The Fabulous Thunderbirds Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Still Tuff Enuff

The legendary Thunderbirds remain 
Fabulous after all these years

Looking back on a career that spans 25 years, Kim Wilson couldn’t be happier with the view. As a co-founder of the seminal American blues outfit, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, the renowned singer and harmonica player has rubbed elbows with the elite of R&B, headlining music festivals around the world. It has been a long road from TFTB’s early days as the house band at a bar in Austin, TX, to opening for the likes of Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. Seeking out like-minded musicians with superior technical skills and a penchant for working the pocket, Wilson has successfully reconstructed the electro-blues juggernaut with Mike Keller stepping into the guitarist position formerly held by Jimmie Vaughn and Duke Robillard, Randy Bermudes on bass, and family-act Johnny and Jay Moeller sitting in on guitar and drums, respectively.

“I love this band,” reports an enthusiastic Wilson. “Things are running so smoothly and every single one of the guys is on such an even keel that we are able to improvise everything we do on stage, right down to the set list. We’ve struggled with that balance in the past. It’s a fine line. You don’t want to kill yourself, but you’ve got to have the desire to do it. When we were kids we were anaesthetized and didn’t feel it as much, but you don’t get to see much of the cities you’re touring when your head is stuck in the toilet. I was a wild man back then, now my head’s clearer and I can accomplish a lot more. There’s no limit to our creativity.”

Describing their fabulous sound as an “American hybrid,” the Thunderbirds get their biggest kicks out of bringing their bombastic blues-on-fire antics to audiences in a live concert atmosphere. Pulling out all the stops when he hits the stage, Wilson’s powerhouse performances bring crowds to their feet, with his soulful vocals and harmonica chops that summon the strength of a full-blown horn section. While he has cut back on his 250-gig-a-year schedule, Wilson is always open to new artistic ventures, finding that his talents as a lifelong bluesman are still very much in demand.

“I’ve been so fortunate to get to do a lot of these things,” he says. “Over the years I’ve played on more than 200 CDs. I find it very gratifying to be able to bring friends into the studio who are little-known but possess immense talent. Some of them are the last of their kind. There are really only a handful of true blues musicians left in the world today, so if you hear someone playing harmonica in the background on some record, check the liner notes — it’s probably me.”

• The Fabulous Thunderbirds join Woodstock rockers Canned Heat, blues-rock institution Savoy Brown and more at the Calgary International Blues Festival, August 7 to 10.

by Christine Leonard

Orignally published August 7, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

Nardwuar Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Dispatches from the Nard Nest

The Human Serviette offers up old interviews

‘Doot doola doot doo’ — Hark, I hear the call of Canada’s favourite guerrilla interviewer, Nardwuar the Human Serviette 

Armed with a camera, microphone and that unmistakably grating voice, Canada’s own plaid-clad menace, Nardwuar the Human Serviette, cut his teeth on college radio and community access television in the ’80s. Steadily building a reputation for meticulously researched yet strangely awkward interviews, Nardwuar has had exclusive and revealing videotaped encounters with some of the biggest names in music. Known for stunning his unwitting prey with rapid-fire questions, he has a special penchant for steering the subject towards Canada, often referencing obscure facts.

A history major who wrote his thesis on the Kennedy assassination, Nardwuar has painstakingly archived his own journalistic trials and tribulations for posterity. This winter, he’s treating his fans to a dual dose of his zany antics in the form of Welcome to My Castle!, a double-DVD compilation of early exploits, and a full-length musical CD by his fun-loving pop-punk ensemble The Evaporators.

The new DVDs delve into Nardwuar’s past, from high school to 1999. “The earliest clip is from when some friends and I got dressed up to go trick-or-treating one Halloween and rented a video camera to tape the whole thing,” he explains. “We went to Jim Pattison’s house. He’s the guy who brought Expo ’86 to town. He’s like the Donald Trump of Vancouver. He actually invited us all in and gave us a tour of his mansion! It’s wild to reflect on it because now he’s a billionaire!”

Welcome to My Castle! offers hilarious tidbits, including clips featuring Bob “Gilligan” Denver, and one of Nardwuar’s personal favourites, Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees. The dual discs feature five and a half hours of interviews with a dizzying array of famous and now infamous players, ranging from Ron Jeremy to former president Gerald Ford.

Not content to merely reminisce, Nardwuar continues to record and release his own original music with his bands The Evaporators and Thee Goblins. Taking inspiration from the people and landscape around him, he unflaggingly demonstrates his affection for his hometown and Canada in general on The Evaporators’ new Gassy Jack and Other Tales.

“The new CD is all about Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,” Nardwuar explains. “It’s an homage to the city, and there are all kinds of allusions to the Vancouver pioneers. We have a song about float planes, because those seem to be everywhere. We have a song about E.J. Hughes, who was a great Canadian painter who died in Nanaimo. We have a couple of songs about Saint Roch and navigating the West Coast. We even have a song about the sasquatch.”
Whether by default or design, Nardwuar has evolved into a professional celebrity interviewer; awarding him the unique position of an artist who is able to profile other artists and find out what makes them tick (or tick them off).

“I think that publicists these days are really good at warning their bands that ‘OK, this guy Nardwuar is a freak and there’s nobody like him,’” he says with a laugh. “But sometimes they forget. They leave the door open. Most of [the interviewees] probably forget about me the minute the interview wraps, although I was recently at a show and The Mighty Thor came up to me and said ‘Snoop Dog says hi!’”

Due to the combination of his dentist-drill-like interrogation methods, his ultra-nerdy appearance and his mild-mannered aura, Nardwuar has inevitably become the target of abuse by some of his interviewees. Sebastian Bach and Quiet Riot both reportedly destroyed his interview tapes. He’s been repeatedly robbed by Snoop Dog, mouthed-off by A Simple Plan, and Alice Cooper hung up on him mid-sentence. Despite this blatant mistreatment, Nardwuar has persevered over the years, earning both cult-status among music aficionados and the grudging respect of his would-be peers.

“The first time I interviewed Courtney Love, she scared the shit out of me,” he admits. “I wanted nothing to do with her ever again! But on another occasion, I won her friendship by buying her cigarettes, and she smuggled me backstage at a Nirvana concert. Not only that, but she also helped me to interview Kurt Cobain by helping along the conversation when he was only going to give me one-word answers. For example, I said to him, ‘So, Kurt, I hear that you’ve been surfing,’ and he’d just say ‘No.’ And she’d be like ‘C’mon Kurt, didn’t you dig clams at the beach that one time?’”
Nardwuar is all too willing to drop his notorious all-tartan wardrobe in the name of shameless self-promotion. He dares to bare his sasquatch-like chest hair inside the case of his new DVD, and has even produced an exclusive sliding pen that sees the usual curvaceous bikinied girl replaced with his hirsute form.

“Kelly Rowland once said she’d fly to Vancouver to watch if I ever got my chest shaved,” he recalls. “But I’d never shave my chest, not even for Beyonce! The Spice Girls are in Vancouver right now. I don’t think they’ll be talking to me, though. Which is unfortunate. I’ll talk to anybody — the formula remains the same. You go down the list and once you’ve gotten your answers, get the hell out. And by that I mean don’t stand around grinning like an idiot, like I did after I slipped into a press conference and asked Gorbachev which world leader wore the biggest pants. I should have headed for the door before anyone noticed I wasn’t supposed to be there.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published December 6, 2007 in FastForward Magazine.

The Real Tuesday Weld : Stephen Coates Interviewed by Christine Leonard

The Clerkenwell Kid

All you other Tuesday Welds are just imitating

‘I immersed myself in four months of monastic study in the mountains of Spain. 

I didn’t find enlightenment, so I came down again’ — Stephen Coates 

Still waters may run deep, but it is the invisible current of the long-dry riverbeds beneath Clerkenwell, London that floods the senses and dreams of Stephen Coates. A musician by divine intervention rather than derivation, Coates is the intellectual and creative power behind The Real Tuesday Weld, a past-meets-present portal between musical eras and ideas. A master of sonic manipulation and timing, Coates uses a 1960s-style French cabaret backdrop to display his cut-and-paste reimagining of the British big band sound he grew up with. A place out of time, the spirit of Clerkenwell haunts each track as clarinets and oboes weave quirky-yet-catchy melodies around grainy, tin can vocals that recall the days when radio was the people’s medium of choice.

“My work is filtered against the background of Clerkenwell, the old neighbourhood where I live,” says Coates of one of his greatest sources of musical inspiration. “The city is an ancient and living thing that has cycles much like our own. I feel like I’m living in a process rather than a place. We are embedded in the past even as we send tentacles poking into the future. That’s what my music represents and what I tried to communicate with my early EPs and my first LP, At the House of the Clerkenwell Kid. I really love 1940s British jazz and the ’60s jazz chanteuse movement. I wanted to sample that sound and cook it up with some electronic minimalism to give it a new flavour.”

Translating his abiding love of visual art, film and literature into musical form, Stephen Coates paired his talents with those of writer and long-time friend Glen Duncan to create a unique audio soundscape to accompany live readings of one of Duncan’s novels, I, Lucifer. As fate would have it, what was to be a one-night-only piece of multimedia performance art grew in popularity and scope to comprise The Real Tuesday Weld’s second full-length release. Released to great public and critical acclaim in 2002, I, Lucifer the album featured the runaway hit “Bathtime in Clerkenwell,” a nonsensical and nostalgic romp that appears on several film soundtracks and was even used during an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. Being thrust into the international spotlight has been an interesting experience for Coates whose biography reads like something from a Somerset Maugham novel. Walking the razor’s edge between life and art, he continues to pursue enlightenment through entertainment by tuning his personal listening device to a higher frequency.

“I have to confess that I practiced Buddhism for quite a long time.” Coates confides. “I left the Royal College of Art and immersed myself in four months of monastic study at a monastery in the mountains of Spain. I didn’t find enlightenment, so I came down again. Actually, my new album, The London Book of the Dead, is modelled after the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is a guide to help the soul move between lives and intermediate states of being. I understand that Americans like big portions, so there are 16 tracks that follow a chronological path — childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood, death and rebirth all over again. There’s wonder and optimism, but it’s balanced with cynicism at the same time. I felt it was appropriate because upon my return to London I experienced birth and death firsthand. I unexpectedly became a father and my own father died a week later. It put me into a real psychic spin, an unhappy whirlwind that had me pinned between birth and death.”

Tapping into his innermost thoughts during this difficult time, Coates utilized his mental discipline and love of art to channel his emotions through a musical conduit. He studied Jung and Hillman, and apparently had a shamanistic vision while camping in Wales, where actress Tuesday Weld and jazz legend Al Bowlly (who died in 1941) instructed him to become a musician. A genuine “go with the flow” attitude emerged as he began to form auspicious friendships and connections with random artists, musicians and authors who entered his circle of influence. As with his alarmingly successful experiment with Duncan in 2004, each of these seemingly random meetings became a catalyst for yet another series of projects and connections.

“I went into a strange place and began to study dreams,” he explains. “I started to take them seriously. I had no big plan; I was just making choices based on instinct. I still had fears, but I was in such an intense state that it didn’t matter. I’ve been very fortunate. I’m not sure what else I would do if this music thing hadn’t worked out.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published October 18, 2007 in FastForward Magazine.

Matt Costa Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Living on the Edge

Former skater Matt Costa finds new thrills

“I don't believe everything I see/ and if you don't like the movie, then quit acting,” sings Matt Costa on “Mr. Pitiful,” the track that opens his latest full-length album, Unfamiliar Faces. A fitting sentiment for a multitalented individual whose own life has unfolded like something out of a Hollywood script. Considered a local hero around his old stomping grounds in Huntington Beach, California, Costa originally made a name for himself as a passionate and innovative pro skateboarder who loved good music and big tricks. His pro dream came to an abrupt end five years ago, though, when he shattered his leg.

“There’s nothing quite like that thrill you get when you’re leaning over a ledge just to see what it would be like if you fell — and then you fall,” says Costa of his former risk-assessment tactics. “Kind of like the time I was in San Antonio celebrating the Fourth of July with some friends. It was the perfect American scenario, with fireworks shot off as a train rolled by in the night. I was so drunk on tequila that I went right over the rail of my friend’s balcony. I landed face first in an agave cactus; it probably saved me from breaking my neck. If I was a cat with nine lives, I would have lost one just then.”

Music became Matt’s solace during the painful 18-month recovery that followed his accident as he channelled his energy into songwriting, singing and playing his guitar. His tentative demo, a homemade four-track recording, soon began circulating the So Cal music scene, eventually coming to the attention of No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumant, and subsequently surfer-cum-mellow-rock god Jack Johnson. Signed to Johnson’s Brushfire label on the strength of his beautiful folk-rock sound, Costa released his debut Songs We Sing in 2005 to critical acclaim and began touring widely with artists including Modest Mouse, Pinback, Gomez, Built to Spill and, most recently, Oasis.

“Not bad, hey?” says Matt Costa of his current tour mates. “I’m going to have to bring all of my muscle to the stage to stand up with these guys. But seriously, it’s an amazing feeling to be performing at this level. I don’t have much time every night, so I try to keep things concise. I’m constantly writing new material, but I also realize that, like anything, there’s comfort in repetition. It’s a form of mediation. For better or for worse, we humans are creatures of habit and we’re all doomed to repeat ourselves. I think that repetition often brings clarity. Like with skateboarding, I don’t think of it as practice — every time is the real thing. Every time counts.”

Making every moment count, Costa now finds his thrills performing in front of sold-out crowds, wowing audiences at festivals such as Lollapalooza, Coachella, Sasquatch, Austin City Limits and Bonnaroo. An amazingly adept observer of everyday minutia, he continues to find inspiration in common objects and ordinary interactions.

“I appreciate the harmony found in simple things,” says Costa, whose tune “Lullaby” was tapped by Johnson for the Curious George soundtrack. “My memories of listening to music as a kid are one of my greatest sources of joy. Sitting down at the piano, I still get so excited about the sound of music.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published August 28, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

Against Me! Interview by Christine Leonard

Anti~Everything!!!

Punk rockers Against Me! catch a new wave

More than a few eyebrows were raised in the music industry when confrontational rebel rockers Against Me! launched their most recent record, New Wave. Snatching the torch of rebellion back from the failing hands of the emo generation, the ever-ambitious eternal cowboys launched a full-fledged punk-roots-revival that embraced the genre’s most literate and intense qualities. Spin magazine called it the best album of 2007, and indie-popper Ben Lee was inspired to do a tribute cover of the entire recording

Since forming in Naples, Florida in 1997, the band has kept its focus on growing as musicians while maintaining an awareness of global issues. According to the group’s bassist, Andrew Seward, Against Me! is constantly reassessing their situation and the way they go about the business of being a band.

“When it comes right down to it, we’re more about surviving than being anti-everything,” Seward says as he relaxes in his backyard in Gainesville, Florida. “People make a lot of assumptions about us. They expect us to be difficult and inflexible, but nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve always been a band that believes in evolving. It’s not that we don’t know what to do; it’s more of a reluctance to be pigeonholed. We’re just trying to figure out what’s best.”

Appealing to the ears of a musically oversaturated public is one thing, but maintaining their status as artists is another. Striving to strike a balance between conscience and commercialism has become an all-consuming obsession for the fiery quartet, which has gone through seven record labels in the course of a decade. Their 2004 documentary DVD, We’re Never Going Home, followed the band as they toured the U.S. while courting million-dollar contract offers from the likes of Universal Records. They never signed.

When they did finally settle on Sire Records in 2005, Seward, along with lead vocalist and guitarist Tom Gabel, guitarist-singer James Bowman and drummer Warren Oakes, stated that their decision was largely influenced by the opportunity it provided them to collaborate with producer Butch Vig, who had worked on Nirvana’s Nevermind.

The band also has a reputation for refusing to take any shit, choosing to roll with the punches when circumstances change unexpectedly. When their third album, Searching for a Former Clarity, leaked to the Internet in advance of its release, the band didn’t whine. They plowed ahead and borrowed the song titles that their fans had bestowed upon the stolen tunes. The incident did help the band realize that people’s attitudes towards music are changing, though.

“Music has become disposable.” Seward reports. “No one buys CDs anymore. They’re irrelevant. Personally, I consider myself a collector — I would rather buy an actual vinyl record than download one of my favourite artist’s works. For instance, our friends in the band Torche just released an album called Meanderthal, and it has the coolest artwork. I really appreciate that; I view art and comics as part of the complete package.

“Of course, technology can’t duplicate the experience of seeing a band live,” he continues. “It is by far the most fun you’ll ever have. Our live show is our strongest asset. Once that goes, we’re fucked.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally Published September 11, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

Gojira Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Heavy Sounds, Heady Philosophy

~ French prog-metal outfit Gojira transcribes

 the Tibetan Book of the Dead ~

The well-worn Old Testament phrase “All flesh is grass” is a terrifyingly factual statement about the transitory nature of human existence. French prog-rock musician Joe Duplantier echoes the adage in the title of his band Gojira’s latest album, The Way of All Flesh, tapping into the universal themes of death and rebirth to develop his unique brand of highly technical yet deeply spiritual heavy metal. Together with his brother, percussionist Mario Duplantier, Joe (vocals and guitar) formed the band that would eventually become Gojira in 1996 in Bayonne, France. Assisted by the combined talents of bassist Jean-Michel Labadie and guitarist Christian Andeu, the Duplantier brothers conceived of the next logical stage in the evolution of heavy music.

“As time goes on, we definitely write music that is more personal to us,” Joe says. “I believe that the more honest you are in your intention, the more original the final product will [be]. The process of recording The Way of All Flesh was a bit of a departure for us, because it was solely composed by Mario and myself…. We shared the same strange mood. We held onto the energy from playing live and were still in that state of mind when we entered the studio. It’s true — once we started to express ourselves musically we didn’t need to talk.”

Intuitively integrating the aggressive rhythms of traditional heavy metal, the prosthetic magnitude of industrial metal and the fantastical reverie of the progressive rock genre, Gojira reaps the full benefit of the boundless horizons they’ve created. Traversing moods and time signatures with an uncanny facility, the energetic quartet alternates between grooving and thrashing until the two become indistinguishable. Duplantier’s vocals range from hellish growls to clean-cut hardcore shouts as he verbally navigates our mortal coil.

Though they’re accustomed to comparisons to tourmates such as Cannibal Corpse, Children of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Sanctity, Trivium, Behemoth, Machine Head and Lamb of God, Joe and company still manage to distinguish themselves from the rising tide of heavy hitters. Tapping into the wisdom of ancient religions, Buddhism in particular, Gojira draw the inspiration for their music and artwork from hallowed tomes like the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Weaving together the wisdom of the ancients with their own personal mythologies, these avant-garde headbangers effectively put the New Age into new metal.

“I’m very interested in all kinds of myths and religions,” Joe explains. “I have a very strong attraction to Tibetan culture, because they are naturally so spiritual. I don’t practise Buddhism, but I feel from my experiences that we hold certain truths in common. I think that death is the last societal taboo because we fear what might happen, probably because we don’t know. I don’t consider discussing the topic of death to be morbid, sad or scary — it’s just something we have to experience. I’m mainly concerned with the immortality of the soul. The Tibetan people talk about this all the time, it was a concept that was understood by the Mayans and the Egyptians, yet modern cultures seem to have lost this knowledge.”

Understanding our connection to nature is also important to Gojira. Exploring such heady topics might seem like career suicide in a genre defined by its intensity, but for Joe, it’s all part of the performance.

“Our music is a mix between increased consciousness and following your instincts,” he says. “It cannot be just one or the other. You cannot separate the human and the animal. Still, we all have some divine spark within us. I like to see what’s sacred; the deeper meaning that exists on several levels at once. When we perform for an audience, our goal is to really re-create that energy and communicate another dimension of experience.”

• In Flames performs with All That Remains, Gojira & 36 Crazyfists on November 14th.

by Christine Leonard

Originally published November 13, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

Death Cab for Cutie Interviewed by Christine Leonard

Catch a Taxi to the Dark Side

Death Cab for Cutie are willing to try anything, now that they’re ‘insane’

Bellingham, Washington’s indie rock sensation Death Cab for Cutie may sound like the logical conclusion to a night on the town with a boozy starlet, but in reality they are named after the song performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in The Beatles’ 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour. Expanding on their previous body of work, which consisted of five noteworthy studio releases including We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes (2000) and Transatlanticism (2005), the Grammy-nominated rock quartet delivered their most ambitious project to date, Narrow Stairs, this past May. Providing a decidedly darker take on DCFC’s bestselling pop-rock odes to teenage heartache, their newest CD stirred waves of dissent amongst fans who had fallen in love with the band’s soundtrack contributions to television shows including Six Feet Under, CSI: Miami, Californication and, most famously, The O.C.. While founding member and bassist Nick Harmer hardly fits the boy-band rebel-without-a-clue formula one might expect of a group that has cashed cheques from The Wedding Crashers soundtrack, he remains pretty much indifferent when it comes to who is enjoying his music.

“I knew we were pushing ourselves,” he says of the new album. “People were saying that we’d gone mad or something. It didn’t border on insane, but we did try to turn things on their head. I think that at the core it’s still recognizable as our sound. We were just stretching into different corners until we felt a massive breakthrough… and now that we’re ‘insane,’ anything is possible. We had to re-approach things in order to avoid running into an audio cul-de-sac. Too many bands go that way and wind up writing themselves into a rut — that will [only] make you successful in the short term.”

Though they’d clearly prefer artistic longevity to quickly gotten gains, DCFC remain somewhat in denial of their status as prom kings of the Billboard charts. Still, there’s no reason they couldn’t strike a balance between popularity and integrity — a balance that current tour-mate Neil Young has struck throughout his career. Like Young, Death Cab clearly have no qualms about taking musical turns that might isolate their audience. Also like Young, Harmer and his bandmates are not afraid to get political at any given opportunity and inspire their generation into action.

“I’m basically screaming from the rooftops for people to please vote for Obama,” Harmer says of the upcoming U.S. election. “Young people especially need to stand up and be counted. I think there’s a huge constituency who don’t show up to vote because they feel disenfranchised, and, like their concerns, are neither heard nor respected. These days, technology and the Internet have equalized a lot of barriers based on age. A 12-year-old blogger can have as much influence as a 40-year-old novelist. People are realizing that they have more individual power and importance than ever before. So often in America it seems like things are geared to looking at the older generation and meeting their needs first. We’re doing what we can to encourage people to make their voices heard.”

Keeping their feet wet on the activist front, the band will soon make its first appearance at Young’s Bridge School Benefit, an annual charity event hosted by the rocker and his wife featuring consistently stellar lineups. It’s all part and parcel of their new regimen of greeting every opportunity with open arms and open eyes.

“We’ve got a new focus when we’re playing, and we want people to know early on to expect the unexpected,” Harmer says.

by Christine Leonard

Originally published October 16, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

Monotonix Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Gaza Garage-Rock

Tel Aviv's Monotonix channel punk’s chaos

The beautiful thing about garage rock is that it can occur wherever a garage is available, and therefore, is by no means limited to being a North American phenomenon. Indeed, carports all over the world resonate with the sounds of homemade harmony and restless creativity. United by their mutual affection for all things rock ’n’ roll, Tel Aviv’s hardcore garage rockers Monotonix have been crossing borders and breaking boundaries since their formation in late 2005. Hailing from a region that is not typically known for its rock music scene, singer Ami Shalev, guitarist Yonatan Gat and drummer Haggai Fershtman knew they were taking a gamble when they first challenged hometown audiences with their unorthodox style and presentation.

“We set up our instruments on the floor and play with the people standing around us,” explains Gat. “It’s about engaging the audience in a real way and making them a part of the experience. We try to get as much audience participation going as possible.”
The effect of the band’s classic rock awesomeness Israeli audiences accustomed to the dulcet sounds of mid-80s Mediterranean soft-rock was immediate and electrifying. Crowds partied into the night, fuelled by the in-your-face performance tactics, and booed promoters when the cops finally showed up to cut the power. Having grown too big for their britches, Monotonix found themselves banned from half the venues in their home country. Moving to New York seemed to be the next logical step for the trio, who went on to play some 300 shows in Europe and the United States over the following two years, including a tour with Silver Jews.

“We had opened for Silver Jews when they played some shows in Israel in 2006,” Gat recalls. “They took a real interest in us and asked us if we’d like to tour with them. We don’t get invited to do much in the way of support shows, and I think we really raised a few eyebrows when we performed before them. Personally, I think it was a really good combination for both bands — the contrast worked great and it made for a very interesting show. It kind of helped that nobody knew what we were about. Silver Jews have a softer light side to them and Ami and I always have a tendency to be loud and heavy. We really like to have fun and play to the edge of our technical and physical abilities.”
Getting physical with their art, the kinetically charged group of friends finally focused their collective clout long enough to produce a fiery EP for Drag City. Aptly dubbed Body Language, Monotonix’s dynamic studio debut was released this fall, officially introducing North Americans to the trio’s unapologetically over-the-top indierock sound.

“In Israel, people are very open with their emotions, especially anger and frustration. We’re very rude, we’re loud and we cut in when people are waiting in line,” Gat says with a laugh. “It’s not good or bad, it’s just different. I think that’s where the in-your-face aspect of our show comes from. We intentionally invade other people’s personal space and enter into chest hair competitions with them. I’ve had a finger shoved up my ass, I’ve been spanked, and one time I had a naked guy fall on me while I was playing. Sometimes I think we’re a little too accessible.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published December 25, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

The Mars Volta Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Interplanetary Bedlam

The Mars Volta continue to defy convention

Psychic intermediaries — revel in the sheer intensity of 

Omar and Cedric of The Mars Volta

Taking their name from a mysterious red planet and legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini’s word to describe change or transition between scenes, The Mars Volta is known for their ability to generate frighteningly vast soundscapes that defy convention. Originally conceived as a sideproject of the well-respected Long Beach, California hardcore ensemble At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta revolves around guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, whose auspicious alliance has seen them release five full-length albums together over the course of the past seven years. Tearing up the Billboard charts and filling capacity shows, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala thrive on gleaning inspiration from a plethora of sources, incorporating elements of progressive rock, metal, jazz, Latin, electronica and even motion-picture soundtracks into their unique melting-pot approach.

“I’ve never considered myself a musician, let alone a full-time one,” says Rodriguez-Lopez. “I have many different interests that satisfy different parts of my personality. For example, I’m currently editing my fifth full-length film, not including all my shorts and documentaries. When The Mars Volta began, I set out to start making a film about the band, thinking that I would capture every moment of this horrible failure that we were about to embark upon. Now I realize that it’s an endless project and every time I think I have my ending something incredible happens so I have to keep going. I always have five or six projects on the go at any given time. My friends and managers think it’s an impossible way to work, but it’s the only thing that keeps me interested and feeling fulfilled.”

Filling their days with writing and recording music has become second nature to Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala, who are affiliated with an endless array of side and solo projects. Their most recent studio album, 2007’s The Bedlam in Goliath, represents the blood, sweat and tears that came as a result of the inexplicable chain of calamities that haunted the record’s production — power outages, disappearing tracks and mysterious injuries, to name a few. While entertaining the masses may not be his primary concern, Rodriguez-Lopez acknowledges he is driven by his own desire to act as a living Rosetta stone — a psychic intermediary destined to spend his life as an artist traversing the chasm between sender and receiver.

“Everything I do, whether it’s music or film or whatever, is a form of therapy,” he says. “Cedric is much the same. He spends a lot of time in his daydreams, and I’m the anchor that pulls him back down from space to say “Hey! Can we please get some of that on this plain?” I transcribe his wonderful thoughts for this dimension. We’re not entertainers, but I am concerned with personal growth and sharing what I’m learning about life. That’s how you figure yourself out. It never ends. It’s like breathing — the defeat and triumphs, all the tribulations — I can’t put it down.”

• The Mars Volta perform at MacEwan Hall Wednesday, May 21

by Christine Leonard

Originally published May 15, 2008 in FastForward Magazine.

The Dropkick Murphys interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Blowin’ sunshine up yer arse!

The Dropkick Murphy's new bagpiper Scruffy Wallace of Calgary brings the boys back home

The Corral Bagpipes and punk rock – they go together like leeks and potatoes, and few know this better than Scruffy Wallace, a bona fide hometown hero and the official piper for the Dropkick Murphys.

Rising through the ranks of fandom to ascend the stage with the band that he has long admired was the ultimate dream come true for this hairy-stemmed Calgarian. Now he has the pleasure of showing off his talents and (what’s under) his tartan to the city he knows so well.

"We’ve been touring like crazy," says Scruffy of the Murphys’ hectic schedule. "But even if I did complain – nobody would listen. We recently played in Scandinavia, and it was just awesome. They have the most beautiful women over there. They seem to breed them, and metal bands, by the dozen..."

"I’m good friends with Jay Bentley, the bassist for Bad Religion, and we got the chance to play alongside them while we were in Europe. I’ve always been a fan of their music – they are the godfathers of punk. Jay and I spent some time hanging out and decided it would be great to do a tour in the fall. I didn’t even ask anyone, we just booked it!"

Of course, if he did bother to ask, no one would listen. But put him onstage in a kilt and hand him the bag and people will listen, especially when his unique instrument is paired with the irreverent yet nostalgic, Celtic pride-centred rock of the Dropkick Murphys. Combining elements of the old with the new they create a distinctive, ear-catching sound that is at once as stimulating and soothing as a warm pint of Guinness at your local pub. And that’s just where you’ll find ol’ Scruff – polishing the bar with his elbows at The Ship and Anchor or The Castle and waiting for you to drop in and buy him another round.

"We’ve always loved playing in Calgary, it’s never run-of-the-mill. We’re continually changing up our set-list to keep things interesting and fresh. We haven’t had much studio time but we have added covers of The Who’s ‘Bob O’Reilly’ and Minor Threat’s ‘Minor Threat,’ which is fun."

Scruffy continues. "We pack an average of 28 or 29 songs per set – that’s an hour-and-a-half, with me playing on about 60 per cent of the numbers, but people are always complaining that we didn’t play for long enough, or didn’t get round to their favourite tune. I’m out of breath after playing four or five songs in a row, maybe it’s the oxygen deprivation talking, but I think that’s a lot, especially when we’re all so sweat-soaked and look like we’ve showered in our clothes." 

DROPKICK MURPHYS perform Thursday, September 28, 2006

by Christine Leonard

Originally published September 2006 in FastForward Magazine.

Bad Religion Interviewed by Christine Leonard

Good God! How Bad Religion endures 

Introducing the new ugly Americans

They say the West is the best and if you’re talking about the sunny beaches and smoggy vistas of Southern California you may not be far wrong. Of course, for Bad Religion’s bassist Jay Bentley you could as likely be speaking of his wet, yet wondrous home in Vancouver, B.C.

As a founding-father of one of the greatest political punk bands ever to grace the stage, Bentley has rocked out in more countries over the past two-and-a-half decades than he dares (or cares) to recall. Still his inexhaustible spirit and love of good music compel him to continue creating memorable songs and to travel as far as necessary to spread the good word and the good vibrations wherever and whenever possible.

Bad Religion’s penchant for seeking out like-minded individuals and kindred spirits has led to a monumental tour which will see the band team up with the union-boosting, whisky-downing Dropkick Murphys in what promises to be a punk rock extravaganza of mosh-worthy proportions.

"This tour has been in the works for a couple of years," Bentley explains of their latest venture. "We’re always looking for bands that are doing their own thing and have something different to offer, and I kept running into the Dropkick Murphys’ piper Scruffy (Wallace) all over the place. We played a festival together in Europe earlier this year and had a great time, so we had to make it happen. He’s from Calgary and I live in Vancouver, so what do you know – we decided to do a cross-Canada tour together. We can’t wait to get out and play! Canada is a great market; the people here really love music. The market in L.A. is so jaded and the Germans just don’t care anymore."

Speaking of jaded, it’s not unusual for a band to be whisked through a pan-global tour without seeing much of their host nations beyond the airport and the venues in which they perform. While Jay Bentley admits that the experience of performing live hasn’t changed much for him over the past decade, he has noted encountering a relatively new air of hostility and reproach when it comes to declaring his own U.S. citizenship.

"Whenever we travel through Europe I’m always awed by the sense of history," he recounts. "On a personal note, the first person I encountered on our very first trip to Germany came up to me and said ‘I love your band, but I hate you!’ I was taken aback, and then he said ‘I hate you because you’re an American.’ I understand it that people in other countries despise America. That’s the true beauty of travelling to other places. You can see firsthand how their culture deals with these issues on a daily basis. I value that global perspective and being able to see how the decisions George W. Bush and his friends are having a negative impact on the rest of the world."

Clearing the decks and taking stock, the Bad Religion crew decided it was time to jump on the "Live in Concert" DVD bandwagon. But, as with all of their ventures, their penchant for perfection soon took over and their long-awaited concert video Live at the Palladium morphed into an all-consuming project that took far longer than anticipated to complete.

"It took a long time for us to finish the DVD," Bentley explains. "When we first started putting material together it was just for fun, that’s how we start most of our endeavours. We thought we’d do a live recording and throw it out there. We worked on it more and more and it just kept on getting better. We’re really pleased with the result."

Weathering the slings and arrows of outrageous popularity, Bad Religion has experienced many more highs than lows over the course of their career, but they have always remained steadfast when it comes to using their music as a force for social change. Furthermore, the band’s stalwart lead vocalist Greg Graffin has made his PhD thesis on religion and evolution, dubbed "the Cornell Evolution Project," available for purchase through the band’s website.

Constantly "raising the sonic stakes," as they put it, Bad Religion has never shied away from confronting the issues, it’s the machinery that drives those issues that has long been their nemesis.

"The thing about Bad Religion that hasn’t changed is that we still really stick with doing what we like, except these days we’re allowing ourselves more freedom," says Bentley of the band’s in-studio esthetic. "We used to have this strict rule that if we can’t play it live we won’t do it in the studio, but that’s so limiting. Now we say – let’s see what’s available to us and use it. As long as I don’t have a foot pedal, I know I’m not fucking with things too much."

By now, putting it all together comes naturally to Bentley, Graffin, guitarists Brett Gurewitz, Greg Hetson and Brian Baker and drummer Brooks Wackerman (such a good name for a percussionist). It seems inevitable that they will continue to produce great music with an even greater message for many years to comes, of course, it has been two years since the band’s last album, the amazing The Empire Strikes First, was released for public consumption. When can we expect another installation in this exciting saga of vocabulary-exhausting, lyrical and musical masterpieces? What has Bad Religion been cooking up in their L.A. studios lately? Bentley lays his cards on the table.

"What have we been up to in the studio lately? Nothing, nothing, nothing. We call it a hiatus. Relaxing? No – terrifying," he laughs. "I always thought of the band as a group of poker buddies or drop-in hockey guys – if we’re available and into it we’ll get together and play when we can. If we don’t get together for a while it’s no big deal. But now we’ve got too many side-projects blooming everywhere, and that’s a sure sign that it’s time to get back to work."

Bad Religion performs at The Corral - Thursday, September 28, 2006

by Christine Leonard

Originally published September 2006 in FastForward Magazine.

The Bouncing Souls Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

The Bouncing Souls stay golden

Jersey punks return to street-smart formula

Race City Speedway Formed in 1987 under the self-propelled banner of their label Chunksaah records, New Jersey’s Bouncing Souls have leapt into the hearts and record collections of fans all over the globe. Along with their insatiable appetite for enjoyment, the band is revered for their old school esthetic and achingly authentic punk rock sound. Think beer-swilling sing-alongs and down-and-out dirty living and you’ll have a good idea of what the Bouncing Souls are all about.

Of course, this rowdy reputation, though well-earned, is only one facet of a band that has risen through the ranks of mediocrity to distinguish themselves as talented musicians, competent songwriters and steadfast companions.

"We’ve been a band for a long time, so it’s important to us to be inspired in what we do," says lead-singer Greg Attonito. "When it came to making The Gold Record, we knew we wanted to do more than make just another three-chord punk song album. Of course, we love that kind of album, and we do it well, but we also like a lot of other kinds of music and we wanted to try something new – to just dive into it!"

And dive into it they do – mosh pit style. After 20-some releases The Bouncing Souls are as feisty and fisty as ever. Their latest effort The Gold Record, successfully recaptures the poignant might of 2003’s Anchors Aweigh, which marked a high point in the arc of their careers.

Returning to the street-smart formula that brought them to the attention of their current label, Epitaph Records (they still run their own label, Chunksaah), they continue to add to their impressive catalogue by issuing CDs and DVDs of their ecstatic live performances. With seminal punk albums like The Bad, The Worse and The Argyle, Tie One On, Maniacal Laughter and How I Spent My Summer Vacation to stand on it’s easy to see why The Bouncing Souls are synonymous with partying hard and rocking out even harder. But the question remains – how can you be part of the "punk revival" movement when you’ve been punk since the beginning?

"I literally knew nothing when we started out," Attonito admits. "I would just hang out with Pete and Bryan while they practised cover songs. Eventually, I started singing along and here we are today. Since then, I’ve learned how to play guitar and drums and some other instruments, too. On our latest album we brought in some keyboards, accordion and harmonica to flesh out the sound. Funnily enough, one of the first songs we ever wrote had harmonica in it, so I guess this is a return to our roots.

"When we were younger we didn’t have an established identity as a band. We were too busy trying to enjoy the journey of making music and following whatever path it lead us down. That’s still the beautiful thing about being in this band – we capture snapshots of our lives and throw them out there for the world to see."

Displaying all their nasty bits to the general public has become second nature. And as over-exposed as they might be, their ever-expanding audience has yet to be deterred by their raucous antics. Quite the opposite. In addition to their plans to dominate this summer’s Warped Tour, the Souls, including guitarist Pete Steinkopf, bassist Bryan Kienlen and drummer Michael McDermott, recently concluded a six-night, sold-out engagement at New York’s infamous Knitting Factory. A musical marathon that, by all accounts, left them drained but completely satisfied.

"Playing six nights in a row was demanding but fun. Next time I’ll take a few weeks to get my voice in shape for it and sing every day," Attonito explains. "By the third night I was just destroyed. But it was very fun and it inspired you to give your all the next day even when you’re thinking ‘Oh, shit! I still have three more nights to go….

"And when you’ve got hundreds of thousands of thoroughly psyched Canadians to play for, you know it’s going to be a fun time. It’s very different than headlining a club tour, the pressure is off your back, you just come out for half an hour and give it your all."

Bouncing Souls perform at WARPED TOUR Thursday, June 20, 2006

by Christine Leonard

Originally published June 2006 in FastForward Magazine.

Andrew W.K. Interviewed by Christine Leonard

This DJ Will Rock You!!!

~~ Close Calls with Brick Walls ~~

Andrew WK takes rockin’ out to the next level

There comes a time in every music lover’s life when they have to acknowledge the fact that most of their beloved artists are touring on behalf of the bottom line. Skyrocketing ticket prices and $80 concert T-shirts are but one symptom of the grossly disproportionate gap between performer and audience member.Stadium rocker extraordinaire Andrew W.K. is the antithesis of your typical money-grubbing, corporately groomed pop star. His approach to his craft is a breath of fresh air that blows into town in the form of a self-propelled Highway Party Cruiser Tour that will see him hit three Alberta venues. Indeed, clad in a tight white T-shirt, even tighter jeans, dark, stringy locks and a bloodied upper lip, Andrew W.K. is coming to your town to help you party down.

"The whole point of going to these places is to be there, to spend time with the people and enjoy interactions based purely on having fun. I wanted to expand my resources and doing these get-together-style concerts allows me to be with the audience and thereby continue adding more experiences. Some of the highlights of the Party tour have come after the concerts, in the two to 10 hours that follow, hanging out with the people who had come to see us play and celebrate."
Seeking to reconnect with his fanbase, Andrew W.K. pulls no punches when it comes to getting in your face. In fact, it was the brutally bloody cover of his breakthrough album, I Get Wet, that garnered as much attention as the music itself. The offending photo of Andrew with a healthy trail of gore leaking from his proboscis was the result of an intentional run-in with a cinder block. Many were intimidated by the sheer violence of the image, but others were intrigued by Andrew W.K.’s unapologetic commitment to the physicality of his preferred genre. Similarly, some of his best promotional opportunities came when he broke his foot while performing on stage and persisted in finishing his tour rocking out hardcore in a steel wheelchair and plaster cast.

"We got some great pictures out of that incident," W.K. muses. "We made the best of a lousy situation. I’ve maintained cuts on my forehead – one in particular could easily be opened up with a fingernail. I hadn’t initially done it for that reason, but a friend explained that it was a common move in pro wrestling to have a perpetual ‘bleeder’ that you could use to get gory. I’ve used it for some publicity shots, but in terms of injury the things that have happened to me on tour, considering the craziness, were thankfully just bizarre accidents and fluke injuries. I don’t blame the events or myself. These things could have happened at home in my own living room."

Happy accidents have led to some of his greatest creative achievements. He recently found himself in the surreal situation of being invited to a songwriting sweatshop hosted by none other than Glenn Quagmire’s objet d’amour, Taylor Hanson.

"I had a great time working with Taylor Hanson. He invited a bunch of people to a songwriting conference at his home in Tulsa. As a musician who usually works as an individual, I’ve never really experienced being a participant in that kind of thing. We all build brick walls to try and reinforce our own tastes and abilities and it works. But at the same time it isolates and constricts you when you could be performing at an even higher level."

Andrew W.K., who has often been accused of being a fictional character, was thrilled to be invited to appear as an animated version of himself on the ridiculously subversive cartoon series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, alongside the show’s stars Master Shake, Meat Wad and Frylock.

"Appearing on Aqua Teen Hunger Force was one of the greatest honours I’ve ever received. I had become friends with the amazing group of people at Cartoon Network, and they wanted me to perform a song on the show. I was so busy at the time that it made more sense for them to write the song for me. I really like the way they drew me and I loved getting to impersonate myself."

A self-made (Iron)man, Andrew W.K. is gradually overcoming a strong aversion to collaborating with anyone on anything. He still records most of his own instrumentation, jumping from guitar to drum kit to mike to mixing board with inexhaustible enthusiasm. Relaxing his grip on preconceived perfection, he plans to invite a number of friends and collaborators to contribute to his next album. Moving rapidly from one project to the next, he wants to launch two new albums and several websites in the next two years. In addition, he plans to give his latest album, Close Calls with Brick Walls, its North American debut in vinyl form. Originally recorded and released solely in Asia, the new issue of CCWBW will feature five previously unreleased bonus tracks.

"I’m very excited that I’m going to be presenting so many projects at once," he says. "It has been kind of a convoluted process, but I really wanted to take my time and focus on each individually in turn."

W.K. is known for working independently and it was only until recently that he entertained the idea of having musicians join him in the studio.

"I preferred to perform every piece on the album myself in order to achieve my ideal results. I’ve always been opposed to the idea of collaboration for some reason, but I plan on opening up with my next album and asking friends to play on it."

Another collaboration for Andrew W.K. is the television show Smoke Show, an idea that stemmed from his experience working on his live in-concert DVD.

"It was really exciting to work with screen and sound simultaneously. I combine words with gut instinct spontaneously and without self-consciousness. Words and images translate visual and auditory impulses into statement. My Smoke Show will be like a winning race-car driver laying celebratory black rubber as he burns a victory lap at Nascar!"


Andrew W.K. performs at Broken City Sunday, April 15, 2007

by Christine Leonard

Originally published April 2007 in FastForward Magazine.

Megadeth Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Just don’t call him mundane Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine plays a dark duet with Lacuna Coil

Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine really has been to hell and back. Hailed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time this thrash metal icon with the nimble fingers and snarling voice has weathered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and lived to tell the tale. Purportedly a "born again" version of his former demonic incarnation, Mustaine still retains his onerous reputation as a fiery redhead who’s not to be meddled with. "Just don’t ask about Metallica," warned his PR rep moments before this interview. Close to 25 years after his forced expulsion from that band, the story still resonates through the hallowed halls of heavy metal. However, were it not for his legendary ego, volatile temper, creative impulses, intense personality and penchant for revenge, Dave Mustaine might never have led such an improbably long and successful career. Though monumental, the path he has carved out for himself is a treacherous one characterized by alcoholism, drug addiction and constant infighting with his fellow musicians and record labels. Having given birth to some of the most seminal albums in the annals of heavy metal including five consecutive platinum releases (who could forget Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? or Killing is My Business and Business is Good?), Mustaine seemed untouchable – until recently. Years of hard living and, yes, old age have finally caught up with the man who brought us Youthanasia. Motorcycle crashes, kidney stones, relapses, radial neuropathy, Saturday Night Palsy, electric shock therapy and radial nerve damage to his priceless left arm have all taken their toll. "Megadeth was blackballed from early on," he explains. "There were bad connections internally and externally. People misunderstood our lyrics. They thought we were preaching suicide. MTV vetoed our videos because they were pissed at our director – and radio follows MTV. It caused a huge chasm between the credible and the questionable, and we had to adjust to survive. It drove us underground. But that sounds like complaining and I don‘t like to whine." Rehabilitating himself and remastering his craft, Dave Mustaine’s determination to move forward culminated in his championing of 2005’s Gigantour festival, an Ozzfest-like concert tour that, while gratifying, reminded Mustaine of why he prefers to focus on his own band instead of facilitating others. In fact, this self-professed control freak admits he has learned that he’s better off letting the suits run the show behind the scenes while he concentrates on the music. "I’m far better off if I keep my hands off of things they shouldn’t be on and on my guitar," Mustaine chuckles. "I have the greatest management team in California by far, and this is one of the most exciting periods for me in my entire career. I’m taking advantage of the fact that I can be completely confident in their abilities, and that’s allowing me to work on all the projects I have lined up including redesigning my webpage. I’d rather worry about what things sound like than justifying myself to MTV armchair quarterbacks." Megadeth’s freshly minted 2007 release United Abominations signals Mustaine’s return to doing what he does best – pulling devastating headlines from the news and setting them to fantastically intricate speed metal. He confirms the rumour that in preparation for this, his eleventh studio album, he had been hunting down none other than Lisa Marie Presley to accompany him on a remixed version of the single "A Tout Le Monde." Perhaps it’s for the best that The King’s daughter was unavailable so goth princess Cristina Scabia of Lacuna Coil was cast in the role of accompanying female vocalist for the track. "It was kind of cathartic revisiting that song," he says. "I usually prefer to do a thing once, make it brilliant and get it over with. The risk of going over a piece too much is that it can become seasonally out of fashion. Asking me to go back and reproduce an album is like asking me to go back to the birth of one of my children and saying ‘OK, what would you change about them?’ But, it was actually fun to go back and revisit this idea. I had originally hoped that Lisa Marie Presley would sing on the album, she is a talented singer with a legendary pedigree. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out. We had to make an educated guess and it seemed like Cristina had the most credible voice out there. Doing "A Tout Le Monde" as a duet was a no-brainer, the song is a fan favourite and the performance Cristina gives is fantastic. Evidently, Lisa Marie was really sorry she wasn’t able to do it." As jaded by his tumultuous past as he may seem, Mustaine proves that he still has a few tricks up his three-quarter-length sleeve. His victorious appearance on Music Jeopardy! alongside fellow contestants George "Funkadelic" Clinton and Moon Unit Zappa confirmed his intellectual prowess as well as his ability to laugh at others, if not himself. "Funnily enough, I watched a tape of that show when I was visiting a friend in England. I thought it was a narcissistic experience. After having gone over a performance once I like to improve and move on. It felt weird and self-consumed to watch myself again. I was just trying to be kind to poor Moon. She’s such a tent peg. Right before the show George Clinton told me he was going to nab my jacket and I thought ‘I’ve got to take this guy out!’" by Christine Leonard Originally published MAY 31, 2007 in FastForward Magazine.

Mudhoney Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

MUDHONEY STILL ROCKSLike a stick in the mud ~ Old grunge is the hardest to remove

Mudhoney takes their name from a film made by Russ Meyer, the Ed Wood of heavy-breasted swinger flicks, with whom the band shares an ample, albeit warped, hippie-rock esthetic. Their song "Beneath the Valley of the Underdog," serves as a dual tip of the hat to both Meyer, who also directed the brilliant "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," and Charles Mingus, who composed the inspirational "Beneath the Underdog." Formed in the mid-80s, Mudhoney are the original grunge-rockers, and are considered to be one of the most influential bands to emerge from the West Coast musical mecca of Seattle.

Along with fellow Washingtonians Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, Mudhoney's signature thrashy yet down-home style rock ’n’ roll helped them to pioneer a then burgeoning musical genre. The earthy power chords emanating from Steve Turner’s guitar were a perfect match for Green River alumnus Mark Arm’s watery vocals. Dan Peters climbed behind the drum kit, and Matt Lurkin (whose name appears in the title of a Pearl Jam song he inspired) provided a solid bass for Mudhoney to grow on. "Touch Me I’m Sick," the band’s debut single, was released in 1988 – a sleeper hit, the tune enthralled listeners with distorted guitar riffs, wah-wah pedal overtures and obnoxious screaming. The band’s first EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, followed soon after and paved the way for mainstream acceptance of their heavy, lo-fi garage sound.

Despite talent and cohesion among its members, Mudhoney has never achieved the chart-topping limelight enjoyed by their peers. As other groups around them squabbled amongst themselves, split up and faded into obscurity, Mudhoney kept on keeping on. Even after Kurt Cobain’s death and the subsequent culling of grunge culture from the collective conscience, Mudhoney continued to perform for their ever-loyal fans. They have produced more than 10 albums in the span of little more than a decade, many of them still stubbornly pressed on vinyl.

"For me, it’s what I love to do," says Arm, discussing this trend-proof approach to music. "I was playing music for years before that whole grunge thing took off, and doing whatever I had to do to be able to do it. I’ve never quit. We didn’t really have any expectations going in. It’s not like me or anyone else in the band has ever had any goals of like ‘We’re gonna make it and if we don’t make it in five years we’re gonna quit.’ You know, to me, this is my life."

Lurkin has recently left the band, and new bassist Guy Maddison has stepped up to the plate. Mudhoney’s most recent album, March to Fuzz, a retrospective best-of double-CD, has fuelled audience nostalgia with one disc of choice cuts and another of little-heard rarities. Arm reveals that another Mudhoney album is in the works, and they are currently in the process of selecting producers on a song-by-song basis, hoping to tailor the sound of each track to their liking.

"It’s still rock and roll. The next album should be available on vinyl and should be on Sub Pop, too. What we’re planning on doing is, as we come up with songs, going to four or five different studios to people that we want to work with and compiling them all onto one record."

In the past, some fans and critics have been frustrated by the band’s long-standing policy of crediting all songs to Mudhoney as a collective on their liner notes. Arm asserts that this is the most accurate reflection of their creative process, and may have been a key factor in preserving the group’s integrity.

"I think it’s kind of obvious what each person does. Dan plays the drums – so he’s written the drum part! Even if someone brought in a whole completed song, it’s still going to get changed when everyone works on it.... A lot of times petty jealousies are created within bands. Credits and royalties disputes can cause bickering and in-fighting. We didn’t do this intentionally, but I think it’s added to the longevity of the band by keeping the egos out of the way. I mean, the fact is that anyone who gets onstage is ego-driven to some degree."

The band recently played with Motörhead in Portland, where Arm was thrilled to meet Lemmy. It's been some time since the band last visited Alberta, so Mudhoney is eager to make a brief jaunt across the border just to visit Calgary for two consecutive shows. While he admits that life-related commitments have limited their ability to tour widely right now, Arm promises that we will see a "potpourri," a veritable "goulash" of old and new material performed at these shows. He readily acknowledges that fans want to hear the classics, and as he puts it: "We’re not afraid to take it down memory lane. The Canadian people have always been good to us."

Mudhoney performs October 26 & 27, 2001
The Night Gallery

by Christine Leonard
Originally published October 2001 in FastForward Magazine.

Michael Franti of Spearhead Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Walking on Sunshine

Barefoot philosopher Michael Franti basks in the glow

When it comes to the upper echelons of world-beat hip hop culture, Toronto may have Somalian royalty K’naan (also known as the Dusty Foot Philosopher), but San Francisco can also claim its own unshod hero of hiphopricy in Michael Franti. It’s been an uphill climb for the 45-year-old reggae-revival heartthrob since he made the decision to eschew all footwear over a decade ago. Always open to new collaborations, Franti — who recently appeared on the television series, What About Me? with 1 Giant Leap — has thrown in his lot opening for guitar shaman Carlos Santana for their upcoming West Coast tour, which is something Franti considers both an honour and a challenge.

“Obviously, I’ve been a Santana fan my entire life,” Michael Franti says. “It’s amazing to be working alongside such a legendary singer and songwriter who’s sold millions of albums, but he’s much more than that. Carlos has taken the lead in San Francisco in terms of speaking out for things like social change, environment issues and the equality of different people and so on. So many times someone with that kinda success gets to a level where they don’t want to risk alienating themselves. I admire artist’s who can supersede that barrier to higher progress.”

Melding elements of soul, funk, dancehall, rock-steady and hip hop into his very own vegan stew, Franti bridges cultures and generations with an intuitively groovy sense of timing and a compelling gift for delivering brazen lyrics with a velvet tongue. Critics and fans alike were wowed by the red-eye master’s incendiary 2008 release All Rebel Rockers and subsequent hit single “Say Hey (I Love You)” in 2009.

Franti and his ebullient band Spearhead reunited with Capitol Records almost 15 years after leaving the label in the mid-90. Once again produced under the sage tutelage of rock-steady gods Sly & Robbie, his latest album The Sound of Sunshine effectively encapsulates the singer-songwriter’s renewed sense of thankfulness and purpose following a near-fatal bout of appendicitis in late 2009.

“I’m looking forward to working on some really cool projects in the future,” Franti says. “I’m always collaborating with guys in my band and we’re already working on the next recording with Sly & Robbie. We’ll be taking the studio on the road again and trying out new songs on tour. I drive the guys crazy because I’ll go into dressing room and ask them to play a song we just wrote that day, or make changes based on the way it went the night before. I’m so anxious to try things out.”

By now an expert at gauging a crowd’s reaction to a given song, Franti has found that the satisfaction of bringing joy to other people may be his highest calling. From travelling the Middle East in search of lasting harmony to mixing up a masterpiece at his Balinese retreat, Franti has come full circle in returning to the city and the circle of supporters that inspired his Beatnig past and sparked him to catch a fire.

“At this point, I write songs for audience rather for personal reasons,” Franti explains. “It’s coming from that place of gratitude. It’s different when you don’t write for yourself. Writing for others drives me to hone each song to its best essence. Our songs can be so uplifting, positive and danceable, but on The Sound of Sunshine the songs are also so personal.”

He elaborates: “That record is about my experiences with almost dying and being so grateful to be alive. This new record is concerned with trying to make sense of the planet. Not that I have answers for economic crisis, climate change, earthquakes and tsunamis. I’m just trying to put it all into perspective. What does it all mean? It’s about me wanting to see signs that things are improving, as if I’m watching the world as a snapshot from outer space. And, every day I’m alive I try to see one of those small signs.”

Santana with Michael Franti & Spearhead
Scotiabank Saddledome Monday, August 29

by Christine Leonard

Originally published August 25, 2011 in FastForward Magazine.

The Joy Formidable Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Chorus of descent

The Joy Formidable generates its own gravitational field

The latest “it” band to emerge from the U.K. is The Joy Formidable, an emerging Welsh post-rock trio with its own Celtic cross to bear. Hailing from “the land of song,” the genre-shaking trio holds its nation’s reputation true for producing nonconformist choral arrangements, but in this case the unconventional vocal harmonies are baptized in a font of feedback and swathed in robes of electro-synth magnificence.

The girl-boy duo responsible for the band’s frenetic bipolar frequencies and lush Jesus and Mary Chain reverberations are sonic-soulmates vocalist-guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd, who originally met during their school days. Recording together in London, the burgeoning group produced an admirable effort in the 2008 single “My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees,” but really hit the mark a year later with the launch of the corpulent EP A Balloon Called Moaning. Granted the Radio 1 nod of approval, the airplay The Joy Formidable’s stormy grunge-pop received enjoyed a warm zephyr of acclaim that carried their austere amplitude around the U.K. and eventually across the pond.

“I think we’re an oddity in that we haven’t relied on hype,” says Dafydd, the band’s bassist. “The people who come to our shows are genuine fans, and it is honest word-of-mouth promotion that’s gotten us to this point. People are definitely catching up with our stuff as it gets released in various territories and even though it can be a bit strange visiting various places and people for the first time ever, we embrace the challenge. One of the reasons we’re so excited about our first trip to Calgary is that we’re always itching to get out further afield. I love the feeling when people sing our songs back to us, because it shows they’re emotionally invested in our music.”

Acquired by Canvasback Music via Atlantic Records, the freshly signed ensemble’s full-length debut, The Big Roar, hit American shores in January of 2011. While some bands might consider the sizable collection of eight tracks presented on A Balloon Called Moaning to be a full-fledged LP, Rhydian asserts that The Big Roar is the realigned trio’s official coming out party.

“Balloon is essentially just a snapshot EP; a real bedroom album. We’d prefer that people notice The Big Roar as our debut because it offers something more substantial and enduring,” Dafydd says. “Ultimately we were striving to create a debut that covers all emotional ground we occupy. The Big Roar’s nature is not contrived, but it is conscious of the need for peaks and troughs. Everybody enjoys ups and down, so rather than thematically stringing together 12 singles, we embraced our desire to explore our range.”

Linking up North American tour dates, the inimitable Joy Formidable, which shares its nationhood with fellow musicians Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and Bonnie Tyler (to name a few), has found a fan in the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl. Currently, working with the Foo Fighters’ noted producer Rich Costey for its forthcoming single “I Don’t Want to See You Like This,” Rhydian and company’s melodic melancholia came to the ears of the former Nirvana drummer as he was cruising the freeways of California.

“The tour with Foo Fighters is a very nice deal for us,” Rhydian says. “Dave’s a super guy and it has all happened naturally and organically. Apparently, he was driving when he heard one of our songs on the radio and wound up humming the tune the whole way home, trying to remember it. Later he found out who it was and tracked us down old school. Since then we’ve met up when doing a couple of the same festivals and started a neat little relationship that’s grown into this huge tour. He’s very down to earth and there’s a mutual appreciation that arises out of the belief in steering our own ships as artists. From day one, we’ve been involved in dictating anything that concerns creative choices or our band’s ethics and principles. You could say it’s all part of our gangbang mentality.”

He chuckles, and then adds, “We’ve always felt like we’ve got blinkers on. You need to block out the chatter to see the real truth in what you’re doing and people’s perception of it. It goes hand in hand with our way of thinking. Being a success is more than a matter of interpreting whatever you think the scene is needing. To be shit hot live band you’ve got to deliver something more than just a tune that’s easy to dance to. Believe me, being anti-formulaic isn’t easiest thing.”

The Joy Formidable
Republik Monday, September 5

by Christine Leonard

Published September 1, 2011  in FastForward Magazine.