By Carl Begai

Photographer-turned-musician Omer Cordell doesn’t suffer from delusions of grandeur. He does, however, possess an artistic streak that saw him go from tackling the bass as a hobby to a full album of prog-metal tweaked Pink Floydian-esque songs. A full year in the making, Trailight went from being a blip on social media radar as Cordell began assembling the necessary pieces to an intense musical experience unleashed at the end of May 2015. The do-it-himself experience included a 30 minute behind-the-scenes documentary of the production (found on YouTube) and extensive track-by-track breakdowns all prior to the album release (issued via Facebook), far more than most signed band are able or willing to produce… and for a fanbase that had yet to be established. That’s about to change, as Trailight is slowly but surely gaining some well deserved momentum.

“The Trailight album is the result of a conversation I had with a good friend of mine,” Cordell begins. “I originally released what I call a glorified demo with a bunch of instrumental stuff that I performed myself. That was when I was just starting to play music. What inspired me to do it was an interview I read with a bass player I really like – I started playing bass about four-and-a-half years ago – and he said the best way to explore yourself as a musician is to write music. I thought that was a great piece of advice, so I went out and bought some crappy gear, and taught myself how to record.”

Cordell admits that at the time he had no idea what he was doing or how to go about it. His learning-by-doing approach would pay off in spades when it came time to mix and master the official Trailight debut, The Primitive Mountain. But more on that later…

“I played everything myself on my first attempt – there was no singing on the material – and I compiled a bunch of stuff and over the course of about a year that I wanted to share with people. It was an experiment, really; bedroom demos that made it into CD form. Nothing to write home about, but a handful of people really dug it so that gave me the confidence and push to work on the real debut, which is The Primitive Mountain. It was more popular amongst fellow bassist in the Spector community who were liking the tones and effect. They dug it so I released it as my first thing.”

“A conversation that I had with a friend after the fact turned out to be the most honest review of my music. He said, ‘What you did was great, but imagine if you were to hire musicians that are really great at what they do. Sure, you can play drums, but are you a great drummer? You can play guitar, but are you a great guitarist? How much more can you bring to the table as a performer?’ I really took that to heart. He planted the idea to get other people involved.”

Thus, the Trailight line-up fills in any perceived blanks with vocalist Dave Padden (ex-Annihilator, Terror Syndrome), drummer Ryan van Poederooyen (Devin Townsend Project, Terror Syndrome), guitarists Jed Simon (Scar The Martyr, ex-Strapping Young Lad), Christofer Malmström (Darkane, Non Human Level) and Corey McBain, and members of Sound Of The Sun. This isn’t a wishlist of performers so much as Cordell having the good fortune of being able to tap into a healthy Canadian west coast (for the most part) scene.

“When I was first starting to think about doing this project, considering the vibe and riffs I was coming up with – ‘A Thousand Years’ was the first song I wrote – I knew who I wanted to play drums on it. Ryan has known me as a photographer for years, so when I called him up it was like ‘This may come as a surprise, but I’m making music now…’ (laughs). I asked if he’d be interested in playing on it and he wanted to hear the demos, but he had a bunch of touring to finish with Devin and then record the DVP double album. After that he had time to do my stuff.”

“Ryan came back from Devin’s album recording, learned my songs in about a week or 10 days, we had one day of pre-production where I had a chance to hear what he would be doing in the studio. Three days later we were in the studio and 10 hours later he was done recording. When we were finished I knew why I’d gotten Ryan to do it. He not only fits stylistically, he was also such an immense help with the whole process. I was basically flying blind. I’d been to the studios lots of times back when Strapping was around to take photos, but I’d never actually recorded in one before, so Ryan was helpful in guiding me.”

Cordell also took on outside help to produce The Primitive Mountain, a long and drawn out process that slowly deteriorated as the songs were being mixed. He eventually opted to take on the task of mixing and mastering himself; a daunting task on one hand, but the only option left if the album was going to live up to his expectations. Rather than a play-by-play of events, Cordell channels Metallica to sum up the situation.

“As far as the mix of the album, the first batch of songs that I sent you sound like St. Anger, and the final mixes sound like the Black album.”

Go to this location for the complete story.

Cordell recently issued the following update:

"Here we are! A year and a half of work has now come to an end and what an amazing experience this has been! I am now very proud and very happy to present to you my new album, The Primitive Mountain.

The album is now available for purchase here. A percentage of each album sale will be donated to VOKRA (Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue). Music and kittens, how cool is that?!"

The complete tracklist is as follows:

"Open Doors"
"Sentient Beings Pt. 1 - The Dim Future Of Our Distant Past"
"Sentient Beings Pt. 2 - All That We Are"
"We Are The Ocean"
"Frail Human Form"
"The Primitive Mountain"
"Passer By"
"A Thousand Years"
"Navarino"
"Beyond The Rubicon"

Cordell released a 30 minute behind-the-scenes look at the production earlier this year, which can be viewed below. For information on Trailight go to this location.

Live photo by Duncan Turner