Booter
10/10

September 9, 2022
(Midwest Debris)

 

PHOTO CREDIT: Adam Kelly

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ALBUM COVER

On Booter's debut album, Alannah Walker sings queer lyrics openly for the first time. Inspired by women writing love songs about women, the Winnipeg musician shares sarcastic slacker laments with a universality stretching far beyond the prairies. 10/10 sets her stories of breakups, make-ups, and crushes on straight girls to the nostalgic strains of ’90s indie-rock.

“There are songs on this album that are clearly gay,” Walker says with a laugh. “As more music has started coming out in the last few years where you can tell artists are queer from a lyrical standpoint, that was something that definitely inspired me.”

As one half of beloved indie-pop duo Cannon Bros, Walker earned fans from coast to coast. Following that band’s dissolution in 2016, she briefly stepped away from live performances, but never stopped writing songs. After amassing enough to teach them to other people, Walker called bassist David Schellenberg, frontman of relentlessly touring noise-rockers Tunic. Drummer Ian Ellis (Hut Hut, Animal Teeth) and guitarist Brendon Yarish round out the quartet.

Booter emerged in the midst of its members’ busy lives, with Schellenberg leaving town for months on tour, and Yarish working around the clock as a lawyer. To accommodate these unusual schedules, producer Cam Loepkky (The Weakerthans, Constantines) offered a piecemeal approach to recording with sessions spread over two years in his home studio. Even Booter’s band name arrived as an afterthought when they were booked to play a show before their first practice.

Despite its disjointed recording, the 13 songs of Booter's debut are remarkably cohesive. Drawing on the time-tested influence of bands like Sloan, The Breeders, and Guided By Voices, each track is packed with hooks while maintaining the quartet’s homespun charms. Walker’s prolific pace resulted in some songs completely written and recorded on her lonesome, with her bandmates hearing the finished products in the studio for the first time. Mastering engineer Philip Shaw Bova (Kiwi Jr., Land of Talk) gave 10/10 a final vibrant boost with its dreamy synths and incandescent guitar solos bursting through understated arrangements.

On the downcast jangle-pop of “Call Me Upset,” Walker struggles with the knowledge of a former partner’s past actions that she doesn’t want to be her problem anymore. The album’s bouncy title track is similarly stuck in reverse, as Rentals-style synths set the backdrop for her longing desires: “Wish I could feel the way I felt about you / For someone again.” By the time the band gets to the peppy sugar rush of “Breezy,” she’s ready to flirt with someone new: “Seems like you’re coming in hot / Do you want me? I want you a lot / Let’s feel it and not ever stop.”

Like the Deal sisters on fast forward, “Crushin’” showcases the band’s energetic side with lyrics about Walker’s unrequited attraction to someone of a different orientation: “I’m crushin’ always / On the straight girl / Catch a break, girl.” For this recording’s rapid pace, both Ellis and Walker tried their hands at its drum part until they could nail the tempo. “I had to start lifting weights and get into shape to play that song,” laughs Ellis. “After me and Alannah both tried recording the drums a few times, I pumped myself up and miraculously got it.”

“Seventeen” is the album’s sole song featuring vocals by Yarish, yet its angsty vibe slots in perfectly. Written over 10 years ago when the guitarist was in his early 20s, it channels his feelings of uncertainty into another deeply relatable Pavement-style jangler. “Now I’m almost 32, so it’s funny to think that was my perspective of being a teenager just three years out from it,” Yarish laughs. “I still don’t have anything figured out, and it’s been over a decade.”

Booter On Tour

For more information, please contact:
Daniel Cooper
daniel@luckybirdmedia.com