Born Ruffians now a four-piece, will be taking time after their current tour to work on a new record. Photo courtesy of Stage Fright Publicity
Born Ruffians now a four-piece, will be taking time after their current tour to work on a new record. Photo courtesy of Stage Fright Publicity
While around 2,000 bands just wrapped up a five-day stint in Austin, Texas for the South By Southwest festival, Toronto’s Born Ruffians were in B.C. to kick start their first Canada-only coast-to-coast tour.
“It’s the kind of thing you wish you could do every year, but it didn’t really make sense for us to do it this year,” said bassist Mitch Derosier of the band’s decision to opt of of playing SXSW. Having played the last two years in a row, “It would just be like us spinning our wheels a little bit.”
Moving forward is certainly something the band is concerned with at the moment, and in fact have done much of in the past year. Having released their sophomore album, Say It, last June, the band is now touring the songs from their recent EP, Plinky Plonk, released this past October. “It’s kind of an odds and ends collection of songs that we wanted people to hear and people to have access to,” said Derosier. The seven-track record is a combination of old and new material. Two of which, “Plinky Plonky” and “Like When You,” were written for the Say It album, but ultimately didn’t make the cut. As well, a solo-acoustic version of “Retard Canard II,” recorded by lead vocalist and guitarist Luke Lalonde, and remixed versions of “What To Say” and “Nova-Leigh” appear on the EP. Finally, the track “First Date Kid” is a collaboration between Lalonde and David Monks of Tokyo Police Club.
“We did some shows with [Tokyo Police Club] in the States where we could actually play that song as an encore, which was really awesome,” said Derosier, enthusiastically adding that he wishes the band could do more collaborations with TPC in the future.
While the band had initially started out as a trio back in 2004, Born Ruffians are now officially a quartet after the addition of Andy Lloyd, former bassist of the 2008 Polaris Prize-winning group Caribou. “With [Lloyd] it was kind of something that was a long time coming,” Derosier revealed. Although he did not contribute to Say It, Derosier assured that, having been playing live shows with Born Ruffians since 2009, Lloyd will be contributing to the writing and recording process for the next album.
The group has been spread out for the past few months – Lalonde having stayed in Australia after their last tour and Lloyd having moved to Montreal – but Derosier assures the band is currently working on some new material.
“Everything’s been done through email and demos that [Lalonde] has been coming up with for quite a while,” said Derosier. “So everything has just kind of been online-based. Our songs exist in the Internet. But hopefully when we all get together they’re going to come out sweet – super sweet!”
After the cross-Canada tour, the band will be shacking up in an Ontario farmhouse in order to “stay there and hang out and just get into the mindset of writing songs and working together and not being distracted by other things,” Derosier explained.
While the new record is surely in its early stages, he hinted that, “We already have a song that has an animal name in the demo. I think that one has to make it on the record just for continuing that tradition of having animals plastered all over our records.”
Catch Born Ruffians when they play at La Sala Rossa on April 1.
Legendary band manager Mark Kates signed grunge bands Sonic Youth and Nirvana in early ‘90s.
Among the many guest speakers who were present at this year’s Canadian Music Week was Mark Kates, the man responsible for getting the likes of Sonic Youth and Nirvana to sign with Geffen Records in the early ‘90s. He is also American psychedelic band MGMT’s current manager. Between presentations, he sat down with the Concordian to answer a few questions about his extensive experience in the music industry.
Concordian: How did you get started?
Mark Kates: The simple answer is that I followed a passion. I eventually moved to [Los Angeles where I] worked for an independent label, which led to my working at Geffen, which was the most visible stuff I did until recently [with MGMT]. After that, I ran [the] Grand Royal [label] for the Beastie Boys, and then I moved back to [my hometown of] Boston where I started a record label […] In the process I started managing, and that’s me now.
Former Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg refers to you as the alternative college radio expert at Geffen Records in his book, Bumping Into Geniuses. What did he mean by that?
Basically, I created the alternative radio department [at Geffen]. ‘Alternative radio’ didn’t really have a definition [at Geffen] until I got there. I was hired because the A&R [talent scout] people didn’t think there was anyone at the company who knew how to market the bands they were signing. So I worked with bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees [and] XTC. [I also brought] Sonic Youth to Geffen, which led to Nirvana [being signed].
People say that the ‘90s were a ridiculous time to be working in the music industry. I heard that the A&R guys had a million dollar expense budget. Is this true?
[A million dollars] sounds a little outrageous, but I will tell you that I used to fly first
class to anywhere over four hours [away]. I remember I [once] had a $14,000 round trip to England [just] to go have a meeting with Elastica about the cover of their album. I know that sounds outrageous, but what my bosses would say if they were sitting next to me would be ‘Yeah, and that record was really successful and that plane ticket was cheap in comparison, and back then album covers mattered.’
So my point is that a lot of money was being spent. And every time I would see something that would irritate me, I would go to the head of business affairs [at Geffen] and he would say ‘Look, it’s okay. We sold enough records […] to cover that and a lot of other things.’ So if you’re signing [bands like] Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses [and] Nirvana, if you’re generating – [with] single albums – $50 to $100 million dollars in profit, you can spend whatever you want.
Does it bother you that what most people want to know about you is what you did with bands like Nirvana?
No. I was so lucky to be able to work with that band. The last few times I saw them play was to go talk to Kurt [Cobain] about making a second video for In Utero, which never happened. [But] either on the way to France or on the phone from France […] where I got to see one of their last shows, he admitted that he just didn’t think they could make a better video than “Heart-Shaped Box” and they didn’t really want to try.
I know I had a lot to do with why it happened, but I still consider myself lucky and frankly, I’m very glad that I put [in] the time that I did. I’m so lucky that I got to see them play as many times as I did.
What would you tell somebody who wants to work in music now?
They have to do it themselves. Yes, to some degree it’s up to us [managers] to create the opportunities [for the artists], but they [also] have to reach people themselves. And I’m sorry but yes, there’s unfathomable clutter on the Internet involving music and too many artists that aren’t talented that are taking up space. But somehow people get through. That’s where social media really gives you a chance to get going. Because […] there are people in the media looking for new things all the time. [You have to do] everything you can for your own career and don’t worry about what anybody else is doing. You don’t need a manager until you have too much going on to do it yourself.
We Are the City wear masks while playing songs from High School.
We Are the City wear masks while playing songs from High School.
When We Are The City released their debut LP In A Quiet World in 2009, the then 18-year-old bandmates – singer and keyboardist Cayne McKenzie, drummer Andrew Huculiak and former guitarist David Menzel – had not yet played a show outside their quiet hometown of Kelowna, B.C. Yet this is not what inspired the name of the album, as McKenzie pointed out.
“It’s kind of pretentious actually, and I wish it wasn’t,” he chuckled self-consciously. “We came up with this idea that in an ideal world, everything wouldn’t be so loud and fast and careless.”
With a band name like We Are The City, it’s hard not to see the irony in McKenzie’s introspective attitude and modest ideals. “Any time that I’m feeling good about the kind of person that I am becoming or that I am, is when I’m the least careless and the least loud and outspoken, and when I’m as quiet as I can be,” he continued. “I think that there’s a lot of wisdom in being quiet and in taking it all in.”
The indie-pop band – whose sound is reminiscent of Vampire Weekend and Tokyo Police Club – has certainly not become all that it has in the past year by keeping quiet. Last January, We Are The City beat 450 local bands for a top cash prize of $150,000 in The PEAK Performance Project, a professional development program for emerging B.C. artists, run by Vancouver radio station 100.5 The PEAK. Since winning the competition, the trio has gone on to tour Canada’s loud and fast cities several times. The young musicians have had to learn to adapt to the less-than-perfect conditions of tour life, but this, McKenzie believes, has only made them tighter as a band.
“You’re practicing your songs in the most intense environment possible,” he said. At first, the quality of their set would suffer from playing shows in different cities every night. “You didn’t have time really to set up, to get everything right in your monitor, to make sure your vocals were warmed up, or [that] your arms weren’t cold. It’s just the ultimate practice.”
Formed in 2008 while the members were still in high school, We Are The City experienced a minor change to their lineup last year. By the summer of 2010, Menzel – who had become engaged shortly beforehand – had slowly begun to phase himself out of the band. “It was time for him to go on to some different things, I think,” said McKenzie. “It’s just the way it goes when you grow up: you go into different directions.”
Although We Are The City was taking a break, the remaining members had no intention of packing away their instruments. “We just wanted to play some local shows with some local bands,” said McKenzie. “We wrote what we considered to be pop tunes.” The side project, which they named High School, began as a musical outlet and was never meant to be taken seriously. “We Are The City is the band that we really care about and it was under some turmoil, so I think that High School was a great escape from thinking about that,” McKenzie candidly expressed.
However, after We Are The City got back on its feet last fall with the addition of guitarist Blake Enemark, the band decided to record the High School songs. According to McKenzie, the six-song LP – set for release on March 29 – saw band members swapping instruments and experimenting with a drum machine.
“It was a different recording process,” said McKenzie of High School. “We did it way quicker – It’s pretty much a live record except for the vocals.” The High School album, however, represents a transitional period for the band, and McKenzie hinted that after their current tour, the group will be headed back to Kelowna to work on some new material. McKenzie revealed that they have written about half of the songs for the new record. These, he noted, were written with Menzel, but the rest of the album will be written with Enemark.
Having won a ton of cash at such a tender age, it may be surprising to discover that the band, over a year later, is still hanging on to the majority of their winnings. Rather than spending it all on international tours and parties, McKenzie assured that, “We have always maintained this frugal attitude of ‘no unnecessary spending.’”
But, he continued, “I feel like it’s kind of our job to party in a sense. That’s what being in a band is about, and that’s what you’re doing on stage: you’re supplying the energy for people to let loose.” However, it’s clear that for We Are The City, their job as musicians take precedence over the endless opportunities to party. Put simply: “I’ll continue to be blown away as long as I get to go around in a van and play piano.”
We Are The City play with Aidan Knight and Rah Rah at Casa Del Popolo on March 8.
Dawn Tyler Watson’s first big moment as a blues singer came when she was invited to take the stage at the Montreal Jazz Fest in 1998. Watson, who finished a Concordia music degree just four years earlier, walked out on to the Labatt Blues stage in front of 8,000 screaming fans and remembers thinking: “This is crazy. I’m not even a blues singer!”
Now, 13 years, hundreds of shows and countless awards later, Watson still emphatically believes that she didn’t choose the blues: the blues chose her.
“I never decided to become a blues singer, but hey – they didn’t have a school of rock at Concordia!” Watson said with a laugh. She enrolled in the music program, studying theatre as well as music. Watson was still interested in jazz, hip hop and R&B when she completed her degree in 1994, but soon after graduation she was approached to take part in a blues compilation album. The budding musician decided to try her hand at writing a couple of songs. To her surprise, they became big successes, and a blues career was born.
On Saturday night, Watson danced, twirled and sang her way through several sets of music at the House of Jazz in the McGill Ghetto, clearly enjoying every moment, and making it clear that she has no qualms about the path her life has taken. The smiling Watson was dressed in black with plenty of bling, and her crystal ball earrings bounced as she easily worked the crowd. “You want to hear a joke?” she asked at one point. “The Maple Leafs winning the cup!” She broke into infectious laughter before smoothly leading into the next song.
Watson is a successful product of Montreal’s moderately-sized but vibrant blues scene. She has won over 10 major blues awards – including six consecutive Quebec Lys Blues awards – starred in the 2004 film Jack Paradise alongside Roy Dupuis and toured the world. In two weeks, her music will take her to the North Pole, where she will entertain the Canadian Forces. As can be seen, the blues have been good to Watson.
The Montreal blues scene, however, has been suffering in the last two years. Watson said that it’s harder for many musicians to book gigs, and funding has fallen off a little. “It doesn’t seem as easy,” she said.
Her manager Brian Slack, who runs Zeb Productions, confirms that the blues scene has fallen on hard times lately. He blames the tanking U.S. economy, which has caused sponsors to withdraw from the blues festivals which are integral to artist exposure. He says that bars, which he calls “the schooling ground for blues bands,” have also been struggling. All of this adds up to less places for artists to play and make money. Currently, he is booking acts for one of the major blues festivals this summer. He has had over 1,000 submissions for 75 spots.
Still, Slack insists that despite diminished opportunities, the genre is still alive and well. “The scene is inundated with good blues acts,” he said. And he insists that, if given half a chance by the media, blues music would be popular. “So many people see blues at the festivals and absolutely fall in love with the artists,” he says. “But after the summer they go home and forget about it, because the radio won’t play the blues. Getting media attention is the hardest part.”
Slack is working hard to keep the blues in people’s minds after festival season finishes, and he is not alone. A network of groups exist all over the country, including the 150-member Montreal Blues Society, led by President Irene Ippersiel. Her society runs a website and a newsletter dedicated to promoting local artists, as well as helping artists to sell CDs and helping to organize blues series and festivals. She shares Slack’s frustration that blues artists aren’t given the attention she believes they deserve. “It is amazing the talent we have on our doorstep,” she said. “And nobody knows about it.”
Watson believes that the scene in Montreal has a unique feel to it. “I think Quebec people have a real affinity for the blues,” she said. “Maybe its their history, the feelings of conflict and exploitation – I don’t know exactly what it is.”
Slack agrees that this city is a great one for blues music. He describes Montreal music as a little more rock-inspired than the traditional, swing-based blues often heard in Ontario. He says that Montreal is also unique for the amount of money it is willing to put into the arts. “Blues musicians here play in theatres, not just in bars,” he explains. “They can actually get grant money.”
Watson believes that there is no other city where she’d rather play. She has lived in Montreal ever since coming to study at Concordia. “I fell in love with the city, and it’s been good to me,” she says. She is amazed by the warm reception she gets, especially from francophones. Although she is beginning to perform a french song or two, she still writes in English. “Being an anglo, I sing to people who don’t understand the words,” she said. “But they understand the music, they get it.”
The next step for promoters like Slack and Ippersiel and for artists like Watson is to raise the profile of blues music in Montreal and beyond.
“The agents and buyers still think of the blues as bar music,” Slack said. “That is something I am trying to change.”
Watson has encountered the same attitude. “Sometimes I’ll play a gig and people will come up and ask me, ‘What are you doing here? You’re so good,’” she said, shaking her head in annoyance. “They’ll come up to me and say, ‘I hope you make it some day,’” she continued, incredulous. “I am making a living with my art. I have made it.”
Slack agrees that he wouldn’t trade in the blues for anything. “There are tons of possibilities in the blues scene,” he said, “but it’s not glamorous like the rock star Canadian Idol crap.” He says too many other genres of music are run by “business people, not music people.” Unlike blues labels and promoters, too many other genres try to find the next big overnight sensation. “They buy into the American Idol mentality, just throwing up an artist to see if they stick. And when they fall, they throw another one up there.”
Slack will stick to the blues scene, where artists may have to spend time paying their dues on the bar circuit, but will be given time to develop, and have a slightly less lucrative, but also less risky career. “This is probably the best music in the world,” he said emphatically. “And it will always bounce back, always be around. It may make less money, but it’s sure[ly]more fun.”
Mike Feuerstack wiill release his seventh album in 16 years this May. Photo courtesy of the artist
Mike Feuerstack wiill release his seventh album in 16 years this May. Photo courtesy of the artist
After 16 years in the business, Mike Feuerstack is no newcomer to the Canadian indie scene. However, Feuerstack, better known under the moniker Snailhouse, is still playing in small towns and in modestly-sized venues.
While an artist’s inspiration and goals may change with time and experience, Feuerstack assured that he’s still the same person he has always been. “I try not to worry too much about who the audience is in advance,” he said. “ Obviously you want to reach as many people as possible, but when I’m making music, my policy hasn’t changed. I’m just trying to make it as good as possible.”
Feuerstack is one of those under-rated musicians who has managed to slip under the mainstream radar in spite of the substantial amount of material he has released, either individually or collaboratively. He has nonetheless maintained a faithful following and has been lucky to work with some successful Canadian artists who double as his longtime friends.
Since the mid-’90s, Feuerstack has been the guitarist for the Ottawa-based, Juno award-winning band The Wooden Stars. At the same time, he has been making music as Snailhouse. His solo work, for which he has released six records, has featured collaborations with other notable Canadian artists like Julie Doiron, who contributed vocals on the 2001 album The Opposite Is Also True. Also, Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara not only played drums on the same album, but also produced his last album, Lies On The Prize. The latter was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in 2008.
Lies On The Prize was the only Snailhouse album to ever gain any critical recognition.
With regards to the music that he has produced over the years, Feuerstack believes that it’s just gotten better. “It’s aged, like a fine wine,” he laughed. From his first release in 1994, Fine, until Lies On The Prize, Feuerstack admitted that his style of music has developed. “It’s become at once more subtle, and also more approachable or easier for people to take in.”
The musician noted that it has become increasingly difficult to get noticed in today’s market. “There’s a lot more music now that is available for people, and a lot more ways to make music available for people,” he said. “So I think it’s pretty saturated. Listeners are not as eager to check things out, but at the same time there’s kind of a nice side of that where the stuff that you put out has to be pretty good in order to get attention.”
This isn’t something that seems to worry Feuerstack, however. In fact, he seems content with the medium level of fame that he has acquired. With a new record entitled Sentimental Gentlemen coming out in May and a regular spot on the bill at various small-scale Canadian music festivals, such as Sackville’s Sappyfest, Feuerstack is arguably a staple in the wider Canadian indie collective.
Like many artists who have “been around the block,” so to speak, Feuerstack has self-released two albums under The Snailhouse Institute for the Recording Arts. The label, he assured, was more of a means to an end than a business venture, since the project dissolved after the release of A New Tradition EP and The Opposite Is Also True. “I wanted those two records to come out and I didn’t have any collaborators who were offering what I needed to put them out, so I just put them out myself,” he explained. However, “I always wanted to have collaborators and partners to help me bring [my music] to the people. I expend enough energy making records and touring. I don’t necessarily want to be dealing with distributors and all that stuff.”
Interestingly, the musician requires that he be able to exercise a high level of autonomy as much as he feels a strong need for co-operation, collaboration and community. This is why Snailhouse music has been an important musical outlet on top of his ongoing work with The Wooden Stars. The former allows him to experience both. “The Wooden Stars is a collaborative effort,” he said. “It’s four people who have more or less equal say in the direction things go.” he said.
As Snailhouse, “even though I have collaborators, things have happened under my direction [and] my artistic vision. The collaborators that I work with are there to help me to make the record that I want to make.” In Feuerstack’s opinion, this difference causes Snailhouse music to come out sounding completely different than the music he makes with The Wooden Stars.
Being Montreal-based, the singer can understand why the city seems to breed artists. “It’s friendly to artists and it’s a place that you can get by fairly cheaply but still be in a big, international city. I think that that attracts artists of all kinds.” However, he did not choose to live there to be part of the scene. “I sort of ended up there for reasons more personal than professional,” he admitted. “Even though I have lots of musical friends there, I don’t necessarily feel like it’s the musical community that is the reason I’m there. […] I really love the city and I plan on staying.”
Snailhouse will play with The Luyas at La Sala Rossa on Feb. 24.
