So far, 2015 has been something of a juggling act for Peter Ricq. Not only has he been keeping up a busy schedule as an illustrator and animator, he also put out an album as one-half of the party-starting dance duo Humans and issued a farewell EP with his now-defunct electro-luau band Ladyfrnd. The latest in this flurry of releases is Geist, his first full-length as frontman of the trio Gang Signs.
For Ricq, along with singer-keyboardist Matea Sarenac and drummer Adam Fink, this debut album has been several years in the making. Gang Signs formed in 2012, and Ricq explains during a phone call with Westender, “I wanted it to be a surf-rock/garage-rock thing with electronic beats and synths. I guess I wasn’t good enough to play fast and I wasn’t good enough to sing loud and scream, and Matea wasn’t really into yelling.”
By the time they released their self-titled debut EP in August of 2012, they had settled into a shadowy post-punk style. For Geist, they strove to continue their evolution and ramp up the intensity of their sound.
“When we put out the EP, so many people were coming up to me after they heard it and we were like, ‘This is my make-out record,’” Fink says with a chuckle. “And so we said, ‘Okay, well let’s up the ante on this and make it a straight-up having-sex record.’”
Despite this raunchy mandate, Geist is more eerie than it is sexy. With atmospheric arrangements that combine live rock band instrumentation with thumping electronic beats and crooned duet vocals, it resembles the XX’s moody minimalism as if repurposed for the dance floor. The dark tone is made all the more unnerving by the fact that Ricq’s lyrics are almost exclusively inspired by horror movie plots.
“I like the ones that are more sci-fi, like The Thing andThe Fly,” the singer says in regards to his taste in scary films. “I find horror movies have a lot of really good love plots. It can be like a romantic comedy, with love suspense. What would you do for your loved one? I like that aspect to it.”
Although Ricq’s horror movie references are never explicit, the creepy vibes seep into every cut on Geist. Opener “Mate” begins the record with spaciously echoing guitar tones, eerily skittering beats and spectral, reverb-doused vocal interplay from Ricq and Sarenac, with the track eventually coalescing into a burbling dance groove. These icy vibes are replaced by an industrial surge of aggressive electro-rock on “LA on Monday,” while “Tonight” features lyrics by Sarenac and makes a departure into seductive soul-pop. Of the latter song, Fink observes with a laugh, “It’s the only one that’s not about horror movies.”
These immersive, sonically rich tracks make Geist the kind of record that’s equally suited to banging club parties or late-night headphone listening.
“We always describe it as dance music for people who don’t like dancing,” Fink jokes. That being said, the songs become even more adrenalized during live shows, when the band jams out upbeat passages and embraces its most energetic tendencies; all three members have extensive experience as DJs, so they’re adept at presiding over a rapturous rager.
The trio has a scattering of tour dates planned for the coming months, and the musicians hope to hit the studio to record some songs for a short EP soon. Meanwhile, the ever-busy Ricq has finished a graphic novel, and next year will direct a feature-length horror movie. Audiences can expect these works to channel the artist’s signature spooky style.
“I think the overall aesthetic of the stuff that Pete does — if it’s Humans or if it’s Gang Signs or if it’s his comics or his animation — it does have a very ‘Peter Ricq’ vibe to it for sure,” Fink observes. “If I see a piece somewhere and I don’t know it’s Pete’s, I can usually recognize it as his right away.”
• Gang Signs performs at Fortune Sound Club on Nov. 5 with Mesa Luna and Heroshe. Tickets $10 at Red Cat, Zulu, and online at BPLive.ca
