Nathan adds Hazel and Sophie
Two small children become part of Winnipeg quartet’s travelling roadshow
Jen Zoratti

Between new EPs, new albums and new babies, 2006 was a busy year for Nathan.

The roots quartet spent the better half of the year in the studio recording Key Principles, the band’s third outing and the highly anticipated follow-up to 2004’s multi trophy-snagging Jimson Weed.

Winnipeggers will be able to get their hands on the new recording a few months earlier than the rest of the country. Though Key Principles isn’t officially out until June, Keri Latimer (vocals, guitar), Shelley Marshall (vocals, accordion, banjo, guitar), Devin Latimer (bass) and Damon Mitchell (drums) decided to give their hometown a sneak peek. “Local demand has been so great that people have been coming to our house,” Devin jokes.

“We’ve been getting threats,” Keri adds. “Give us an album or we’ll steal your baby!”

The four are lounging around Marshall’s living room, chatting about the new record and lamenting the fact the West End Cultural Centre doesn’t have a coat check. The baby in question is Hazel, the cherub-faced, eight-month-old daughter of the Latimers who is busy arching her back over her mother’s knee, grinning at her newly upside-down perspective — completely oblivious to the joke her parents have made.

Though it may not quite be at a baby-thieving level, demand for a new Nathan record —local and otherwise — has indeed been great.

When the group inked a deal with Vancouver label Nettwerk Records in 2004, the local music community was keen to see how Nathan would market its off-kilter, ethereal brand of folk on a heavyweight indie label. Jimson Weed was by no means a disappointment, wracking up two Western Canadian Music Awards, two Canadian Folk Music Awards and a Juno nomination. Though the record embodied all the creative quirkiness for which Nathan is loved, it was also more traditionally roots than, say, the band’s 2001 debut, Stranger.

Key Principles, meanwhile, sees the roots band revisiting different roots.

“A band has to grow, but you want your sound to be true,” Marshall says. “The last one was a bit more traditional, I guess. The production is a bit more quirky on this one. We thought we might lose some audience because of that, but I think it’s always like that when you make a new record.

“I love it as far as production goes on all of the songs,” she continues. “I like it better than our last one.”

The new record is certainly a folk record, but the traditional roots stylings of Jimson Weed do give way to a unique brand of sonic strangeness that find a happy place somewhere between old school folk and indie pop. Produced by the band and New Pornographers collaborator Howard Redekopp, Key Principles is sprinkled with horns and handclaps. It’s a roots record tempered with plenty of pop sensibility while still maintaining a stripped-down aesthetic.

“We chose Howard as a co-producer because we thought he would hear it the same way we do,” Marshall says. “We individually probably put in more in the way of production ideas.”

“We wanted things to sound natural,” Keri adds. “He wasn’t a stickler for slick performances.”

“It seemed more relaxed this time around, ” Devin says. “We left ourselves a month to play.”

“And I was so pregnant and I couldn’t drink,” Keri laughs. “Hazel was born right after we tracked.”

“That made things more expedient, having Keri off the booze,” Marshall laughs.

Ah, yes, pregnancy. In the past few years, Nathan the band has rather embraced the idea of bringing new life into the world. Marshall is mother to Sophie, nearly two. And Keri and Devin have been busy with their new baby. Being a parent and being in a touring band don’t easily co-exist, but the band keeps a great sense of humour about its very full van.

“We’ve been making videos on the road because the label figures we’ll be marketable to parents because we take our children on the road,” Keri says.

“But they’re all drunken videos,” Marshall laughs. “It looks like an anti-parenting video, probably.”

After the CD release party, Nathan is headed to Austin for SXSW and a few dates along the east coast. The trip will be three weeks long and if you asked some parents, they’d say taking little ones on the road for that long is a little insane.

Ask Nathan, though, and they’ll tell you that having kids around is exactly what keeps them sane.

“The focus shifts,” Keri says. “Instead of focusing on things that can go wrong on the road, or lack of audiences or whatever, your kids are there. When Sophie lists off her family, she includes us.”

“And you can teach them and show them so much,” Marshall says. “You can always show them something new.”

"Like a cow, or the moon, or a Texan," Keri laughs.

Still, life on the road has its myriad of challenges — even more when you’re traveling with two who are under two.

“It changes the tour,” Keri says. “Rental places aren’t renting out big SUVs anymore because of the gas prices, so we all need to get class 4 licenses to drive a van.”

“It’s a minimum seven people on the road for a four-piece band,” Marshall adds.

“It’s hard to find decent nutrition, even for an adult,” she continues. “Any sort of routine is torn to shreds. And it’s hard to find people to babysit."

“And as soon as you load up and get into the van, someone poops their pants,” Keri laughs.

“Yeah, but that’s not unlike being in a van with a bunch of guys," Mitchell adds.