Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.09.2006, Page 10

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David Jón Fuller
Lindy Vopnfjord doesn’t have to be a one-man show anymore. The
problem now is what to do with
his hands.
Lindy, who uses his first
name as his stage name, has
been performing music since
childhood, touring with his
family in Manitoba’s Interlake
and later writing, releasing and
touring for his own albums.
He’s used to having to
run his own show, and despite
his current collaboration with
Todor Kobakov, it’s still takes a
bit of getting used to.
In the new band the two
have put together, Major Maker,
Lindy co-writes the songs with
Todor and sings, and they have
added touring musicians to the
mix.
“But I don’t play guitar
[live], I just sing,” he says. “So
I don’t know what to do with
my hands yet. I hold on to the
mic stand, and I do all sorts of
things. At our CD release party,
I was kind of dancing around
— I was so happy. The next day,
the band and Todor came to me
and he was kind of nervous. He
said, ‘We were talking about
your stage moves, and that sort
of thing... and we think that
you should just stand there and
sing.’” Lindy laughs. “Once I
get that down, it’s going to be
good.”
This is not to say that he
hasn’t enjoyed working with
another musician. Their ap-
proaches could hardly be more
different. Lindy grew up in
Manitoba in a musical family,
playing and performing many
kinds of music such as Icelan-
dic folk music, pop songs and
heavy metal.
Todor grew up in Bulgaria,
moving to Toronto at 16. He im-
mediately began studies at the
University of Toronto, where he
completed a degree in classical
performance piano at the age of
20.
The two met when Lindy
visited a friend and fellow mu-
siscian Luke Doucet and found
Todor working in his home
music studio. They began talk-
ing about music and eventually
began throwing song ideas off
each other.
The collaborative process
was central to the development
of their first album together.
“When we began writing
together, we would try not to
do the obvious sort of chord
changes that you hear in pop
music and especially in folk
music, and understanding what
our options were.”
Each had different senses of
what “obvious” meant. Lindy
might begin what sounded fa-
miliar to a folk audience, and
Todor would introduce elements
from his classical background.
“It got to the point where I had
a microphone and he had his
keyboard, and we would just
play and press ‘record’ and
just see what happened,” says
Lindy. “I would be holding a
note, and he would change the
chord, and sometimes I would
anticipate the change; and it
would obviously not be the one
I was anticipating, but the note
that I was holding it would still
work.”
The album came together
relatively quickly.
“We started writing these
songs about a year ago, and
we came up with about eight
songs,” says Lindy. “And we
liked them so much that we re-
alized we should definitely book
some time off, so we took all of
January and February off [from
touring] and then we wrote the
rest of the record, and we re-re-
corded the first eight songs so
they would sound a lot better.”
The result is a highly tex-
tured sound, with many layers,
all played by the two musicians.
“We massaged it, and moulded
it, and worked it,” Lindy laughs.
“It was a lot of work, and a lot
of fun.”
They are currently looking
to tour with more established
acts, to take advantage of larger
venues — another difference
from Lindy’s solo days. While
comfortable in front of large au-
diences as a solo performer, he
says the added depth of Major
Maker’s sound can get lost in
smaller venues. So they don’t
mind being an opener, especial-
ly if it helps get their name out.
The band is currently with-
out major label representation;
they wrote, recorded and pro-
duced their debut, All Illusion,
in Todor’s studio. They plan to
pursue publishing deals to get
their music heard in movies
and telelvision shows, as well
as distribution through a record
label.
As for the band name itself,
Lindy says, “It was a long pro-
cess of trying to come up with
one, and realizing that all band
names are stupid,” he laughs.
“When people hear the music,
then the band name starts to
make sense and takes on new
meaning. So we just started
playing around with differnet
words, and that’s how we came
up with Major Maker.”
For more information on
upcoming tour dates, see the
Calendar of Events. All Illusion
can be ordered directly from
www.majormaker.com.
10 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 15 September 2006
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Lindy Vopnfjord teams up with
classical pianist in new band
PHOTO: VICTOR TAVARES
Lindy Vopnfjord andd Todor Kobakov combine folk, pop and classical influences.