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Matt Epp

For the enviable early risers of the world (aka Morning People), dawn is a treasured, almost sacred time. The start of a new day brings with it a new beginning, full of possibility.
   
At Dawn is the title of Matt Epp’s latest album, and it’s a fitting one. Although the record is the local troubadour’s fifth full-length, it doesn’t feel like it is.
   
"It feels like a first record — it really does," says the kind-eyed (and wildly bearded) Epp over coffee at The Forks’ Johnston Terminal. "I feel like I’ve hit a stride."
   
Indeed, At Dawn is the first record to feature Epp’s new backing band, The Amorian Assembly, but that’s not the only reason it feels like a debut.
   
Last year, the singer/songwriter went on a life-changing sojourn to Granada, Spain. There, he befriended drummer Antonio Lomas and keyboardist Raul Bernal — two incredible players who would go on to form The Amorian Assembly, which is rounded out by Quebec drummer Joel Couture. Playing to a Spanish audience with Spanish players forced Epp to find a new way to connect with his listeners. The singer/songwriter could no longer, as he puts it, "rely on poetry.
   
"I got to unleash the rocker that was hiding inside of me," he says. "I got to reinvent myself. I knew I had crossed a threshold and knew I wanted to record with a band. I just wasn’t sure how it would work."
   
Working with other players just wasn’t an option, so Epp brought Lomas and Couture to Winnipeg to lay down what would be the album live off the floor at Private Ear. (Additional recording was done in Spain and Toronto.)        During the recording process, music once again proved to be a universal language.
   
"Joel speaks French and English and Tony speaks Spanish, so I had a rhythm section that didn’t speak the same language," Epp says with a laugh. As it turns out, they didn’t need to; as soon as they started playing, Epp says he could see the magnetism between them.
   
"It gave me faith," he says. "This is the best rhythm section in the world — and it’s mine. That was my payoff, that my vision was on the right track and that’s how I knew I was making a band record."
   
Etching out a new musical vision with a new band was a welcome change for the solitary singer/songwriter.
   
"It’s really nice promoting something that isn’t just me," Epp says. "I don’t like promoting myself all the time. Focusing on an idea, a band and a community of people feels more natural. It’s so good to be able to focus on others — which is the idea of Amoria."
   
The concept of Amoria runs throughout the gritty roots-rockers that make up At Dawn. Epp found himself thinking a lot about property, ownership and greed, as well as the ideas of nationalism and patriotism. He began imagining a borderless country of his own, and Amoria — an Empire of Love to which anyone can belong — was born. At Dawn serves as an introduction to the concept of Amoria, which Epp calls a "state of intention.
   
"It’s not a hippie movement," he says. "It’s a reminder that in the face of things that are violent and difficult all over this world, it still serves a purpose to commit acts of love. Amoria is meant to be inspiring, and an open enough concept that everyone can identify with it. It’s about coming together and creating together.
   
"I was trying to create a place that isn’t a place, a land without borders," he says. "We’ve got a flag, though, so it’s kind of legit."

MATT EPP & THE AMORIAN ASSEMBLY CD RELEASE
April 23, 8 p.m.
West End Cultural Centre