Dan Bryk by Darrin Keene

Dan Bryk, irony, pop, Randy Newman, singer, songwriter.

These are the keywords that have been set in code on Dan Bryk's home page to attract search engine users (if they don't work, just type in www.bryk.com and screw the search engines). It would appear these are the defining keywords that represent Dan Bryk.

Or are they?

"Oh man, those were done years ago!" laughs Bryk, a day after the CD release party for his second disc, Lovers Leap (teenage USA/Scratchie). So, do those keywords still hold up as being representative of all things Bryk? "Well, today I might include 'melody' and 'love' as well."

Ah, yes -- love, sweet love. It's a subject that pops up quite frequently on Lovers Leap, and we're not talking about love of the bubbly Meg Ryan/Dennis Quaid sort. No, this is more like love of the Meg Ryan/Russell Crowe variety.

"Yeah, it does sound like a break-up album," says Bryk. "Break-up albums are the shit!" He cites Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Elvis Costello's King of America, David Poe's debut, and Furniture's Food Sex and Paranoia as classic break-up albums.

Bryk's self-deprecating humour also comes out loud and clear on Lovers Leap, much like it did on his 1995 debut, "Dan Bryk, Asshole". This is best demonstrated on "But This Time", a break-up tune where Bryk gets a mouthful from Albertan colleague Kathleen Yearwood about being a "snivelling, self-deluded, lachrymose parasite."

Did Yearwood actually paraphrase a former girlfriend who used the word "lachrymose" to dis Bryk? "Nah, that was my friend Chris Warren. He's a great songwriter. I said, 'Chris, can you freestyle some effusive put-down?' He gave me four paragraphs and I just picked the best."

Granted, the subject matter isn't standard bubblegum, but Lovers Leap sounds rather upbeat, with Bryk alternating between very catchy pop hooks and crunchy piano chords. "I'm a guitar player inside a piano player's body," he says.

His aggressive playing style and pop sensibilities may bring a certain Ben Folds to mind, but Bryk aptly sums up his songwriting and performing style without resorting to references.

"I just want to make records that I'd have loved when I was 18."