A chilly panda.

“If my record sounded like a panda, we’d all be in a very good situation,” says Leif Vollebekk of Inland (Nevado Records), his most recent release. I can’t claim to know what a panda bear sounds like (though according to Vollebekk it would probably have “a really nice set of pipes”), but Vollebekk’s Inland is at the very least a very, very good situation.

He describes the record as being an attempted cross between Leonard Cohen’s first album and Nick Drake’s last album, a lofty attempt indeed. But what with Vollebekk’s lyrical nods to familiar Montreal beacons and Inland’s general swoonery, I’d say it was a successful cross indeed. Vollebekk also claims that the record should be experienced in what is now a widely overlooked format: “[Inland is] a vinyl record. It should not be listened to on CD,” he warns. “Anyone with a CD should burn it and buy the vinyl. I made it for vinyl, so I’m really excited about people getting to hear it the way it’s meant to be heard.”

For Vollebekk, having the album available on vinyl seems to be an extension of his back-to-basics song writing style, a style which has often been compared to that epitomic rambler himself, Bob Dylan. “You know, you gotta hand it to Bob,” says Vollebekk of Dylan’s stripped down style. “After the Beatles came out with Sgt. Pepper’s, which was the most psychedelic, mind-blowing, over-the-top produced record in history at that point, he was like, ‘Okay. Screw that. I don’t like that. I’m gonna make a record with drum and bass and acoustic songs about pastoral and biblical stuff.’” Vollebekk has an obvious appreciation for Dylan’s approach where “all the images, all the colour and all the psychedelia [are] in the words.”

But you know, you also gotta hand it to Leif. He keeps things restrained, creating intentionally spacious sonic layers in his songs where music and lyrics are given plenty of elbow room, despite the fact that he plays not only acoustic and electric guitar, but also piano, violin and harmonica*. According to Vollebekk, “If God didn’t invent high school, I don’t know how I would’ve learned instruments.” Take these words to heart, yond teenagers, and take comfort in the possibility that, after begrudgingly toiling away hours of your educational life trying to unfurl the mysteries of the bass clef, you too could end up as a multi-instrumentalist whiz kid.

As the interview comes to a close, I ask Vollebekk what he’s most looking forward to in the new year. He first restates his excitement over people hearing Inland on vinyl, but mostly seems relieved at the prospect of finally having all his projects come into fruition. Along with his latest album, Vollebekk recently finished another that will hopefully be released this fall. “Apparently it’s a logical direction,” says Vollebekk of the forthcoming record. “A friend of mine said that it makes sense. But it’s really different. This one is more like a folk thing, but it has kinda this alternative blues-y thing. [The album is] still acoustic guitar and bass, but I went to the States for a bit and I’ve been listening to a lot of old 1940′s country, so it kinda has more of a Nashville country feel.” So if things go as planned, maybe this year Leif Vollebekk fans will never suffer that always cruel waiting period between album releases.

And if things don’t go as planned? Given the logic behind his answer to the if-you-were-a-singing-animal- what-would-you-be question, I’m not sure I’d raise too much hell about it: “I think a panda. A panda! ‘Cause I hear that they’re kinda vicious, right? But they look really cute? Not that I’m cute.”

I like that what he chooses to refute isn’t his viciousness, but his cuteness. Well. At least he’d be a modest vicious panda.

*Maybe it’s just me, but if I could play such a bevy of instruments, I feel like I’d be tempted to ditch restraint and throw down every single one of my musical skills. All the time. One (wo)man band style. Like this guy.

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For more Leif Vollebekk,
Website: http://www.nevadorecords.com/leifvollebekk.php
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/leifvollebekk

Leif Vollebekk will also be in Toronto on January 22 at The Cameron House.