Led by Harry Vetro and operating as a music collective, Northern Ranger has assembled some of the best and brightest the Canadian jazz and indie scene has to offer.
Since their debut self-titled album released in 2018, Vetro has worked on many of his own independent projects.
A trained jazz drummer, vocalist, and composer, Vetro’s expertise extends beyond the realm of jazz. His latest project with Northern Ranger is their forthcoming album, Taken by Violet.
While maintaining the group’s contagious energy and instrumental prowess, the upcoming album promises to be rather different from the 2018 release, which was solely instrumental in nature. Taken by Violet takes inspiration from folk music and 70s synth pop genres, fusing them with acoustic guitars, vocals, and electronic elements. “Irish Fox”, the album’s first single, “explores themes of inner conflict and the desire for escape.”
We had the opportunity to ask Vetro a few questions concerning the new album and what else is in store for Northern Ranger this year.
Can you talk about the origins of Northern Ranger and how y’all got together?
Northern Ranger started in 2017 while I was studying jazz drums at The University of Toronto. It was also Canada’s 150th celebration. In the spirit of celebration and history, I traveled coast to coast and to the arctic, writing music about my travels and learning about Indigenous traditions in Canada. Northern Ranger is an evolving and changing cast of musicians within the Canadian music scene, with myself (Harry Vetro) as the constant member.
And how did you land on the band name?
I named the group after The “MV Northern Ranger” Ferry, which I traveled on a three-day trip along the Labrador Coastline up to the arctic. It was the first part of my 2017 trip and probably the most memorable.
I see that you’re a trained jazz drummer and vocalist. What inspired you to choose this specific musical path?
I’ve been playing the drums and piano since I was three-years-old. I am a lover of all genres of music. When the time came to pick a university degree, music was my immediate choice. I was drawn to the jazz drum idiom and music. The study of jazz drums seems to transfer across all genres. After leaving university in 2018, I got more acquainted with the acoustic guitar, and started singing and writing songs in my spare time. I found it an amazing vessel for expressing my inner world.
You’ve got your new album, Taken By Violet, dropping soon. What can you tell us about the influences and inspirations behind it? Are there common themes or motifs throughout?
This album is heavily influenced by my travels through Newfoundland. I started making trips out there in 2017, hiking, camping, playing and listening to live music. There are some common themes throughout the record that deal with the drive to chase goals and materials in life, and also life and death.
In terms of musical influences, I was listening to a ton of Beach Boys Pet Sounds, Bon Iver, The Fleet Foxes, and a bunch of modern jazz: Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, and Vijay Iyer etc.
Your debut album released back in 2018 was purely instrumental. Since then, what has motivated you to include vocals in this new collection of songs?
This new album originally started with a bunch of instrumental music, and a different instrumentation imagined. The pandemic happened and something inside me clicked, and I felt very compelled with this music to add voice, acoustic guitar and lyrics to convey what I was feeling. I think it spawned out of very long car rides in the Ontario forest and farm lands, putting on instrumental tracks, then I just started singing words.
In dreaming up this new album, what inspired the shift from your traditional jazz roots to a more ethereal indie folk-pop direction?
I have been a long time fan of musicians like Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Nick Drake, and the Beach Boys. As this album started to develop, these influences made their way into my music, and it all just happened naturally. There was this feeling too where I had already made the instrumental jazz album and now I want to do something which gets even closer to my main folk influences.
What made you decide to release “Irish Fox” as the first single off the album? Does it carry any particular weight or convey a particular message you’d like listeners to gather?
“Irish Fox” to me feels like a bridge between the instrumental jazz roots and the indie folk-pop music. Where I’ve come from and where I am going.
Do you find it challenging to determine the order of songs on an album such as this, and how important is that to you?
I was thinking about this all throughout making the record. I knew that “Headed for Dust” would be first and that “Taken By Violet” would be last, as it sounds like a finale. A couple things had to change, in order to make it all work. I tried my hardest to create a flow for the listener to stay engaged.
What does a day in the life of Northern Ranger’s songwriting process look like?
A lot of my songwriting happens out in nature. I like to place myself in a setting like a field, or forest. I’ll start hiking and it puts me into this state where melodies just start coming to me. I’ll sing/record these into my phone. Then I return home and at some point, I’ll sit at the piano or guitar and build some harmony and rhythm around the melody. Sometimes I get enough together where I’ll record a demo, then I put it on in the car and just start improvising lyrics. It’s all a very long and meditative process that I really enjoy.
What might you have in store – musically or otherwise – in the months following the album release?
I have a release show planned at The Rooms museum in St. John’s Newfoundland. I am excited for this as it’s my first show playing to a large audience in a theatre like setting. I’m hoping to do a writers residency out at The Banff Centre in The Rocky Mountains this winter. Back in September, I travelled to The Yukon, rented a car and drove up to The Alaskan border. That trip generated so much music that I am going to develop in Banff as a continuation of Northern Ranger.
