GORD DOWNIE AND BOB ROCK SHARE CROWD-SOURCED AI VIDEO FOR “LUSTRE PARFAIT”

June 16, 2023

THE ACCLAIMED ALBUM FROM THE ICONIC DUO IS OUT NOW VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

WATCH / SHARE “LUSTRE PARFAIT” HERE
BUY / STREAM LUSTRE PARFAIT HERE

Built from hours of material created between 2009 and 2017, the Tragically Hip leader's collaboration with uber-producer Bob Rock bursts with vitality, buoyancy and bliss. It's not a sombre entrée — it's a lustre parfait. - Exclaim!

A stunning thrill ride that features Downie at his rocking, passionate best and Rock sculpting the perfect musical foundations around his lyrically cryptic musings.” - Toronto Star

“Lustre Parfait” Video Still

Today, Gord Downie and Bob Rock are sharing the new visualizer for the title track from their widely celebrated collaboration album, Lustre Parfait, recently released after years of speculation and anticipation. The “Lustre Parfait” video incorporates AI in the creative process. Using machine learning to interpret thousands of photos of chandeliers as the source material, director Matt King created an algorithm to teach a program to produce its own images of chandeliers. Swirled with Gord Downie's handwritten song lyrics and Matthew Cardinal's iconic album cover photography, the video is an abstract and incandescent response to the music, spotlighting a place close to Gord's heart – where art inspires art.

“In making this video, we wanted to manifest the spirit of Lustre Parfait (or 'perfect chandelier') and the shimmering electricity of Gord and Bob's music,” says King. “We wanted to bring people into the art, and create something inspired by it – so without giving too much context, we put a call out for fans to submit their own images of chandeliers. We then gathered these submissions (many of which can be seen during the intro of the song), combined them with Matthew Cardinal's stunning album cover photography to make a dataset of images. We put this dataset into an Artificial Intelligence program and asked it to create new images based on what it saw. What came out is hundreds of unique images based on the original chandelier pictures. Some images looked fairly realistic, some were a little off, while others looked like a total mess. Once we stitched them all together and put them to the song, we felt good about how they reflect the joyous cacophony of Bob Rock's production, while honouring Gord Downie's lifelong strive to create something that is beautifully strange and entirely unique.”

WATCH / SHARE “LUSTRE PARFAIT” HERE

MORE ABOUT LUSTRE PARFAIT
Lustre Parfait, is the long mythologized album by The Tragically Hip's legendary late frontman Gord Downie and iconic multi-platinum Grammy Award and Hall of Fame producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Michael Bublé). Downie and Rock’s relationship began when they worked together on The Tragically Hip's World Container (2006) and We Are The Same (2009). Inspired by their union under the spell of rock n’ roll, it was after the second outing that Downie asked if Rock had music he could write lyrics for. The sonic spaces that Rock provided led Downie into the depths of his notebooks, armed with the musical clues to navigate the brilliance mapped therein. Recording sessions between 2009 and 2016 in Maui, Vancouver, Toronto, and Los Angeles, featuring a multitude of seasoned Rock collaborators, led to Lustre Parfait – the ninth album to bear Downie's name outside the Hip, and the first album to bear Rock’s beyond the role of producer and engineer.

Songs like the title track “Lustre Parfait” and “The Raven And The Red-Tailed Hawk” showcase the boundless energy and heedless pace found within, both rave-up radio rockers that brim with glinting guitars, galloping drums, and combustive choruses. Steeped in their shared affinity for rock classics and pop punk abandon, heard before in The Tragically Hip’s “Fireworks” or Rock’s work with The Cult and The Payolas, Lustre Parfait is a striking contrast to the raw intimacy of Downie's posthumous solo releases – 2017's Introduce Yerself, and 2020's Away Is Mine – and the natural grain of his earlier solo albums like Coke Machine Glow and The Grand Bounce.

“First and foremost Gord was my friend, and having the opportunity to work with him on these songs was one of the biggest highlights of my professional life,” Rock says. “I am grateful that I got to witness his genius in such close proximity.” Watch Bob Rock talk more about Gord and Lustre Parfait with Ian Hanomansing on CBC TV’s The National HERE.

WATCH / SHARE “THE NORTH SHORE” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

From the raucous opening bars of “Greyboy Says” through to the exhale of the closing track “There Goes The Sun,” Lustre Parfait is a gift and invitation to eternally “gather in the dark.” As Bob Rock tells it: “Lustre Parfait is a reminder that even through the darkness, there is the joy of making music.”

**BUY / STREAM LUSTRE PARFAIT HERE**

Album Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

LUSTRE PARFAIT ALBUM TRACKLIST
1. Greyboy Says
2. The Raven And The Red-Tailed Hawk
3. Lustre Parfait
4. The Moment Is A Wild Place
5. Something More
6. Camaro
7. The North Shore
8. Is There Nowhere
9. To Catch The Truth
10. Let Me Howl
11. HellBreaksLoose
12. The Safest Day Of The Year
13. In The Field
14. There Goes The Sun

Photo Credit: Gordon Hawkins / Austin Nelson // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

GORD DOWNIE ONLINE
LUSTREPARFAIT.COM
WEBSITE
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
YOUTUBE
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GORD DOWNIE AND BOB ROCK’S LONG MYTHOLOGIZED ALBUM LUSTRE PARFAIT, OUT TOMORROW

May 4, 2023

THE ICONIC DUO SHARES EPIC BALLAD “THE NORTH SHORE”

WATCH / SHARE “THE NORTH SHORE” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

PREVIEW SIX SONGS FROM THE ALBUM NOW

PREORDER 2LP & CD NOW

Built from hours of material created between 2009 and 2017, the Tragically Hip leader's collaboration with uber-producer Bob Rock bursts with vitality, buoyancy and bliss. It's not a sombre entrée — it's a lustre parfait. - Exclaim!

A stunning thrill ride that features Downie at his rocking, passionate best and Rock sculpting the perfect musical foundations around his lyrically cryptic musings.” - Toronto Star

Album Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

"The North Shore" marks tomorrow’s arrival of Lustre Parfait, the long mythologized album by The Tragically Hip's legendary late frontman Gord Downie and iconic multi-platinum Grammy Award and Hall of Fame producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Michael Bublé). A soaring, august ballad to rival Downie's greatest epics – The Hip's timeless "Bobcaygeon" flashes to mind – "The North Shore" is replete with Gord's picture-perfect to-the-letter lyrics, personifying the dramatic haze of late summer ("Summer lowers its flag now / Gently brushes the floor") with Rock's starry cathedral of piano, and electric & pedal steel guitars. Told from the perspective of young lovers, "teen angels" on some nearby north shore – be it Kingston, where Gord grew up on Lake Ontario, Bob's homeplace of Vancouver, or Maui, where the duo recorded a swath of their 14-song collaboration – "The North Shore" sails the winds of inspiration that carry Lustre Parfait into innumerable magical corners, each brilliantly flecked the harmony of their poetry and power. "That's the beauty of the whole record," says Rock, "and ‘The North Shore’ is one of my favourite songs on it. When it's based on inspiration, there is no plan and you don't know where it's going, and that was really exciting."

"I had the music to 'The North Shore' around for a very long time,” he continues. “I think when Gord came to Maui when we did The Tragically Hip records, he stayed on the north shore of Maui, so we were joking that there was a north shore of Vancouver, it seemed there was a north shore of every culture and every country. But in the end what Gord wrote, it's not about any north shore at all, but just this beautiful story of a couple with his incredible imagery as the backdrop."

WATCH / SHARE “THE NORTH SHORE” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

Downie and Rock’s relationship began when they worked together on The Tragically Hip's World Container (2006) and We Are The Same (2009). Inspired by their union under the spell of rock n’ roll, it was after the second outing that Downie asked if Rock had music he could write lyrics for. The sonic spaces that Rock would provide led Downie into the depths of his notebooks, armed with the musical clues to find the brilliance mapped therein. Recording sessions between 2009 and 2016 in Maui, Vancouver, Toronto, and Los Angeles, featuring a multitude of seasoned Rock collaborators, led to Lustre Parfait – the ninth album to bear Downie's name outside the Hip, and the first album to bear Rock’s beyond the role of producer and engineer.

Songs like the title track “Lustre Parfait” and “The Raven And The Red-Tailed Hawk” showcase the boundless energy and heedless pace found within, both rave-up radio rockers that brim with glinting guitars, galloping drums, and combustive choruses. Steeped in their shared affinity for rock classics and pop punk abandon, instances of which have been heard before in The Tragically Hip’s “Fireworks” or Rock’s work with The Cult and The Payolas, Lustre Parfait is a striking contrast to the raw intimacy of Downie's posthumous solo releases – 2017's letter-to-loved-ones Introduce Yerself, and 2020's ghostly goodbye Away Is Mine – and the natural grain of his earlier solo albums like Coke Machine Glow and The Grand Bounce.

“The North Shore” amply captures the essence of Lustre Parfait, an expansive collection that is dense with ideas flourishing from both sides, Bob’s instrumentals providing the framework for Gord’s lyrics, and his vivid imagery feeding the musical palette in turn. Rock calls “The North Shore” a “collage of their favourite influences” all balled up into an emotional, vicarious feeling of being there on a bygone summer night when “we held hands between our bikes.” From the raucous opening bars of “Greyboy Says” through to the exhale of the closing track “There Goes The Sun,” Lustre Parfait is a gift and invitation to eternally “gather in the dark.” As Bob Rock tells it: “Lustre Parfait is a reminder that even through the darkness, there is the joy of making music.”

PREVIEW SIX SONGS FROM THE ALBUM NOW

PREORDER 2LP & CD NOW

Lustre Parfait will be released tomorrow May 5, 2023 via Arts & Crafts. 2LP, CD, and digital formats are available to order now.

Photo Credit: Gordon Hawkins / Austin Nelson // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

GORD DOWNIE ONLINE
LUSTREPARFAIT.COM
WEBSITE
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
YOUTUBE
INSTAGRAM

GORD DOWNIE AND BOB ROCK SHARE MUSIC VIDEO FOR “GREYBOY SAYS”

March 29, 2023

THE DUO’S LONG MYTHOLOGIZED ALBUM, LUSTRE PARFAIT, ARRIVES MAY 5 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

MUSIC VIDEO FEATURES ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE OF GORD DOWNIE AND BOB ROCK
WATCH / SHARE “GREYBOY SAYS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE

PREVIEW SEVEN SONGS FROM THE ALBUM NOW

PREORDER 2LP & CD NOW

“Greyboy Says” Video Still

The penultimate song before the arrival of Gord Downie and Bob Rock's long-anticipated album, Lustre Parfait, "Greyboy Says" is its rallying cry. The physical combustion of poetry and power, the song is filled to the rafters with searing electric guitars and incomparable wails of wisdom. With words by Downie – the iconic late frontman The Tragically Hip, one of the most beloved rock bands in Canadian history – and music by Bob Rock – the multi-platinum-selling producer of Metallica, Motley Crüe, The Offspring, Nelly Furtado, Michael Bublé, Bryan Adams, and more – "Greyboy Says" is alight with Gord's heartrending lyrics of resilience and Bob’s incomparable sonic theatrics. The opening song on Lustre Parfait, “Greyboy Says” was also the last Gord recorded with Bob for the collaborative project. Gord shines through when he sings "You can do it, and if you can't I'm here" – an impossible assertion of his everlasting closeness. On "Greyboy Says," Rock's mastery of brash post-punk energy inspires one of the most memorable performances of Downie's unparalleled career.

“Because of what he wrote, I had to make the music better. That says a lot about the way that Gord wrote the lyrics. I can't interpret them, I only have what I hear in his words,” remembers Rock. The first line of the chorus is "Greyboy says – do what you love" and I think that sums up the song. Greyboy is somebody that has wisdom, that brings positivity, and belief in the future, to go out and find it, to not be scared or sidetracked by all the things life throws at you.”

The song arrives with a music video that features archival footage of recording sessions with Downie, cut with Rock performing the song in studio with guests Dexter Holland and Noodles from The Offspring, along with Abe Laboriel Jr., the longtime Paul McCartney drummer, and Jamey Koch on bass, who both feature on the album.

WATCH / SHARE “GREYBOY SAYS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE

The long-mythologized fourteen-song double-album, Lustre Parfait, finally sees the light of day in its entirety on May 5, 2023 via Arts & Crafts. More than a decade in the making, it is nonetheless charged with the newfangled energy of two restless talents pushing each other further, testing the limits of their creativity in lockstep. Recorded in bursts between 2009 and 2016 whenever the pair’s paths crossed, Bob Rock's Grammy Award-winning flair lights up Gord Downie's fiery heart on each of the album’s fourteen songs.

Downie and Rock’s collaboration began when they first worked together on The Tragically Hip's World Container (2006) and We Are The Same (2009). Inspired by their brotherhood under the spell of rock n’ roll, it was after the second outing that Downie asked if Rock had music he could write lyrics for. What Rock would then provide led Downie into the depths of his notebooks, armed with the musical clues to find his own brilliance mapped therein. Recording sessions in Maui, Vancouver, Toronto, and Los Angeles, featuring a multitude of seasoned Rock collaborators, led to Lustre Parfait – the eighth album to bear Downie's name outside The Hip, and the first to bear Rock’s, who is perhaps best known for producing Metallica’s Black Album.

The previously released singles “Lustre Parfait”, “The Raven And The Red-Tailed Hawk” and “The Moment Is A Wild Place” showcase the boundless energy and heedless pace found within. Steeped in their shared affinity for rock classics and pop punk abandon, instances of which have been heard before in The Tragically Hip’s “Fireworks” or Rock’s work with The Cult and The Payolas, Lustre Parfait is a striking contrast to the raw intimacy of Downie's posthumous solo releases – 2017's letter-to-loved-ones Introduce Yerself, and 2020's ghostly goodbye Away Is Mine – and the natural grain of his earlier solo albums like Coke Machine Glow and The Grand Bounce. Lustre Parfait is unabashedly infectious, a gift of unbridled expression from one of Canada's most cherished voices, belting out resounding lyrics from in-the-pocket of a gleaming rock band.