Midwest Dilemma’s Timelines and Tragedies combines resonant storytelling with genre-bending indie-folk music and a plethora of eclectic instruments. Nominated Album of the Year at the Omaha Entertainment Awards, the album was also on the College Music Journal’s Top 200 list based on college radio play.
Lead singer Justin Lamoureux had a unique vision for his first album, a signature look–usually bearded, sporting cowboy shirts, and radiating 19th century mountain man ruggedness–and plenty of stage charisma to hold the attention of more than one crowd. But instead of attempting to make it as a solo artist, he enlisted help from twenty-three friends, family members, and musicians to create a collaborative project.
To have many sounds and voices coming together seemed fitting for his goal of illuminating a family history wrought with eccentric characters and tragic twists of fate. By incorporating such a variety of instruments and personalities in recording his family history, Lamoureux was able to more successfully elevate his personal ancestry into something of universal appeal. While his stories are captivating because they limn the lives of individuals, their relation to momentous events in American history, such as the Great Depression and the Vietnam War, allow listeners to feel as though they are witnessing something of epic proportions. Lamoureux’s voice–rough-hewn around the edges but elegantly fluid to listen to–guides us through quite a journey, and reminds us how masterfully the past can be dusted off and used as material for musical innovation.
Rumpus: I tried to find some more of your biographical information online, but kept running across a pro-snowboarder from Ontario also named Justin Lamoureux. Do you ever fantasize about being a pro-snowboarder? No really, can I get some biographical info, such as when you got involved with music and first started writing songs?
Justin Lamoureux (Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar): HAHA! Yeah, that’s my…not really sure what he would be to me. I remember opening up a skateboard magazine when I was fifteen and saw Justin Lamoureux, a pro-snowboarder, pulling some big air in an international competition. I remember thinking some day he will find something with my name on it and think, wow, that’s pretty neat.
Benjamin Arunski (Tuba): When I was a kid, I wanted three things: to have jet-black hair and a moustache, to be seven feet tall, and to sing bass. And when we tried out instruments in the fourth grade, I had none of them! The closest I could get to singing bass was playing the tuba, and it has been a steamy affair ever since.
Nicholai Johnson (Electric Guitar): I always loved music as a little boy. I started playing guitar around ten or eleven years old. I went through three method books in one year and had to be moved to a college music professor by 14. I then learned that I can play by ear. So, by 21 I was jamming at clubs in the bad part of town to learn what grit is really about. I had a gun pulled on me more than once. As far as songwriting, I wrote my first song at 13 and played my first gig at 12.
Tyler Cook (Upright Bass): I started playing trombone. I wanted to be in band; I picked up a bass because I knew a lot of guitar players and figured that every band needed a bass player. After a few years of playing bass, I picked up a guitar. Turns out I liked the bass much more. I met Justin through mutual friends about 10 years ago. I’ve seen a few different lineups of Midwest Dilemma. I liked all of them, but this one is my favorite.
Rumpus: How did you dig up your family history? What was it about your family’s story that sparked you to want to tell it so publicly, and over and over again, in musical form?
Johnson: I’m not sure why Justin came up with the family history. I do remember a couple of years before the album, talking with Justin, on a beach in California, about the importance of an entire album.
Cook: I don’t know how Justin would answer, but I think that history has a great way of building perspective on how humans relate and what they go through. Both of those things are really the basis of most art. It seems a natural fit.
Lamoureux: Most of my knowledge about my family history had been given to me over the years by way of letters, conversations, and research. Family reunions, birthdays, weddings and even funerals were a means to get a better understanding of where I came from. I had this concept of family tragedy, but with a light at the end of the tunnel (sort of). But family and the lives of my ancestors has always been something I have wanted to learn about. So putting it to music was win-win for me.
Rumpus: Did you stumble across any material that was shocking or better left buried? Are they many skeletons in the Lamoureux family closet?
Lamoureux: There was nothing so shocking I wanted to leave it be. But the story of Louis Lamoureux was pretty amazing. Louis was a jailed criminal that was pardoned by the King of France. His pardon was granted only if he would get on a ship and cross the ocean to help found what is now Montreal area in Quebec in the 1600s. And he did!
Arunski: On the recent re-entry from Canada, a border guard actually stumbled on one such example. While digging through our cooler, his exact words were, “unghh… is this chicken or pork?” A moment later the other guard came stumbling back from the trailer wondering, “What do you guys have in there?!”
Rumpus: You say you enlisted family members and friends in order to record the music for the album. What made you want to incorporate so many instruments? Was creating a collective experience a goal of yours, or was that just a bi-product?
Arunski: I’m pretty sure Justin decided to add the tuba because it would up record sales.
Johnson: I would say that innovation and vision would be a motive for sounds. Justin is more influenced by other things that music or even other people.
Lamoureux: I had been listening to Sufjan Stevens a bit and hearing the big orchestral sound that was really captivating. I wanted to see what we could do in our little Omaha town. I was on a mission to find some of the best, but also the most inventive players. I really couldn’t stop adding instruments. I was actually feeling some of the players were getting tired of my ambition. It really wasn’t realized until we all heard the final mix. What an amazing imperfect masterpiece.
Rumpus: Were there any negative aspects of having so many people involved in the music? Describe the process of recording the material for Timelines and Tragedies.
Arunski: The first time I walked into the recording studio, Justin was the only band member I had met, but there were about ten people there that day. Half of them were pretty rowdy, drunk and who knows what else. Little did I know that these were the (now ex) cello player’s cronies, not members of the band. When Nic asked me my impression of the band, my answer was, “You guys are crazy!” Since then, I have become friends with everyone who played on the album, and close friends with the core Midwest Dilemma group. I love playing and touring with these guys!
Elizabeth Web (Vocals, Clarinet): For me, I’d have to say the only negative aspect I can think of was selecting tracks. We had so many talented musicians and so many of them had multiple tracks. Going through them was difficult only because they were all so good! It was tough and long but when we heard the right one, we knew it right away.
Johnson: There was a lot of layering. Some things were cut and or changed. However, whatever was heard with in the flow and mind was what was kept. Tones, instruments, the basic song and harmonies were what were somewhat planned. The counter parts, arrangements, reverbs, and other musical terms were layered and or added actually during the process. Very little was recorded “live.” There are some different things that we may try for the follow up record. We’ll see.
Cook: For me, I think it went like this: Justin asked what I was doing on Saturday. I went to the studio. Tracks were laid down. When you have great songs ready to play, it’s that easy.
Lamoureux: We really loved the studio time on Timelines & Tragedies. The hard part was to remember this was supposed to be work. It got to be like a circus at times and at times different musicians would reel it back in. I still remember the stress I felt to keep this moving forward though. Scheduling was probably the hardest. Trying to make best use of time in the studio knowing that we would have had a trumpet, vibraphone, flute, and accordion all coming in the same four-hour block.
Rumpus: Your album is very clearly influence by historical events, but I want to know about your musical influences for the album. Were there other albums and artists, besides Sufjan Stevens, you listened to before recording Timelines & Tragedies?
Arunski: For my part in Timelines and Tragedies I drew heavily on American marches, a particular Wagner motif, blues, and jazz.
Johnson: For me personally it was like, I would listen to the rough drafts and “not” think about other albums. What I would do is try to figure out what colors I would see or where I felt like I was at … maybe an improvised scene in my mind while listening to the rough draft. From there, I was trying to make sure that things line up with what Justin sees. Finding the vision within a subconscious was what I felt would take the very conscious to another level. But, it had to be in the vein of the vision.
Cook: I don’t think I listened to anything in particular. I did my best to listen to Justin, try to understand the point he was making and then find something to groove on.
Lamoureux: Over the years I have turned many pages musically. I think watching my dad play guitar as a child has been my biggest influence. It seems I have always been on this quest to find that passion that I saw in him many years ago. My favorite bands that I have listened to over the years seem like fads. Some of the timeless ones still hang on, but I have tried to clear my mind from a lot of influence.
Rumpus: This question is for anyone but Justin. I want to know how it was to be so involved in such a personal project when it wasn’t your personal history being presented. Did your relationship with Justin change? Also, did you feel inspired to want to record your own family history? If so, what genre would you use to present it?
Arunski: My relationship with Justin began with this project. Coming from a largely classical background, this music seems completely normal to me. I hold a great respect for Justin as a songwriter, singer, and organizer, and a large part of that comes from the style and quality of Timelines and Tragedies.
Web: When I first heard Justin’s music I was struck by his ability to tell a story so profoundly and gracefully. It wasn’t until we started working together that I realized exactly how personal these stories were and are to him and his family. For me, the songs really evolved every time we worked on them and continue to do so. Learning about each person’s plight and the direction their life took them and the choices they made really cemented in me how important it is to communicate their message. I sought out my family history as a youth with my mother. We went on a trip to see where my family was raised and I have to say it changed me. I’m not sure I could lock down a genre though; at least not yet.
Johnson: For me…well, Justin is like a brother to me. When Midwest Dilemma plays I feel as connected to it as anything. For example: I have written songs about some of my history. But, not like this. This is a collaboration of many sounds and a very deep, deep history. Helping with this feels like being in a perfect band. I feel like the recording of Timelines was a historical event, and the process will be talked about for many years to come. I could never say what history, present, or future will sound like. Not all past is easy, hard, or somewhere between. I hope this makes sense.
Cook: I don’t think there is a difference in this project to any other I’ve ever been in. It’s always about telling someone’s story. It could be the writer’s story, a certain group’s story, or a fictional character’s story, but the story is constant. I knew Justin before I was in Midwest Dilemma and I considered him friend. Because of the time and work we’ve put into the band, I’m closer to Justin and everyone else in the band. Learning about his family’s fur-trading past just made it all the easier to marvel at his amazing beard. There are a lot of things in my family history that might make for a good few songs, but I’d need to do something like what Justin has done: make the music diverse enough to bring in all the aspects of the characters. So while I don’t know what genre I’d use, I do know the song about my super-Catholic grandmother would have to be different than the song about my horse-stealing great-great granddad.
Rumpus: Why is it important to revisit history? Besides just being interesting kindling for songwriting, do our family stories have particular importance today? For example, do you feel more prepared for the current recession after having written the song “Great Depression” and done research on your family’s experience during that era?
Arunski: I recently read an autobiographical work called The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Homes, detailing how an adopted girl found out about her biological and adopted family histories. She talks about the connectedness that modern, supposedly less-connected people, can find while discovering their ancestors, and I think that Midwest Dilemma’s music allows every audience to feel that wonderful relevance.
Johnson: Why do people find Andy Warhol important? People learn from history. Mistakes or not. Fact. Learning is important, relation is important. A lot of things are important. Tell that to somebody that has everything that they ever wanted and then tell that to somebody who has nothing they ever wanted. See what the difference is. Even if you don’t see this difference, it will be there. In time. This amount is also undetermined.
Lamoureux: Revisiting history helped me find out where I came from and a bit about the struggles my family dealt with at various points in time. But now I am history’d out. I feel that moving forward from here sounds even better than looking back. I want to make history from this time forward.
Rumpus: I’ve often heard that writers have an easier time with their first novel because it represents a story they have always wanted to tell. Then with the second novel, the challenge arises as to where to go next. I imagine a similar situation occurs with musicians. Your first album is so cohesive and so driven by a central theme. How do you imagine your next project? Whose story do you want to tell?
Arunski: We have had a great time coming up with new songs. This group is not just about Justin’s story. It is about everyone’s, and the ability to convey that is one reason I never get tired of this music.
Johnson: We have written songs for many years. This is what feels right, and this is what works. This is the first album with this attitude and maturity. This has only began. Who’s story? What story? How story? When story? Why story? The next album will have somewhat of a central focus on cures and loneliness.
Web: We did put a lot into this first album. A lot of the songs were a work in progress over years. However, I feel our second recording is going to give our debut a run for its money. I feel we are more cohesive as a band. It seems like the pieces really fit together now and not just thrown together in the studio. I feel we are a new band!
Rumpus: When I first listened to the song “Montreal” I felt like I was being transported back in time. The song has this creaky, eerie quality that made me feel like I was on a ship, which I’m sure was the point. Your band seems unafraid to play with theatricality. Any plans to create a folk opera?
Cook: Well we do now!
Arunski: I thought we already did. I guess all it needs is a stage designer, a few lines, and some squeaky Broadway types.
Web: Wouldn’t that be fun!
Johnson: No opera. But, whatever sounds that it will take to send a point. Like being on a boat. Or with in a room with an uneasy stomach and tears ready to roll down a cheek. Sounds. Yes.
Lamoureux: I would love to do something off the wall. We have been getting our music in film and TV shows. I would love to do a movie score sometime. That would really be a great time!
Rumpus: Justin, these days you usually appear with a full beard. Did you have that before you began researching fur traders and depression-era farmers?
Arunski: At the US-Canada border, Justin was asked, “When did you grow the beard?” and he answered, “Oh, well I’ve always had it. For some reason I just shaved a little while before that picture.”
Cook: He was born with a full beard. He had to shave for his first day of kindergarten.
Lamoureux: Oh yes…the beard. Thank you for noticing. But no. The beard just comes and goes as the wind blows. Sometimes it’s there and sometimes it’s not. Most people would agree that I look better with the beard. But then again, it’s such a shock when it’s gone that most people don’t want to recognize me.
