Gut Feeling

When Crown Lands found themselves without a label, they immersed themselves in total creative freedom, magic mushrooms and 80s King Crimson. The result is a widescreen three-album arc, starting with two psychedelic meditation records: Ritual I and Ritual II. Prog catches up with the duo to find out more about their epic prog dreams.

- Phil Weller

“The guitars on Ritual II are a lot more angular and arpeggiated like King Crimson's Discipline and Beat. They were really big inspirations for me.”

Canadian multi-instrumentalist duo Crown Lands have been granted something of a resurrection. InsideOutMusic have signed them after two albums with Universal Music Canada/Spinefarm where they, in their own words, rebuked the sound on which they were signed to explore far more progressive universes.

Kevin Comeau (guitar, bass, keyboards) says the musical landscape shifted in the period between putting pen to paper and issuing second album, Fearless in 2023. When they expressed a desire to release Starlifter: Fearless Part II, the album’s near 20-minute opening track as a single, it was clear to the band the label they'd signed to — one pushing accessible Led Zeppelin and Rush-inspired sounds during a period rich with classic rock revivalists — was on a different page.

“When we signed, we were gambling away the right to our music in exchange for tour support. Then Covid happened and all the tours that we were supposed to be getting got cancelled,” says Comeau. “There was an understanding that the relationship, financially, wasn’t going to work. That’s why we wanted to make sure Fearless was the record that we wanted to make, and that they were going to be good sports about putting it out.”

Commercially Starlifter flopped, but it got them noticed by prog crowds — a world the band feel more at home in. “We felt vindicated taking that risk,” adds the multi-instrumentalist.

When their record deal expired, they looked on the bright side. The shackles were off and they retreated to Chalet Studios in Ontario, where Rush wrote Presto, Roll The Bones, Test For Echo and Counterparts, intending to write a meditation record. What transpired was a little more colourful.