There is a lovely little tradition in a number of cities around the world whereby couples symbolically pledge their undying, unmitigated love for one another by affixing padlocks to a bridge or other well-trod public edifice, and throw away the key.
Paris is one of the most famous of locales for these ‘lovelocks’, and the idea behind this quaint, eminently romantic rite inspired not only the name, but the whole creative approach of the up-and-coming Canadian trad-country duo, The Lovelocks.
Comprised of vocalist/songwriter/fiddler Ali Raney and vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Zoe Neuman, the talented Toronto group is performing this Saturday, April 9, at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch in Tamworth, Ontario.
“Nearly four years ago, Zoe was travelling around Europe one summer nursing a broken heart after a rough break-up and I was back in Toronto. One night just before bed I was twirling through my Twitter feed on my phone and there was an article saying these lovelocks were being removed from a bridge in my neighbourhood. And at this time, she and I had been going back and forth for about six months thinking of possible band names. When I saw this term ‘lovelocks’ in the headline I clicked on the link because I wanted to know what was going on in my neighbourhood, but I always wanted to know what the heck a lovelock was,” Raney explained.
“And I found out that lovelocks are the padlocks you attach to a bridge with someone you love and you inscribe your initials and you throw away the key to signify your commitment to one another, and that can be in a friendship too, or a family relationship. I thought the symbolism was very cool and something about it clicked. So I texted Zoe, who responded right away with a photo of herself in front of lovelocks on that famous bridge in Paris. She had literally just discovered what a lovelock was on the exact same day. We thought there’s something going on here, let’s sleep on it and get back to each other in the morning. Once we did, it was a pretty easy decision. It just felt like the right name.”
The Lovelocks are touring in support of their debut full-length album, Born to Love, which was released nationally and online in early March, and has rapidly garnered Raney and Neuman significant critical and popular acclaim.
“We’re thrilled. It’s been received very well. Our single Home Sweet Home is doing well across Canada on country radio and CMT is spinning the music video. The album went to number four on the iTunes Canadian Country charts on the day of release, right next to Loretta Lynn – and we were the only Canadians in the top five on that day. It was the fourth-highest selling Canadian Country album the second week of its release,” said Raney.
“We just love watching that different radio stations keep adding the single and having it climb the charts across the county. But even more important is hearing the stories from DJs about how people are calling in and asking for Home Sweet Home. And seeing the amazing social media after people have listened to the whole album all the way through and giving it some really positive reviews. We’re pretty excited about all this and we really feel that we have taken a big step forward with this album.”
The album was co-produced by Grammy-winning Nashville producer Ben Glover and Juno-winning Canadian Mitch Merrett (who is also part of The Lovelocks’ record label and management team). Both Raney and Neuman say they love being able to work with such high-calibre collaborators, including a cadre of top Nashville songwriters.
“We both write but we like to go down to Nashville and partner with other writers to help hone the songs and get them to a better place, and have some really amazing creative collaborations. So we do co-write a lot and we love crafting songs and recording those songs because it means they’re coming from a very real place for us,” said Neuman, adding that the two of them having similar writing styles and tastes.
“Ali and I are both melodic writers, so we will come up with a hook or a chorus, bring it to the other one, flesh it out and then sometimes bring in a co-writer to help finish it off. Sometimes it takes a while and sometimes we have experienced the lightning bolt of inspiration and come up with a song like Born to Love, which was written in an hour. Ali had a riff idea one night when we were down in Nashville. She came into the room we were sharing and played it and we knew immediately that it was a song we had to finish the next day in a co-writing session that we had. We finished that song in an hour that next day, which is very rare, but amazing.”
The songs penned and recorded by The Lovelocks, who are both classically-trained musicians, on both their 2014 EP and Born to Love tend to be about the continuum of love: from longing for love, pursuing the object of your affections, finding love, working to keep love, fearing to lose love, the loss of love and the enduring nature of love.
“I think it’s no surprise that our name is The Lovelocks because that’s kind of what comes out of us. We can’t really sing about anything else because what’s more powerful than love? But it’s about all aspects of love: I think it would be boring if all we were singing were happy love songs all the time. That’s just not the reality of life and what people are going through and we what we’ve been going through in our own personal lives,” said Raney.
“So you write about what you know and you also write about what’s around you. And it’s not like it’s an intentional focus. We don’t sit around thinking, ‘hmmm, what different thing can we sing about love today.’ It’s more that it just naturally comes out of us just like fiddle playing comes naturally out of me and singing comes out of both of us naturally and Zoe playing guitar too. It’s just something that we gravitate towards. We want to tell the story in the truest way and sometimes that’s a sappy song or a ‘never call me again you jerk’ song or the ‘I am going to hold onto you forever’ song.”
The single Home Sweet Home is about two people taking a journey but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are a romantic couple.
“It’s about being on an adventure together, and it doesn’t have to be about your lover; it can be your best friend or a sibling or whatever. It’s about travelling around the world and being on a journey together, having fun and wherever you are with them, they are your home sweet home. It’s not really about a place but a feeling and a connection,” said Raney, adding that the song could be seen as representative of both the career path and friendship she and Neuman share.
Best friends as well as prolific musical partners, the pair have known each other for more than a decade, and have forged a powerfully strong bond.
“We met in church. We were both musical directors at that church and because we were playing the same role, we would always see the other person up on stage. We obviously had a similar skill set and were always intrigued by the other person when they were up there leading the music. So eventually our circles collided and we became dear friends. We soon started collaborating on a number of church and community events as just Zoe and Ali. Every time we performed together we got positive comments with people who said we really should pursue something together,” Neuman said.
“We heard that for years until 2011 or so when we decided to explore that possibility. We just started writing in each other’s living rooms on Sunday afternoons because we both felt like there was something inside of us creatively that we wanted to express and explore it in a safe place. And it’s been a wild ride ever since.”
While they are focused on maximizing their creative gifts and current commercial momentum by carving out a successful, sustainable, long-term musical career, the foundation of everything The Lovelocks do is still rooted in their close friendship.
“We have a lot more to accomplish in terms of our own personal goals as a band and where we want to see ourselves over the next 10, 20 or 30 years. It’s so wonderful to just be on this journey with my closest friend. Ten years ago when we were singing in church, just doing that thing, it would be fun to go back and talk to each other now and say, ‘guess what’s going to happen to you guys,’ because at that time I don’t think either one of us would have believed where we are now,” Raney said.
“We’re just on this crazy journey together in the music business, and not that The Lovelocks and our career comes second, because that’s not what I mean; what I mean is that our friendship truly comes first. We always say we are the CEOs of this company and there are so many cooks in the kitchen once you get involved with larger teams in this business, but at the end of the day it comes down to the two of us and what feels right for us and our friendship. If it feels right and it feels true, then we should do it and we should continue to do it.
“Our friendship is what’s most important to us and it’s at the core of this project and is what makes it all work as well as it does. We want to protect that and that’s a huge personal goal for us because in the music industry, it’s very easy for things to go awry. You hear a lot of horrible stories, so we just really want to protect our amazing relationship above all else.”
As for what sort of show folks in Tamworth – or anywhere The Lovelocks perform – should expect, Neuman summed it up thusly:
“We are often described as The Dixie Chicks meets Mumford & Sons, meets Allison Krauss meets The Lumineers. Our original music is roots country, so it comes out very acoustic but also very high energy. So there will be lots of toe tapping, lots of clapping and crowd participation. It’s just an evening of fun, uplifting, joyful music,” she said.
“We also do like to take the audience on a journey through all different kinds of emotions and we like to do all different sorts of cover songs, which people will recognize, for those who don’t know our original music. I think people can expect a really fun show that will be super entertaining and hopefully we will make some new fans in Tamworth in the process.”
For tickets to the show on April 9 at the Tamworth Legion, visit tamworth.ca or call 613-379-2808.
For information about The Lovelocks, go to their Facebook page, or their website at http://www.thelovelocksband.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
