UN: Penumbra Diffuse to my ears seems like an even more experimental album then Sublimation was. Do you think as time goes on with the band you are getting a better grip on what you want to accomplish with the band musically?

Hunter: Definitely. I mean, our concept was pretty well-formed going in to record ‘Spatial,’ but we’ve continued to grow as composers and musicians. The changing sound is simply an outward sign of this growth. However, our musical goals are also constantly evolving, and we’re more interested than ever to incorporate a wide range of influences and sounds into Canvas. I guess we’ve gotten better at finding contexts for those less traditional influences. At its best, a Canvas album should perfectly reflect the thoughts and goals of its creators at a particular time. But, honestly, not enough time has passed for us to decide whether or not we’ve done well!

UN: I was curious to ask where the song titles come from. Do they come before the song and you try to build the song with that feel in mind or are the titles added after the music is completed?

Hunter: They come from different places and at different times. Sometimes they occur sort of before the fact, but most of the time we come up with titles after the songs are already written. Some titles have very direct inspirations, such as “Ekstatik Parataxis” from Sublimation and “Accidents in Mutual Silence” from Penumbra. “Ekstatik” was named shortly after I read Lyn Hejinian’s beautiful prose poem, My Life, which uses parataxis (the juxtaposition of syntactic units without the use of conjunctions) as an aesthetic springboard. In the Greek, Ekstatik translates as “to stand beside oneself,” which opens itself up to further deconstruction. I was ecstatic—beside myself—after having read Hejinian’s work, in which syntactic units literally stand beside each other due to the absence of conjunctions. It’s times like this when I really miss being an English major! “Accidents In Mutual Silence” is a striking line from D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow. It’s used to describe conversation between a husband and wife during a moment of great tension. I was so moved by its poignancy that I decided to crib it for a title! Shakespeare stole things, too, apparently.

UN: Your first two discs were released by Tribunal Records, while your latest was released by Sensory. Do you think that Sensory might know how to market the band better then Tribunal? Sensory is more of a progressive based label, so it seems like the perfect home for the band.

Hunter: Yes, Sensory is definitely the perfect place for Canvas. In fact, becoming a part of the Sensory family has been a dream of ours for some time now. It’s amazing and exciting now that it’s actually happened! Sensory definitely markets to a different audience than Tribunal, and one who, I imagine, will be more open to what Canvas does. However, I think Tribunal helped expose the band to some folks who, otherwise, never would have even heard of Canvas. I hope that the fans we gained during our tenure with Tribunal will stick around for the ride!

UN: While definitely not lacking in technical flair, I’d say that Penumbra Diffuse almost comes across as soundtrack like in nature. Some of the tracks are very atmospheric and would work quite well in a soundtrack setting. Have you ever put any thought into possibly making a visual accompaniment to the songs or possibly ever contributing music for a soundtrack?

Hunter: Very cool that you picked up on that element. We were quite inspired by film scores during the writing of Penumbra Diffuse, and I totally think it shows in parts, especially in “Luminescence” and parts of “Vaihayasa.” Goblin is an obvious touchstone, but the work of people like Ennio Morricone, Goblin, Basil Poledouris, Ulver, John Carpenter, Toru Takemitsu, and Hans Zimmer can’t be ignored. If our music only occasionally has that sweeping, cinematic quality, then I’m pleased! It would be amazing to do an original score for a film, but I haven’t the foggiest how we’d go about doing that. Hopefully someone involved in film will hear the album and invite us to take part in a project. I would expect us to take the visual element much further on future releases. We’ll see…

UN: One thing that I definitely enjoy about Canvas Solaris is that the songs aren’t just vehicles for technicality. A lot of instrumental music is just a way to play a five minute guitar solos. Solos are quite infrequent in your music actually. Do you think it’s more important to have substance to the songs then it is to show off how much you can do musically?

Hunter: Thanks! Our music is all about communicating emotions and images, not about gratuitous soloing. I don’t think our basic songwriting process differs much from bands with vocalists. Our songs are constructed from the same basic ingredients: chords, riffs, drum beats, synthesizer parts, all forged into parts and then arranged into larger pieces. A lot of the instrumental music to which you refer—the type made by a lot of shredders and other “guitar god” types—involves soloing over simple rhythmic ideas, and it’s difficult to call this kind of stuff “music.” Granted, John Coltrane, in his later years, would solo for up to an hour at times, but it was pure and inspired expression. What I’m trying to say is, soloing is fine as long as it’s purposeful and inspired. But in the context of CS, soloing will always be a melodic supplement (or pure chaosnoize! Hail Beherit!). The solos are always written after the riffs are written and the songs put together.

UN: I was surprised to read that you guys have already recorded the follow up to Penumbra Diffuse. Will the music be any different? I’m assuming we will have to wait quite sometime before it will be released considering that Penumbra Diffuse is still quite new itself.

Hunter: Yeah, it’s a bit different from Penumbra. To my ears, it combines the melody and structural clarity of Sublimation and the density and experimentation of Penumbra. It’s a synthesis of those two approaches, I suppose, but it doesn’t really come off as such. It’s likely the most aggressive/technical thing we’ve done, but it also has a dark ambient aspect that’s quite unlike anything we’ve explored in the past. I imagine that it will be released in early 2007, but that’s entirely up to Sensory at this point. We’re really pleased with how it turned out and, naturally, eager to see how listeners respond to it. Hopefully well!

UN: Jamie King has produced the bands last three albums. Why do you keep coming back to him? Do you find that he understands what you guys are going for? Does he offer ideas or are things pretty much worked out exactly ahead of time?

Hunter: What can I say? Jamie is just the consummate producer, and he’s turned out to be our Terry Brown, in a manner of speaking. To address your second question specifically, Jamie understands EXACTLY what this band is about and what kind of sound we’re trying to achieve. All of Jamie’s instincts are great, he has an amazing ear, is an accomplished musician, and just knows his way around his gear. As well, he’s an amazing guy and has become a close friend and ally. His sense of humor has gotten us through many late nights, believe me! He also grew up listening to and loving a lot of the same bands as we did: Death, Cynic, Atheist, Believer, Anacrusis, and a host of other great bands from Earache and Roadrunner’s early 90s rosters. In terms of the ideas he offers, they mostly have to do with sounds/effects and production approaches, since our music is worked out almost to the note before we enter the studio. He and Nathan work very closely on harmonies for Nate’s solos, however. Nathan, like the rest of us, trusts his ideas implicitly.

UN: The last question made me think of this. How much improvising do you guys do in the studio? Is everything set in stone before hand, or do you guys keep adding and layering until you are all satisfied?

Hunter: Like I said, absolutely none. Our music is thoroughly composed and arranged before we go into the studio. Occasionally, Jamie will suggest a little something here or there, but only in terms of very small things. That type of rigid composition is central to what we do, and it doesn’t allow for any improvisation.

UN: I was wondering if any of you guys were still in college. I remember reading that school had held you guys back from touring as much as you would have liked to it the past. Do you guys still have the ambition to play a lot of shows or do you find the compositional aspect of the band satisfying in itself?

Hunter: Ben and I are still both in graduate school. Ben is working on his Ph.D. in Psychology and I my MLS in Library and Information Science. Geography has limited our touring more than academics, though. Nathan and I are only 2 hours apart, but Ben is a bit further away. That being said, we’re going to play a string of East Coast dates this August, so that’s really exciting for us. We definitely still have an appetite for playing live, and we really look forward to the challenges that these shows will present. However, our hearts are in composing and recording. For us, those are the most important things without a doubt. It’s the creation of music in which we’re most interested. I imagine that will always be the case.