artist Mike Angus

If the Wheat Pool is the sound of four guys busting their asses, then
Mike Angus’ solo album Hymns could be described as the hum of the amps
once the band has gone. The void of an emptying venue as the room goes
dark. In between the music and silence, there’s an echo. That’s the
moment Angus wrote Hymns from.

Angus wrote Hymns in Italy, where he spent two weeks in a Tuscan
farmhouse working on new material. What emerged were sparse, immediate
songs reflective of his headspace at the time.

“I think the strength of the Wheat Pool is the obvious collaborative
energy of four guys writing together, and that’s exciting,” Angus
explains. “However, I knew these songs would end up on a solo record,
so I drew on my strengths from working with the band, while enjoying
the freedom to flesh out the songs exactly as I heard them in my
head.”

The songs range from straight-ahead pop gems—like the piano-driven
lead-off single “Swallow It Whole”—to lush and spacious acoustic
anthems like “Oh Rodeo!” and “Cold, Cold Ground.” There are also
moments of experimentation on Hymns, like the digital drive of
“Scaffold Christ,” a song Angus challenged himself to write without
the use of any acoustic instruments at all.

“I challenged myself to write in ways I never had before, to break
habits,” he points out. “I tried open tunings, and wrote songs with
only one verse and one chorus—no filler. My rule was, ‘if it doesn’t
need to be there, leave it out.’ With a song like ‘Scaffold Christ,’ I
wanted to challenge myself to write without a guitar in my hands—to
see how my impulses for songwriting would translate on a new
instrument like a keyboard or drum loop machine on my laptop.”

The title Hymns emerged as a theme during the songwriting process for
Angus, who had a religious upbringing. ““I realized that the hymns I
was raised with—and still love—were my first musical education. They
still influence the way I write, even though I have moved on from the
faith of my childhood. Being surrounded by Italian religious art was,
for me, deliciously ironic.”

Lyrically, while these heavier themes weave their way through songs
like ‘Scaffold Christ,’ and the album’s closer ‘What Does It Mean?,’
they never outweigh the overall feel of the album. There’s a
spontaneity and playfulness in the quiet moments, juxtaposed by
expansive, cavernous textures and atmospheres—a surprising and
rewarding tangent from the Wheat Pool’s amped-up Canadiana.

“With the Wheat Pool, we know how to get loud,” Angus grins. “On
Hymns, I really wanted to explore how quiet I could get—to see much
space I could create and still have a song that might attract new
fans. And maybe surprise some old ones.”