BUCKTOWN — You probably haven’t seen too many string quartets on the Hideout stage, especially backing a rock band.
But if you head there on Saturday to catch Cult Canyon, you’ll find the group’s atmospheric folk-rock sounds transformed to dreamlike status with the benefit of added orchestration — an ideal musical interlude away from your chilly January.
Cult Canyon is a new acoustic and rock music group on the Chicago scene, headed by singer-songwriter and Champaign native Josh Chicoine, formerly of The M’s. The group recently released its first record — a three-song EP called “Golden Line” with a flurry of instrumentation and hooks.
Revolving around a string arrangement by Dave Max Crawford, the EP is marked by soft vocals and “warm and full” sound, achieved in part by horns, piano and upright bass.
Chicoine also performs in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, Second Hand News, and those bandmates also join him onstage for Cult Canyon.
The group will bring its songs to life with a string quartet 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave. Nad Navillus opens. Tickets are $15 online. Learn more and buy tickets here.
Cult Canyon has been years in the making, growing out of music that Chicoine wrote in 2019.
A few years later, after receiving an independent arts grant from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Chicoine was tasked with “making a record with friends” — and Cult Canyon was born.
Evocative of Laurel Canyon’s legendary folk and rock music scene, the band’s name is also inspired by a conversation between Chicoine and Second Hand News drummer Mike Holtz, who referred to The Heavy Heavy’s music as “canyon cult music.”
“If a name is a guiding light at all, I think [Cult Canyon] is positive,” Chicoine said.
Chicoine kicks off the band’s discography by singing about growing up and growing pains.
The opening track, “Fall Behind,” is about getting older as a songwriter and trying to figure out where you fit in, while “Big Picture” discusses how difficult it can be to zoom out and see your life in the grand scheme of things.
Chicoine considers the titular track the most successful, and he loves listening to it “very loudly.”
“The sentiment … was just, ‘Take it easy,’” he said. “It’s OK to be just OK. You don’t have to be so striving about everything. And eventually … life gets a bit easier, and you realize that if you can make these offerings and create a community around you of support and then support them in turn — that’s a pretty good life and one worth pursuing.”
There are still about a dozen songs Chicoine plans to drop under the Cult Canyon umbrella this year, some of which lean more into his rock and pop background, fusing his multi-genre-spanning career and expertise into one project. Like California’s iconic Laurel Canyon, Cult Canyon is a melting pot that doesn’t fit neatly into a box.
“Every time I’ve tried to write a song with something in mind, it just never goes anywhere. Like [if I say] ‘I want to write a Cult Canyon song,’” Chicoine said. “I will fail all the time doing that. I don’t know what the expectation is, and that makes sense to me because [the songs] are so diverse.”
Before moving to Chicago and playing experimental, psychedelic music and garage rock with bands like The M’s, Santoponic and Sabers, Chicoine taught himself how to play his dad’s old guitar while studying at the University of Dayton. Now considered a Chicago rock veteran, Chicoine started off with “three chords and a dream,” he said.
“I just kept going and learning songs, and then I started playing, playing at parties and playing for my friends. And I just kept doing that all through college,” Chicoine said. “Then I got encouragement. People had a good time. I joined a couple bands, like cover bands in college, and that was fun. And then started to write songs, really kind of fumbling around with whatever, however you start writing songs at that late age.”
After The M’s, Chicoine fell back into acoustics with Cloudbirds, a band he started with M’s bandmate Joey King. Chicoine describes it as “more of a singing group” with harmonies and acoustic instruments.
That folk-country-inspired sound has continued with Cult Canyon.
“The stuff that I did in 2019 was kind of an offshoot of that even more simple guitar, vocal and instrumentation,” Chicoine said. “I brought a few friends of mine, including Kate Adams, who I’ve been playing with for a while, and she’s just a fantastic singer.
“It’s the stuff that I like to listen to. So hopefully other people do, too,” Chicoine said.
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