Chad VanGaalen makes himself at home

June 19, 2011|By James Reed, Globe Staff

I have two kids, and we have dance parties in the studio. Its a wicked place… (JARED SYCH )

CHAD VANGAALEN

With Nat Baldwin and Gem Club

At: T.T. the Bear’s, Wednesday, 8:55 p.m. Tickets: $12. 617-492-2327, www.ticketweb.com

Chad VanGaalen’s music often gives the impression that he makes it holed up at home, toying with ideas he doesn’t have the heart to abandon. That’s essentially what happens, but there’s a big difference between being a homebody and a hermit. The Canadian indie-rock musician savors his life off the grid but clarifies that he’s not quite a recluse, either.

“It’s not that I’m not social. I don’t have, like, cobwebs on my arms and a silver wizard beard or anything like that,’’ VanGaalen says recently from his home in Calgary, Alberta. “I just have everything I need here. I’ve got a garden and a studio, and my kids are here. My wife works from home, and we got a wicked view of the mountains, and the river is right beside us.’’

That sounds like an idyllic setting for his artistic endeavors, which also include illustration, animation, and painting. Since 2004, VanGaalen, who comes to T.T. the Bear’s on Wednesday, has been releasing underrated guitar-driven rock records that feel both insular and universal. Recording for an indie label in Calgary, VanGaalen got broader exposure when Seattle’s Sub Pop rereleased his debut, “Infiniheart,’’ in 2005.

By his own estimation, VanGaalen started to take music seriously at 18, which he considers late. Before that he had been hooked on drawing, bolstered by a childhood love of comic books. Taking a cue from his father, a landscape painter, VanGaalen picked up a brush soon after that.

He comes across as modest about his different talents, but VanGaalen has nonetheless become known for all of them. His albums feature his psychedelic artwork, and he’s perhaps the only indie artist associated with a hand-drawn font of his own design. (Unfailingly, his name appears in the same block letters on every album cover.)

“It’s important for me to be me,’’ he says. “I also find that there are a few things about my art that are consistent. They might be pretty subtle, so it’s nice to have one thing that unifies it. The font is definitely one thing that I’ve always stuck with.’’

VanGaalen also recently animated the trippy video for “Peace on the Rise,’’ a standout track from his latest album, “Diaper Island.’’ He frets that the video’s subplot about the “gay space Vikings’’ isn’t more apparent.