articulate use of synthesizer, piano, and accordion, and Mercer’s tasteful cadence in the pocket. The arrangements were filled out by jangly watercoloured performances from guitarist Liam Fenton and finished with a marathon vocal session in Toronto capturing performances by Dorothea Paas, Eliza Niemi, Kenny Boothby (Little Kid), Sara May, Brook Manning (Loom), and more.
In its completed form, Liam Cole's debut Warm Soup At The Big Rain is versatile and ethereal, framing gentle but deeply felt art-pop arias in breezy soundscapes with clear roots in jazz but never obfuscated by music school self-seriousness. Cole’s lyrics, sung in his whisper-quiet baritone, were often developed outdoors while he worked as a farmer, or biked and swam, and themes of nature - birds and bodies of water, especially - present throughout the work, carefully tied into poetic allegory about all manners of love - platonic, romantic, mutualistic. These themes are emboldened by the contributions of friends and lovers who joined him to create this record - one that is discreetly celebratory and which finally highlights the craftsmanship of a much loved member of the Canadian music community and the vibrant circle of friends that Liam Cole’s humble devotion to music has generated.
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