“One year slightly of losing track, I wasted much I cannot get back,” Sabrina Halde sings on “Superhero,” a song she says is about “letting go and moving on,” about simply not being afraid to take chances.
And she should know, considering the 25-year-old just recently quit her job at a restaurant in Montreal to pursue music full time as the lead singer for Groenland.
“It’s the first time I quit a job to make music, so it’s exciting,” she says over the phone from her home in Montreal. “It’s a big risk when you decide to put everything in the same basket, but it’s a big risk I can take.”
And if Groenland’s debut album, The Chase, is any indication, Halde made the right decision. “Superhero,” the lead single, has already topped the Radio 3 charts, and the full album is set to be released April 16 (although you can stream it below starting today).
ListenStream The Chase by Groenland.
Tracklist
Groenland was originally started as an electro two-piece consisting of just Halde and Jean-Vivier Lévesque, but the idea was quickly abandoned in favour of the orchestral indie pop and shout-along choruses that are featured on The Chase.
“We thought electro was boring,” says Halde, adding with a laugh that it was “mainly because we didn’t have many skills for electro music. I guess we thought electro was cool, and we love Thom Yorke, but we realized it wasn’t for us. We just naturally added a drummer and really jammed, then strings and it went from there.”
Now Halde, who plays ukulele, keyboards and percussion, and Lévesque (keyboards) are joined by drummer Jonathan Charette, bass player Simon Gosselin, cellist Gabrielle Girard-Charest and violinist Fanny C. Laurin.
The idea of chasing your dreams and taking chances, both personally and professionally, runs through the course of the album, beginning with the opening title track, "The Chase," a song that builds from a solo 8-bit keyboard intro into a full-ensemble anthem. “Our Last Shot” is about both holding onto a doomed relationship and letting it go, while “Criminals” talks about “creating courage” over a catchy synth-driven background.
Above, Groenland perform "Daydreaming" during an impromptu video shoot at Toronto’s Allan Gardens.
Songs often start off quiet before ascending to an orchestral barrage of wood and strings, an arrangement perfectly suited to Halde’s powerful vocals — the result of years of jazz vocal training.
“I guess my voice goes well with the strings, because there’s also a melancholy there, plus the jazz training helped with pronunciation,” says Halde, who speaks with a French accent but sings with an English one. "I feel like my voice was made for English singing.”
Though Halde doesn’t count out any French singing in the future, and fans shouldn't count out any future output from the sextet, who, with The Chase, prove they have what it takes to run down their dreams.
As Halde sings on the title track, “You may think you are done with us, but it’s only just begun…. We’re having too much fun.”
Follow Jesse Kinos-Goodin on Twitter: @JesseKG
Related:
Grant Lawrence's early peak at 2013's top 5 spring festivals
Pick A Piper’s full-length debut: full album stream
Zeus on covering Michael Jackson, R. Kelly and Stone Temple Pilots