The Backstays continue to tease out their upcoming album, Tributaries, with bits of their bread and butter: moody slow burns and the history of their hometown, Saint John, New Brunswick. Their latest single, “Aquarius,” belongs squarely in the former category but is it possible that the band has broken tradition on the latter, and it might simply be a coincidence that the song shares a name with the former longstanding pub on the city’s west side?
It seems a small point to mention but given the band’s modus operandi—their entire ethos defined as a band determined to commit to song and posterity the tales of their hometown—it seemed a rabbit hole worth climbing down. Their debut EP is littered with the stories of Saint John; from the idiosyncrasies of a curious corporate monopoly on “Company Town” to the events of the “Groundhog Day Gale ’76” to the simple joys of a night out of the city’s boardwalk on “Dreams.”
Their most recent single, “No Hot Cargo,” covers the history of a 1979 labour strike when the city’s dockworkers refused to load a $120 million shipment destined for a nuclear reactor in Argentina after a military coup had overthrown the country’s government.
So, to assume any connection between the song and the once-social hotspot is merely a coincidence is doing the band a disservice. Is it also doing the band a disservice by not simply asking them? Sure it is. But, similar to the Tragically Hip secretly subversive educational hits, The Backstay’s historically-laced bops are often best puzzled out for ourselves.
The clues from The Backstay’s vocalist and songwriter, Pete Johnston are sparse.
“This person, or character, is starting to lose their humanity and succumb to pressures caused by something they’re resisting, or fighting against, all while they thought they were just biding their time,” he explains.
When The Aquarius closed in 2013, many marked it as an end of era, a stark contrast from its heyday in the ’70s and ’80s. Some, like one waitress who had worked there since the ’90s, blamed it on a combination of centralization of Saint John’s restaurant scene in the city’s uptown core and the tightening of laws around drinking and driving that would prevent patrons from travelling out for a midday beer.
It is possible, with its opening line of “they say they won’t cause you any trouble, you couldn’t ride back downtown…,” that the song is a lament for the west side bar scene? Given the tone of the rest of the song, it’s a pretty lofty take for a molehill to die on.
“We’re looking for a shot, open your door and we’ll who’s laughing,” “I long for you,” “Don’t say it’s the same, it’s not the same…” might provide more hints that it’s a woeful patron, removed from their familiar and beloved haunt.
Built around three piano parts and a beat, Johnston says he knew he could build something from the raw pieces, but “didn’t really plan for it to be so dystopic,” which might further suggest that the ominous tone of the song doesn’t necessarily match a dire tale of restaurant closure. Or we’re grasping at straws.*
That surprise dystopian twist might also be accredited to being a product of the times. The song was written in isolation during the pandemic, with the band working together, albeit remotely and The Backstay’s synth player, Derek Hilchie, taking on mixing duties.
“I started to record the song in our apartment, with a vocal booth in the closet of the spare bedroom,” says Johnston. “When our public health level switched from orange back down to yellow, we were able to get the bass and drums recorded with the band at Derek’s studio. It was a song born out of necessity in a lot of ways — everything we do is, especially now.”
Tributaries, The Backstay’s forthcoming album, produced by Romesh Thavanathan (Hey Rosetta!), is expected to be released May 1, 2021. No doubt, it will provide a treasure trove of actual historical tidbits to be discovered.
*Confirmed: “Aquarius” is strictly inspired by the pandemic, “a dramatization of sorts” and any reference to the former pub is entirely coincidental. It was still fun to guess at.