KYUSS LIVES - Interview with John Garcia by Christine Leonard-Cripps

They are risen

Extended desert sessions with Kyuss Lives

Akin to a 1930s horror flick that has a demented physician yelling “It’s alive! It’s alive!,” the resurrection of one of the greatest rock bands of all time is nothing short of a modern heavy metal miracle. Evolving from an extraordinary 2010 tour that saw Kyuss alumnus John Garcia performing some of the band’s oeuvre backed by Dutch and Belgian musicians, the new manifestation of the stoner rock deity can only be described as epic.

Some 15 years after the group disbanded, vocalist Garcia was met with an unexpectedly intense demand for the sprawling desert rock anthems the Californian band made famous on seminal albums such as Blues for the Red Sun and Welcome to Sky Valley. If there’s one thing that Garcia has learned in his career as an entertainer it’s how to take his cues from the audience and, thus, a formal reunion with bassist Nick Oliveri and drummer Brant Bjork was announced shortly thereafter.

Working under the moniker Kyuss Lives!, with six-string rebel Bruno Fevery standing in for original guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal), this souped-up iteration is back to presenting their subgenre-founding soundscapes to audiences across the globe.

“Yeah, it’s great to be back on the road again,” Garcia says. “We’re really looking forward to coming through Canada. Canadian audiences have traditionally been really awesome to us. And, it always feels a little bit extra special performing north of the border because Canada’s the only place where you can catch us with a different lineup. Scott Reeder comes with us when we tour up there due to mixed legal issues. It’s a treat to perform with Scott on bass and switch thing up a bit; it has worked out really well for us in the past.”

Looking back on a year that veritably booked itself under the steam of popular appetite for the band’s masterful montages and cosmic mythology, a middle-aged Garcia and his cohorts have struck a balance between their domestic- and career-based responsibilities. Reasonable enough to (temporarily) forego side projects in favour of committing to the cause at hand, Garcia finally feels as though the momentum that began with his 1989 high school band Sons of Kyuss has finally come to bear fruit.

 Eager to head back into the studio to craft the first new Kyuss effort in over 15 years, Garcia anticipates a summer 2012 release for his reconstituted drone-rock entity.

“I’m so happy to do another record,” Garcia says. “All of our projects are taking the backseat because we’re having so much fun. It’s hard to believe that I’m able to walk into a studio and start writing Kyuss songs again. I wasn’t sure if we could actually go back to that feeling, but after a cocktail or two and a little puff here and there the songs will write themselves, or they won’t. Either way, we no longer wrestle with them.”

As for the sound of the new material, Garcia adds, “We want to maintain the Kyuss standard for certain. At the same time we’re excited and curious about the stuff we’re going to be putting down. We’ll be exploring new tangents and avenues, but I wouldn’t expect a polka album. I think it’s going to be a rock album. Good things happen when you put nice people in a burning room together.”

Family men with kids and wives of their own, the founding fathers of Kyuss have become respectable citizens long after they earned the esteem of their peer and patrons. Getting back into the business of making music at 42, Garcia definitely isn’t interested in letting anyone else hold the reins of his galloping livelihood.

“Ultimately, the higher powers have to let us make the big decisions,” Garcia says. “My level of personal responsibility has gone up 150 per cent. I’m taking things a lot more seriously and at the same time I’m a lot more appreciative to be able to do this for a living. There’s always an element of surprise when you don’t know how well you’ll be received, and so far things have been amazing. I still can’t believe we haven’t been swept to the curb.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally published November 24, 2011 in FFWD Magazine 

In Media Res: Bookmarked for Action

Stuck in the middle with you:
In Medias Res jumps into the heat of battle

by Christine Leonard
August 18, 2011  

Vancouver’s phantom indie rock outfit In Medias Res remains true to its name as the reluctant quartet picks up roughly where it left off with the release of its sophomore LP, It Was Warm and Sunny When We First Set Out. Already an up-and-coming concern with a steady fanbase and some novella-worthy road stories to its credit, In Medias Res, hung up the ol’ “Gone Fishing” sign under mysterious circumstances. According to vocalist Andrew Lee, the band’s fate remained in post-rock limbo after an exhausting tour in support of their debut album Of What Was until popular opinion finally revived them.

“To the public we haven’t really been a band since 2006,” says singer and guitarist Andrew Lee. “We had to field all kinds of rumours as people wondered if we were still together, which didn’t help the situation that was brewing internally. When we hit the road in 2005 it was with a purpose. We wanted to win over every city we played. When we returned home at the end of all that the applause we were receiving seemed automatic and it weirded us out. It was too comfortable; it didn’t require us to push.”

Leading up to its second LP, the band broke through the ennui envelope with the stellar 11-minute opus “The Dark Crystal,” launched on a name-your-price basis online this past December. Reinvigorated by this successful return to form, the foursome felt that the time had arrived to embark on their next full-length attempt. Recorded with Jonathan Anderson (Aidan Knight, Radiogram, Stabilo), who also contributed vocals and background instruments for the album, as well as production duo Dave Carswell and John Collins (The New Pornographers, Destroyer, Tegan and Sara), It Was Warm and Sunny When We First Set Out demonstrates the frenetic fraternity of Lee alongside drummer Steve Watts, lead guitarist Ash Poon and bassist Ryan Flowers.

“It feels good to have the album out after so much buildup,” Lee says. “Even though we weren’t performing we still got together and jammed as a band on a regular basis. We practiced every Thursday night and on Saturday mornings we’d go for breakfast and then jam. These songs came out of that lull period. It’s us singing it out.”

Twenty-something juggernauts, In Medias Res continually delight and surprise with a hard-hitting and quirky style. Auspiciously, its fast and hooky sound gained professional confirmation this June when In Medias Res was “discovered” by Vancouver-based File Under: Music. The label quickly set about releasing It Was Warm And Sunny When We First Set Out, producing hard copies of the LP that took three long years to complete in less than three weeks, much to the group’s obvious delight.

“Schematically, the way this album came together is a total accident,” says sonic youth Andrew Lee. “As a songwriting man, I think the apocalyptic images of romance that ends in death represent the extremes we’ve allowed ourselves to go to in finding a new direction and a new place to start. We’re done with hashing out our influence; we dealt with the bands that we wanted to be on our first album. We’ve branched into a more faithful punk rock sound. It’s a totally new game for In Medias Res.”

AMON AMARTH - Interview with Ted Lundström by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Twilight of the emo gods

Amon Amarth pushes the Valhallan threshold

 

Named for Mount Doom in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga, Amon Amarth is one of Sweden’s preeminent death metal bands. As melodic as it is brutal in their musical methods, berserker vocalist Johan Hegg, guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg, bassist Ted Lundström and drummer Fredrik Andersson have forged eight full-length releases since the forging of their frostbitten coalition in 1992.

Intermeshing dark funereal themes with lightning quick riffery and thundering percussion, the so-called Viking metal act has become synonymous with horned-helmets and vicious blade-work thanks to Ragnaröking albums such as With Oden on Our Side (2006) and Twilight of the Thunder Gods (2008). Echoing their ordained "loot-and-pillage" motif, Amon Amarth’s 2011 release on the infamous Metal Blade, Surtur Rising, features pagan-friendly cuts such as "War of the Gods," "The Last Stand of Frej” and "Wrath of the Norsemen," effectively capturing the visceral vehemence and quick-fingered prowess of this enigmatic and galvanizing entity.

Bassist and founding member Ted Lundstrom pauses mid-tour to reflect on Amon Amarth’s mythical past and the uncertainty of navigating the Middle-Earthean path laid out before them.

Interviewer Christine Leonard-Cripps: Casting back to your band’s formative years, how difficult was it to distinguish Amon Amarth from the other “metal” bands who were emerging from Sweden at that time?

Ted Lundstrom: Since we were from Stockholm playing something sounding more like a Gothenburg-style, we never really had to compete with the other bands from our area and at the same time we never sounded too much like the Gothenburg bands anyway...

But as a new band people and press like to label you sounding like this and that and it took a couple of years until people started to say we actually had our own style. I guess you have to reach a level before you stop getting compared to other bands and getting other bands compared to you.

CLC: Why do you think Sweden has become such a Mecca for heavy metal music? Is it something to do with the cultural climate, the physical geography or simply the ability of the individual citizen to pursue their “dream careers”?

 TL: Yes, yes and yes. I think there are as many reasons as there are interview victims. One of the reasons we are playing as a band is probably because it was very easy to start a band in our neighbourhood, we had a youth place where we could borrow instruments and get help from experienced people to get started. Later we also could get rehearsal room and studio time at a very reasonable cost. Where the quality comes from is harder to explain though.

CLC: How did you initially determine what your sound would be, what themes or ideas informed your artistic direction?



TL: We just took inspiration from all the music we listened to and tried to make something we enjoyed ourselves. Black metal was on the uprising at the moment but Satanism was not really our thing so we decided to go towards Vikings and battles instead, I think Johan’s big interest in Norse mythology and my interest in fantasy gave us a little kick in the right direction.” 


Of the eight studio albums in Amon Amarth’s impressive discography which stand(s) out as your personal favourite(s)?

“I like the last three albums best, they are a step up production wise and the songwriting is more mature and homogenic. I still love the old albums; they all have a special place in our hearts.

CLC: Is there a particular album or performance that you believed changed the future of the band?

TL: We’ve had a quite slow and steady growth as a band but I think Versus the World gave us a big push in Europe and in North America Fate of Norns was the album that started something bigger. We also had a north American tour together with Children of Bodom and Trivium in 2005 that was an important step for us.

CLC: How important is it to you to produce music that has meaning beyond the sheer physical enjoyment of listening to one of your songs? In other words, how do you balance intellectual substance with sheer emotional power?

TL: Our music is written as a concept in a way, of course the music is the most important part but we want everything to be a unit. We spend a lot of time to get music, lyrics and also album cover art to fit each other. I think this is something we have from the time we where young and listened to heavy metal vinyl albums. You could spend hours looking for cool details on the latest Iron maiden cover, reading every lyric over and over again, this is something that I miss with downloaded music and also CDs.”

CLC: Which comes first the lyrics or the music? Do you use any musical instruments or techniques that might be considered unusual for “heavy metal” bands?


TL: It could be either way, sometimes we start with some phrases written by Johan and start building the song and other times we might have a full song written and we try to get a feeling of what the lyrics should be about. I would love to say that we’re using old instruments made of reindeer hides but we’re just an old school rock’n’roll band playing guitars and drums.

CLC: How mindful are you of past accomplishments, releases, collaborations when you are penning new songs? Are you ever concerned with repeating yourself? What’s more important – breaking new ground to keep yourselves interested or representing the quintessential Amon Amarth sound and preserving its legacy?

TL: It’s tricky to keep everybody happy, no matter what you do some people will love it and some will hate it. After twenty years as a band we have fans of our older stuff and we have newer fans that prefer the last couple of albums, but in the end we as a band have to be happy with the songs otherwise it would never work.

CLC: What motivates you when you’re going on stage, on tour, or stepping in the studio? 


TL: At a live concert it is the energy you get from the audience that is the motivation, we love to play live. when it comes to the studio it is all about making something better than the last time, better production, better songs. You work hard in the studio for weeks or months and when everything falls into place and you can hear the final product it is a great reward.”

CLC: Any advice (including guidelines for looting and/or pillaging) for the up-and-comers who want to thunder like Amon Amarth?

TL: Just listen to your own heart and have fun along the way. We’ve played together for almost twenty years now and we have had up’s and down’s along the way but there is nothing I regret.

By Christine Leonard-Cripps
Originally published August 4, 2011 in Fast Forward Magazine

Matthew Barber : In Name Only

Barber's misery finds company

Songwriter recruits friends to back him on self-titled album

by Christine Leonard
June 9, 2011

Matthew Barber returns with his six full-length album named, get this, Matthew Barber

We’re all familiar with the saying “misery loves company,” and when it comes to traveling and performing on the open road the pressures and politics of being in a band can often push artists past the point of enjoyment into the realms of a professional private hell. Perhaps that’s why Mississauga’s Matthew Barber has been having such a great time as a footloose and fancy-free soloist on the eastern Canadian folk-rock scene.

“I’ve done the solo thing alongside the band thing my whole career,” the versatile singer-songwriter says. “Solo touring has been a big part of my life for the last six, seven and now eight years. Yeah, I’ve been doing more and more of it recently. I love playing with bands, but the pros and cons don’t always balance out.

“It’s a blast being on the road with friends and the dynamic energy a group can bring to the stage is truly exciting, but it’s also prohibitively expensive. Luckily, I happen to be someone who can play solo and still have that much fun. Plus, the fans who come out to my shows seem to prefer seeing me this way, so I can honestly say I don’t feel like I’m shortchanging them. And, as an added bonus, I actually get to pocket some of the proceeds at the end of the day.”

Bringing it on home in the most immediate sense, the talented multi-instrumentalist opted to record his latest album within a decidedly domestic sanctum. Painstakingly piecing together what amounts to his sixth LP in relative isolation, Barber is pleased to have completed his self-titled 10-track opus just in time for an early June release prior to a cross-Canada run of summer- tour dates with friend Oh Susanna (Suzie Ungerleider).


“This latest record represents a departure in that I usually have whole bands join me in the studio,” Barber explains. “This time I worked on my recordings at home in the basement, recorded all the parts myself and layered them on using a half-inch eight-track analog recorder. I did it my way.”


“Obviously, the songs take a different shape on the road. My approach to the instrumentation is either electric or acoustic guitar or piano; I like to use all three interchangeably, so for live interpretation, it’s just a matter of finding out what works. That’s what I’m busy figuring out at the moment.”

Once again dipping into the wellsprings of his hungry heart, Barber touches on some sentimental favourites for his newest offering. Thumbing through his troubadour’s diary of thought for the perfect poetic inspiration, Barber blends gentle twang-tinged ballads and spirited folk-rock shakers for this warm and woody self-titled release which officially drops on June 7.

A fitting follow-up to last year’s True Believer and the Juno Award-nominated Ghost Notes, Barber’s latest record features 10 fresh yet carefully considered tracks that are immeasurably informed by the musician’s current state of romantic security and bliss; he reminds us of this on the charming cut “Ring Upon Your Finger” with the line, “I’m singing ‘cuz I’m a singer, baby; it’s what I do with my life.” Barber’s slow spiritual swing number, filled with austere and honest vows of fidelity and rootsy harmonica lacing, seems to be destined for alternative trip-down-the-aisle bridal processions everywhere.

“My songs are almost always dealing with something personal,” Barber says. “I tend to write in the first person; the trait of showing my intimate side and what I’ve experienced in life continues on this album. To me, art is about taking that personal grain of inspiration and translating it into something that is more universalized.”

“I want people to feel like they can relate and make sense of the emotions being portrayed. I am in love right now. Of course, it’s easier to write when you’re feeling the blues; art of all varieties goes well with melancholia, but just because I’m in a good place doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and sabotage my life for art.”

“Some people succeed in feeding off of that kind of drama for a while, but it’s a bad trade in the end. I may be a romantic, and I may have even tricked some people into thinking I’m an optimist, but my so-called love songs are all tinged with uncertainty. I like to keep people guessing.”

Matthew Barber performs at Palomino 

EVERYDAY SUNSHINE - THE STORY OF FISHBONE

Metzler doc has Fishbone shining

Everyday Sunshine has vet Cali act navigating the racialized waters of ’70s L.A.

We’re all familiar with the images of public school desegregation in Texas back in 1956, black children being led into their formerly all-white schools under guard as angry mobs jeer from the sidelines. Flash forward some 20 years, and the next generation of African-Americans were met with a similar circumstance, as Los Angeles began bussing students from outlying black neighbourhoods into the city’s more affluent and predictably white high schools. Despite protests by white parents, the likes of Fishbone’s Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher were soon ushered into a previous unexplored environment, one that exposed them to the surf and punk rock culture of their newly acquired peer group.

Already well-acquainted with the worlds of funk, jazz, reggae and R&B, the singer and bassist pooled their talents with drummer Phillip “Fish” Fisher (Norwood’s brother), guitarist Kendall Jones, keyboardist Chris Dowd and trumpet player Walter Kirby to form the original 1979 lineup of Fishbone. Tracing the groundbreaking ensemble’s twisted roots, filmmakers Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson have gone to remarkable lengths to uncover the ins and outs of one of North America’s most influential bands in Everyday Sunshine, screening at this year’s iteration of the Calgary Underground Film Festival.

“They are the storytellers of their age,” explains co-director and writer Chris Metzler. “They grew up in the first post-civil rights generation in the 1970s and were raised with the promise and belief that came with that. The challenge of making the film was to reveal that era of L.A.’s history; it’s one of the most racially polarized yet multicultural spaces in the world. Through Fishbone, we wanted to tell the story of the black experience and the insolence that came from them as a result of the city they came from.”

Of course, no trip to the Hollywood Hills would be complete without some bonafide star-spotting, and Everyday Sunshine doesn’t disappoint. According to Metzler, the directors had a difficult time narrowing down the number of celebrity interviews they could include in the movie. Having spawned innumerable acts in its three-decade career, Fishbone has attracted some pretty impressive followers.

Everyone from Flea to Perry Farrell to Ice T to Gwen Stefani chimes in on Fishbone’s no-holds-barred, genre-straddling, mosh-pit-igniting performances. Stefani, in particular, expresses a deep affection for frontman Moore — his persona has been the single greatest influence on her style as a lead singer. Another of the film’s gems is a smooth and informative narrative thread furnished by none other than Laurence Fishburne, who provides insight into the events and conditions surrounding Fishbone’s meteoric rise to an equally mercurial fall, one that finds the band in court for trying to kidnap/force an intervention on one of its own.

“We tried to stay away from the cache of name recognition in dealing with the celebrities in this film,” says Metzler. “We wanted to stick to people who were family members and close friends for this one, but there are so many who have been personally touched by the band. Contemporaries, followers, friends outside music — there is a lot of admiration for them and a lot of relationships to be talked about. Fishbone has been involved in punk, ska, rock, metal, hip hop.... Everyone wanted in! Laurence knew the band from his days working as a nightclub bouncer back in the ’80s; he was the perfect voice to explain the issues surrounding the film.”

Determined to witness the life of Fishbone firsthand, filmmakers Metzler and Anderson spent three to four years tracking the band on tour, delving into members’ home lives, and watching over their shoulders, as Fisher struggles to get Moore’s alter-ego, Dr. Madd Vibe, to step away from the theremin. Recent and archival concert footage is interwoven with Ground Zero reports, family album-calibre interviews and Fat Albert(ish) animation to deliver an awe-inspiring yet completely sobering account of Fishbone’s tumultuous swim upstream.

“The tough thing about working on a documentary film is that there’s a fine line as to how much filming effects the action,” says Metlzer, of Fishbone’s reaction to being immortalized in celluloid. “In the end you can’t really separate the two, but having a lot of people asking those questions certainly makes the band reflect on things, even when they’re not on-camera. Angelo and Norwood are thoughtful guys, and a lot of the things that came out in the film had been on the tip of their tongues and ruminating in their heads for a while.”

“Sharing these details outside of the self often spurs us on to share even more,” he continues. “What started as a compelling project has become a catalyst. The band is curious to see what happens next. They really loved seeing these interviews; if they had one piece of feedback it was that they wanted to see more of the people. It could have been a 10-hour movie!”

Christine Leonard

Originally published April 7, 2011 in Fast Forward Magazine

Fishbone: EVERYDAY SUNSHINE - video

Kiran Ahluwalia : Exotic Ecstasy and Common Ground

India calling

Kiran Ahluwalia brings the rhythm of Rajasthan to Calgary

by Christine Leonard 

January 29, 2011 

In this age of borderless technologies, scouring the globe in search of exotic sounds has become an internationally favoured pursuit of avid world music lovers and curious musicians alike. Inspired to seek out new rhythms and melodies as she revitalizes her own ethnic traditions in song, renowned Canadian singer-composer-musician Kiran Ahluwalia has plucked some surprisingly connective threads from the tapestry of India and Africa’s mutual musical heritage. A glimpse behind the veil, Ahluwalia’s latest album, Aam Zameen: Common Ground, released via the Outside Music label, reveals the compelling yet largely unexplored intricacies that bind cultures and countries across decades and desert sands.


“I do take in influences from all over the world. I’m not worried about sticking to my two cultures, being born in India and brought up in Canada, if there’s something out there in the world that appeals to me esthetically I use it,” Ahluwalia elucidates. “I’m not about lines and rules and boundaries, and my ears are always open.”


“The first time I saw (legendary Malian musicians) Tinariwen was in 2004 in Toronto at Harbourfront (Festival), and right away, like many people around the world, I loved them,” she continues. 

“Even then, I composed something inspired by them and that composition, ‘Teray Darsan,’ wound up being recorded on my previous album Wanderlust. But that influence wouldn’t shake off of me and I found myself listening to them and other Tuareg groups, and then I met their producer and talked about my fascination. Lo and behold, we started talking about collaboration and it happened. It was exceptional. It was life-changing.”


A fresh take on ancient acoustic mores, Aam Zameen: Common Ground relies heavily on the talents of Tinariwen, which graciously puts itself in the capable hands of Ahluwalia and British guitarist-turned-producer Justin Adams (Robert Plant, Brian Eno). Cross-pollinating her Hindu band with the modern-primitive sounds of these mysterious desert Muslims, Ahluwalia has struck upon a fascinating cultural fusion that has surpassed all expectations. In bringing South Asian and West African artists together in an unprecedented amalgamation of spirit and song, she has found her common ground.


“Tinariwen are a group from the part of the Sahara Desert that falls into Mali and Algeria,” Ahluwalia explains. “These musicians are from a marginalized group. The governments weren’t very good to them, and they’ve had to fight a civil war. So, they’ve used their music to unite their tribesmen to fight a common enemy. Their songs are of political dissent, but also of the actual hardships of life in the Sahara. For me they have a unique music — they’re influenced by American guitar rock, but there’s no need to find a comparative genre in order to understand what they’re doing. They’re more bluesy than anything else.”


Undaunted by the challenges inherent in fully realizing the magic of a studio recording in a live setting, the Juno-winning chanteuse plans to treat her audience to an unforgettable evening. Pairing her cross-cultural explorations with the pageantry of western India’s Rhythm of Rajasthan, Ahluwalia plans to present a vibrant vignette of the Paris, New York and Toronto recording sessions that resulted in the avant-garde Aam Zameen. 

Melding the trance-inducing percussion and guitar of Tinariwen — which famously opened for the Rolling Stones in 2007 — and Tuareg up-and-comers Terakaft, Ahluwalia pilots her ensemble through a wealth of material, including three versions of “Mustt Mustt,” a fitting homage to Pakistan’s ‘King of Qawwalis,’ Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Ahluwalia enjoys mixing things up for the crowd by alternating between Saharan and Punjabi tongues. Whether she’s singing her own original lyrics or those penned by some of Toronto’s hottest Desi poets, her passionate delivery provides ample fuel for an ecstatic experience of global proportions.

“‘Mustt Mustt’ is a classic Pakistani song about Sufi mysticism. It’s not about carnal love; it’s about divine love, spiritual love. We had so much fun recording this song, the first take we did came in at over 11 minutes,” Ahluwalia recalls with a chuckle. 

“We managed to trim it back a bit but included a kinda loungey version and an extended track on the album, as well. With the other Tuareg group, I wrote the lyrics to two of the songs and one I composed myself. I also did a cover of a Tinariwen song with Tamashek words, ‘Matadjem,’ that talks about how to get the Tuareg people to unite, and I paired it with a poem I had written about the partition of India and Pakistan. The song’s message is that you can keep fighting amongst yourselves, but really the world surpasses you. It’s up to us to unite and make a better life for ourselves.”

India Calling: An Evening with Kiran Ahluwalia & Rhythm of Rajasthan at Jack Singer Concert Hall