Introducing: Riches

Riches is a meeting of minds and ideas involving Catherine McCandless, lead singer of Montreal, Canada’s Young Galaxy, and choreographer Wynn Holmes. Together they create music that stands on its own, but also functions within a larger artistic endeavour. We spoke to them in the leadup to the release of their new single Shadow of You.

We’ve covered you a few times in recent years, but for those not familiar with you, could you tell us a bit about Riches?

Through the making of our first record Fantasy Chapel, we have come to understand that we are more than a band with a concept record. We are a concept project.

We narrate a metaphorical world of folk horror and the cult of the Creative Entity as we soundtrack the ritual, the process, and the compulsion of a life art making. The metaphorical world sanctifies the repetitive task, the self-sacrifice and the dry spells of waiting for inspiration, and the themes of love, longing, possession and bereft obliteration make a rich parallel perspective of everyday life for us to work with in a seemingly endless palette of archetypes and forms. Each song is a scene of the devoted life, and in each we try to hold open the space between beautiful /exultant and the dangerous / torturous.

What inspires you to create the art at the heart of the Riches project?

There are times (oh like during a pandemic or isolation, for example) when we have asked ourselves why we persevere with work in music or dance or whatever despite the obvious challenges to stability, sanity, self-worth, and the answer is so resounding: it is the way that meaning is made in our lives and it profoundly connects us to others.

Who would you say has had the most influence on the music aspects of Riches? You both come at Riches from very different artistic disciplines – do you find that impacts the creative process?

It may be best to answer these questions together as our two different disciplines have some shared principles. Our processes were similar in some ways – for example, the repetition of a movement or sound, once isolated and simplified, is exhausting to watch/hear until it becomes somehow altered, soothing and hypnotic.  As a result, ritual and transformation are central to the Riches methodology. We create melody, arrangement, and lyrics based on these themes and we work it over with Stephen Ramsay (our producer) and our direction comes to life (or, the ‘setting’ of our spooky little narrative begins to take shape).

What artists/albums do you have on heavy rotation right now?

Channel Tres, Bad Nerves, Pelada, Strawberry Switchblade, Amateur Hour, Saâda Bonaire, and the Sound Within Sound Spotify playlist of Kate Molleson.

Love and Disaster by Riches

What’s the inspiration behind the lyrics to Shadow Of You?

Well, as each song is essentially a part from our imaginary folk horror film, Shadow of You would be the scene of a slow motion, psychedelic maypole ritual celebrating the entity/demon, Creation. So, the lyrics play with the longing, self-sacrifice, the warmth of the sun and the repetition of another round of the ritual.

Wynn and I love doing the macabre research and development for Riches. We’re basically plumbing the depths of the altered state, the liminal space of The Ritual – between what you are and what you will be after performing it infinitely. So we uncovered a vein about “sungazing,’ or ‘sunning’: the practice of staring straight at the sun and included “controversial points, such as the claim that ‘perfectly remembering black’ is a suitable substitute for anaesthesia, and recommendations to look at the sun.”

But I mean, ‘perfectly remembering black’? Looking straight at the sun?  How Riches is that?! So, we repurposed the idea and it became:

I turn away from the sun
Dissipated and burned through
But I’m feeling no pain
Hallelujah again
I awaken and come to
Against a million stars
Even farther than gone
And I’d do it again

Shadow Of You by Riches

To my ears, the track has more folkish and darker tones than previous works such as Light of Dawn. Would you say that’s an accurate take on the song?

Our sound is sitting in the uncomfortable place between dark and sunny. Fantasy Chapel was definitely more nighttime and darkly visceral in sound than our last few singles have been which (despite the intentional presence of something menacing) are more folky and pastoral and sunny – some daylight fright.

What’s up next for Riches in the wake of releasing Shadow Of You in terms of videos, new music, gigs…?

Well, we have competing desires to both begin a new record AND to put a performance together for Fantasy Chapel, so we’ll likely do both. Performance is a foundational part of the Riches project / concept and having not brought the project to stage yet we feel it hasn’t taken its first breath. It’s coming!

Shadow Of You and the Riches back catalogue are available now to stream or download on Bandcamp. You can also stream their music on Apple Music and Spotify. Check out Riches on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and be sure to follow them on their journey.