Check out the recent feature that Los Cabos Drumsticks did on Andrew.
Read the entire article on the Los Cabos web site.
April 30, 2013
Tag: Press
December 10, 2012
Absence makes the heart beat faster for Kanata musician
From: www.yourottawaregion.com
By: Jessica Cunha | Dec 08, 2012 – 10:00 AM
Steve Gardiner releases first album in eight years
Absence Makes the Heart Beat Faster is a fitting title for Steve Gardiner’s first album in nearly a decade.
The Ottawa musician is releasing his third full-length solo album after an eight-year hiatus. The record features 12 rock tracks with two bonus club mixes thrown in for good measure.
“I’m just so excited about it; it’s been a while since my last release,” said Gardiner. “There was a big stretch where I didn’t put anything out … I went through a lot of personal changes in those years.
“I had done so much for so long … I just kind of stopped doing it for awhile.”
Gardiner, who was a member of the bands In and Out and Thermocline, started tinkering around at his home recording studio again after helping another Ottawa band with a demo.
“Like any musician, it flows through your blood,” he said. “I kind of really got back into it again … I started writing some songs and it just started taking shape.”
Gardiner spent the next two and a half years writing, recording and producing the tracks with his band – which includes Andrew Lamarche on drums, Dan Joseph on bass and Brent Miller on guitar.
“It’s the first one I’ve done myself,” said Gardiner. “I ran the show. The only thing I didn’t do was mix and master it.”
Working without a record label allowed Gardiner to spend time on each track.
“I’ve been out (of the music scene) for so long; when this comes out it has to be great,” he said about his third album. “We did it on our own time; we did it the way we wanted it to sound.”
Absence Makes the Heart Beat Faster is available online through iTunes and cdbaby.com.
LIVE
Gardiner said he and the band are rehearsing now for live shows in the new year, including an official launch for the record in February.
“I really believe it’s the best album I’ve done so far,” said Gardiner. “I really want to get out there a promote it.”
He added the band is planning to play as many festivals as possible over the summer.
“I’ll play somebody’s basement if I have to, just to go out and promote the album,” he said.
Hyperactive, the first single released from the album, is about Gardiner’s re-discovery of himself.
“I just kind of felt that it was a heavy enough song; after not doing a record in so long you kind of define what your sound is and where it’s going,” said Gardiner.
Although he enjoys some pop music himself, with so much of it saturating the market Gardiner said it’s an interesting time for rock musicians.
“You kind of go, where does rock sit right now?” he said. “I think there’s a hole right now. Pop is really big but for those hardcore rock lovers, if they want to check out something new and Canadian, I would encourage them to check (the new album) out.”
© Copyright Metroland 2012
January 15, 2009
Robert Farrell Band (rfb) featured in the Ottawa Citizen
The great unknown
By Fateema Sayani, Citizen Special January 15, 2009
Robert Farrell would be happy to lose the title of ‘greatest undiscovered guitarist in Canada.’
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen, Citizen Special
Robert Farrell has spent the past 25 years studying, teaching and playing the guitar. He knows the ins and outs of the thing and is often heralded for his inventive techniques such as the double slide.
Six years ago, Billboard described him as “arguably the greatest undiscovered guitarist in Canada.” It’s an accolade, but a trying one –“undiscovered” has cachet, but it’s only fun to be that way for so long. As such, frontman Farrell wears the frown of frustration.
We meet one afternoon at the Elmdale Tavern. A regular patron stuffs coins into the CD jukebox, trying to hear most of Exile on Main Street. Paperbacks line the wall and the titles bring to mind classic-rock songs: Behind Closed Doors, Bastard Son, and Dance With the Devil.”Give us the cool look,” the photographer prompts. Farrell and his bandmates flinch in response. Drummer Andrew Lamarche (Artificial Joy Club, David Gogo) and bass player Stephen Clarke (Lister) provide the comic relief — gesturing, joking and launching out random musical trivia to chew over. They, along with Farrell, have successful careers as session players.
Continue reading “Robert Farrell Band (rfb) featured in the Ottawa Citizen”
July 9, 2008
Jon Amor Review
From The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, July 6, 2008 – Page A9
REVIEWS
Artists work it together
By Lynn Saxberg
Another highlight of yesterday’s daytime festivities was a performance by British guitarist Jon Amor, who demonstrated the fruits of his own made-in-Ottawa collaboration. In a crisp white shirt, Amor, who grew up a few kilometers from Stonehenge. made a terrific impression on the River stage, thanks in part to the Ottawa band that accompanied him.
As the tall, skinny Brit blazed the frets, pledging his allegiance to electric blues-rock, a rhythm section made up of Ottawa bassist Pat Giunta and drummer Andrew Lamarche made sure his playing was given a maximum punch. On songs like Rose Coloured Glasses and I Can’t Keep Living Like This, two of the expressive anthems from his latest disc, Unknown Soldier, they were cooking.
Mind you, Amor has a knack for getting along with people. One high-profile gues on his disc is Robert Plant, who dropped by the studio to contribute some bluesy harmonica.
February 17, 2008
Andrew in Pearl Drums News
See Andrew in the Pearl News.
“Pearl Canada endorsee Andrew Lamarche is braving the weather while performing throughout Winterlude 2008 with Swing and The Campbell Brothers….brrrrrrrr!”
March 27, 2006
Order of the Day – Chart Magazine Feature
Order of the Day was featured on the Chart Magazine website today.
From http://www.chartattack.com/
NEWS
Four Canadian Acts Featured In Budweiser Music Promotion
Monday March 27, 2006 @ 06:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
Four Canadian acts are among the 15 that should gain American exposure as part of a campaign to promote Budweiser’s new Select brand.
Ottawa hard rockers Order Of The Day, singer/songwriter Melissa McClelland, Winnipeg folk/roots band Nathan and Delerium member Rhys Fulber’s Conjure One project are all part of the U.S. promotion, which involves 10,000 vouchers being distributed at bars and clubs across the country. Each voucher is redeemable for five free downloads at the BudTune.com website, and recipients can choose songs from any of the 15 acts chosen for the program.
Order Of The Day have contributed “Pretty Things” and “What Are You Waiting For” from their Truth Be Told EP that they’ll release next month. You can also hear their songs at their MySpace page.
“The potential exposure of our music to the American market is huge for us,” OOTD guitarist Tom Pambrun says of the promotion. “It’s getting harder and harder to break new bands these days, so to be able to get on board something like that at the ground level is an extraordinary opportunity and we plan to make the most of it.”
The other artists involved in the promotion are former Sixpence None The Richer singer Leigh Nash, Stereophonics, Jars Of Clay, The Devlins, The Waiting Game, Trespassers William, Venus Hum, The Submarines, Robert Post, Griffen House and Kirsty Hawkshaw.
—Phil Villeneuve
© 2006 Chart Attack
January 25, 2006
Velvetbox Article
In this contest, judges pick an Ugly winner
Songwriter beats out 400 entries, becomes Bear’s Radio Star
Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Tuesday, January 24, 2006
To thousands of people who listen to The Bear radio station, Lawson Carroll’s song, I’m Ugly Cause You’re Beautiful, has the potential to be a hit. After weeks of online voting and deliberation by a panel of Ottawa-area music industry judges, it was announced yesterday as the regional winner in the Canadian Radio Star contest, formerly known as the National Songwriting Competition.
The catchy song, marked by an infectious drum loop and a soaring hook and performed by Carroll’s band Velvetbox, was one of 400 entries submitted to The Bear, said the station’s music director, Kath Thompson. For the first time, voting was open to the public, and more than 10,000 people cast votes for their favourite of the top five finalists.
January 12, 2005
Steve Gardiner – Ottawa Sun Article
Success comes calling for local musician
By ANN MARIE McQUEEN, Ottawa Sun
Steve Gardiner has always wanted to make it in the music business. Two years ago, after a tragedy folded his latest band, he all but gave up.
It was then others seemed to start trying for him.
People may best remember Gardiner from bands such as In and Out and Thermocline, but it was an independent solo CD the Cornwall-born singer/guitarist recorded in 2000 that led to his current resurgence.
October 23, 2003
Robert Farrell Article
Check today’s Ottawa Citizen for an article and photo on guitarist Robert Farrell. The article is also available on-line.
The best ‘hidden’ guitarist in Canada
Billboard cites Ottawa’s Robert Farrell as a ‘gem’
Wes Smiderle
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, October 23, 2003
When Ottawa guitar wizard Robert Farrell recently told a student about how he was inspired to pick up the instrument again after seeing the movie Crossroads, he was forced to get more specific.
“I had to remind him that I wasn’t talking about the Britney Spears Crossroads,” recalls Farrell, a little sheepishly over coffee at the Westboro Oak on Wellington Street.
He was referring to the 1986 movie starring Karate Kid Ralph Macchio. Not exactly a classic, but the film was chock full of vaguely blues-inspired mythology and a lot of goofy musician nicknames like Blind Dog and Lightning Boy. Most important, Crossroads featured flashy guitar work, including an appearance by then-unknown Steve Vai, a brilliant guitarist who studied under Joe Satriani as a kid and played in Frank Zappa’s backing band at the age of 18. Vai later became famous playing with David Lee Roth (Vai’s presence is the only reason to listen to Skyscraper) and as a solo performer.
Farrell’s career as guitar-slinger began when he was a child, studying and playing classical guitar for six years at the local branch of the Royal Conservatory of Music. Growing bored with the routine of intensive practice sessions and infrequent band performances, Farrell let his guitar gather dust. He was a teenager attending Nepean High School when Crossroads came out.
“I saw that movie and started experimenting again,” says Farrell. “I was trying to learn all these bits, although the stuff in the movie was far beyond what I could do at the time.”
He was also hooked by Crossroad’s climax, a duelling guitar showdown featuring Macchio (Lightning Boy) squaring off against Vai in a nearly impossible instrumental rendering of classical music delivered in a simmering, southern blues-rock style. The moment Macchio beats Vai is impossible to take seriously, but it’s a good scene in a movie otherwise notable only for its great doses of blues music.
“I loved the blues aspects of it,” says Farrell. “Before that movie, I don’t think I’d ever sat down and listened to blues music that seriously. After, I started listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and I just kept going from there.”
Farrell has made music his life almost ever since. He started teaching guitar at 18 while performing solo or with a band.
Eighteen years later, Farrell has been hailed by Billboard magazine as “arguably the greatest undiscovered guitarist in Canada,” and has recorded four albums, with a fifth set for late November. The disc, Sun House Fury, will be the first in a trilogy of albums featuring first rock, then pop and finally more experimental, acoustic tunes.
Farrell is adept at many styles, but tends to get labelled as a blues guitarist. “That’s always been a sticky point for me,” he says. “I think I play a blues style of lead, but a lot of the music I write doesn’t follow a blues format.”
As a teacher and performer, Farrell has nurtured a reputation for his wild hands and the ability to play with a double-slide. He first started experimenting with two slides at once as a fluke, but somehow made the crazy slide sound work with various standard guitar techniques like pull-offs, roll-offs and hammer-ons. Farrell pulls out the double slide for “whenever I play something that sounds a little more banjo,” and the stunt has become a crowd favourite. “It looks neat with the slides whipping all over the guitar,” he says.
Farrell has developed a solid following through his students, albums and widespread Internet radio play.
“People come to see wild guitar playing,” he says. “One night, I made the mistake of not doing it and people came up to me after the show and said, ‘Y’know, we really want to see you play slide.’ They were so disappointed. I felt like I had to give these people their money back.”
Robert Farrell performs at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Bayou Blues & Jazz Club, 1077 Bank St. Admission is $8.
PHOTO CREDIT:
Wayne Cuddington,
The Ottawa Citizen
Robert Farrell, centre, Stephen Clarke, left, and Andrew Lamarche perform tomorrow night at the Bayou Blues and Jazz Club. Farrell is famous for playing with two slides at the same time.
May 5, 2000
THERMOclinE – Ottawa Sun
Here is the THERMOclinE article from yesterday’s Ottawa Sun.
Thursday, May 4, 2000
BANDS ON THE RUN
By Ian Nathanson, Ottawa Sun
WHAT’S UP, DOCS: If a shoe company is looking to sponsor THERMOclinE, it likely won’t be Doc Marten. Seems to be a sore spot — literally — whenever it’s mentioned to guitarist Aaron Kronis or drummer Andrew Lamarche. In Toronto attending Lollapalooza ’97, Kronis, bassist Jason Young and lead singer Graham Machacek were checking out Artifical Joy Club (Lamarche used to be AJC’s drummer). As fans were throwing objects at the band, Lamarche retaliated by hurling a Doc Marten boot into the crowd, inadvertently knocking Kronis unconscious. “The security guards up front brought him forward and had us go with them backstage to the medical tent,” Young explains. “Then we saw Lamarche walk by and went over to talk to him.” When all was sorted out, Lamarche wound up becoming such good pals with THERMOclinE, he would later become a member. THERMOclinE will perform in a non-shoe-throwing zone at Barrymore’s Saturday to honour the release of their full-length debut, Negative One.
November 18, 1999
Tammy Raybould Press
Here are some links to Tammy Raybould articles for the CD Release show (all ages/licensed) at Barrymore’s Music Hall in Ottawa tomorrow night.
“Life after the Lilith Fair spotlight”
The Ottawa Citizen
“Turning up the heat
Folksy singer Raybould has a sexy new look and sound”
The Ottawa Sun
August 27, 1998
Artificial Joy Club – German Article
ARTIFICIAL JOY CLUB
Artificial Joy Club kommen aus Kanada und wollten sich ursprünglich Melt nennen. Das war aber nicht möglich, weil, so Gitarrist und Produzent Leslie Howe, praktisch jedes einsilbige Wort der englischen Sprache bereits als Bandname registriert ist. Selbst altenglische Formulierungen wie “Spiv” gibt’s bereits. So nannte man sich denn halt Artificial Joy Club. Vorher gab’s die Band bereits unter dem Namen Sal’s Birdland. (Sal ist die Sängerin von AJC.) Aber das war der Band zu schwer auszusprechen. Auf meine Anmerkung hin, daß AJC ja nun auch nicht gerade leicht auszusprechen sei, zuckte man kollektiv mit den Schultern und meinte: In den USA schon. Daß die Band in Europa Neuland betreten, zeigt sich auch an der Tatsache, daß man sich auf die Festivals im Sommer freut. Bassist Tim Dupont, der einen lustigen Irokesenschnitt trägt und gerne indisches Hühnchen essen mag, schwärmt von der letztjährigen Lollapalooza-Tour, redet davon, wie toll das doch wäre, alle diese anderen Bands kennenzulernen, daß man sich als kleines Kind mit Backstage-Ausweis fühle usw. und meint, daß dies hier genauso sei. Als ich ihm erkläre, was hier auf Festivals für gewöhnlich so zwischen Grönemeyer und Aerosmith so abgeht, schweigt er still. Warum aber unterhalte ich mich eigentlich mit AJC? Ach ja: Die Band verfolgt eine ähnliche Arbeitsweise wie Garbage: Coole Gitarren, sexy Gesang, griffige Melodien und witzige elektronische Zutaten. Sogar in der Bio wird auf Garbage verwiesen. Ist es eigentlich markttechnisch sehr klug, damit quasi schlafende Hunde zu wecken und den Vergleich geradezu herauszufordern?
Leslie: Stimmt das? Ich habe die Bio noch gar nicht gelesen. Das ist es aber, warum ich Bios hasse. Bios sind für faule Journalisten, damit sie Reviews schreiben können, ohne die Platte gehört zu haben. Natürlich habe ich die Sache mit Garbage auch schon gehört. Aber ich finde, wir klingen überhaupt nicht wie Garbage. Wir sind viel düsterer.
“Ich finde, wir klingen überhaupt nicht wie…” – ist das nicht schon ein halbes Eingeständnis. Und was heißt hier “düsterer”. Wenn überhaupt, sind AJC eher poppiger. Aber jedem das Seine: In der Tat haben AJC einen Sound, der – trotz aller Ähnlichkeiten – nun wirklich überhaupt nicht nach Garbage klingt. Vielleicht rührt das ja daher, daß AJC eine alteingesessene Liveband sind. Wir erinnern uns: Garbage betraten ja als Kunstkonstrukt die Live-Szene. Ohne diese Sängerin wäre die Sache doch wohl ziemliche steril gewesen, gelle? Nicht so AJC. AJC klingen erdiger und rauher. Wie kommt dieser Sound zustande?
Leslie: Es ist nicht so, daß wir uns einen bestimmten Sound überlegen. Der ensteht so im Studio. Wir versuchen halt immer, das beste für den Song zu tun.
Z.B. auch mal akustische Gitarren einzubringen o.ä. Hat die Umgebung vielleicht mit dem Sound zu tun?
Leslie: Ich denke nicht. Ich meine, wir kommen alle aus Kanada. Aber es gibt keinen spezifischen kanadischen Sound, nicht wahr? Und Sal und ich leben schon lange in den USA, weil es dort einfach mehr Möglichkeiten gibt.
Mal was anderes. AJC kommen ziemlich modern daher: In ihren Songs finden sich zahlreiche Anspielungen auf allerlei Pop-Culture-Phänomene: Brad Pitt, Star Trek, Godzilla, Kevorkian, Beatles, Sinatra, Brady Bunch, Forrest Gump, Tarantino etc. Darüberhinaus kommt das Cover, das von Leslie gestaltet wird ziemlich cool rüber. Auch auf das Internet wird verwiesen. Sind AJC eine bewußt moderne Band, eine Gen X-Band?
Tim: Das mit dem Internet ist ziemlich cool. Wir sind da ziemlich stark vertreten. Wenn Du den Suchbefehl AJC eingibst, kommen hunderte von Einträgen. Wir können so direkt mit den Fans in Kontakt treten. Also ich finde das Klasse.
Leslie: Das mit den Anspielungen auf Pop-Ikonen ist so eine Sache. Zunächst mal sind Sal’s Texte ziemliche persönlich. Dazu gehören auch solche Verweise. Es ist aber nicht so, daß dies eine bloße Ansammlung von Aufzählungen ist. Auch sind es nicht unbedingt Botschaften, die da drin stecken. So suchen wir Sachen auch meistens eher nach dem Klang aus, als nach der Bedeutung. Wie bei dem Cover: Das Bild von dem Auge in der Hand habe ich zwar schon mal irgendwo gesehen, es hat aber keine sprituelle Bedeutung. Ich fand, daß es einfach cool aussähe.
AJC machen na nun eine ziemlich kontemporäre Musik. Wie lange kann man denn sowas machen?
Tim: Dazu kann ich nur eines sagen: Rolling Stones. Ich werde so lange Musik machen, bis ich umkippe. Ich meine: Wir sind eine Live Band. Das ist einfach das Größte. Alles andere ist zweitrangig.
Werden wir denn auch mal in den Genuß von AJC kommen?
Leslie: Wir sind noch nicht ganz sicher. Aber vermutlich werden wir im Sommer so eine Art Festival-Tour machen. Für den Herbst gibt’s dann evtl. eine Club-Tour.
Okay: Und wie geht es von hier aus weiter?
Leslie: Oh, mit dem Zug nach München…
Na ja, ich hatte zwar gemeint, wie es musikalisch weitergeht – z.B. mit Orchester oder sowas (das will aber nur Drummer Andrew Lamarche), aber man möchte sich nicht so recht festlegen. Etwas rockiger möchte es z.B. Tim machen. Aber egal: Zunächst geht es an den Foto-Shoot und dann gibt’s Essen…
[Erstveröffentlichung in Gästeliste #1, August 1998]
Interview: -Ullrich Maurer-
Fotos: -Ullrich Maurer-
Aktueller Tonträger:
Melt
(Interscope/BMG)
November 30, 1997
Making People Melt: Artificial Joy Club Take Flight
by Steven Batten
What’s up am I on chat line?/My name is Sal and Capricorn is my sign/I like “Star Trek” and Brad Pitt/ I watch Kung-Fu B movies and shave my armpits…
So goes the opening salvo of “Psychic Man,” the introductory track on Artificial Joy Club’s impressive Interscope debut, MELT. And now that you’ve met Sal, the “chick singer,” as she puts it, for the Ottawa quintet, we can commence discussing why MELT may just be the best album you haven’t heard this year.
You might remember Artificial Joy Club from their disturbingly alluring summer single, “Sick and Beautiful,” which briefly flirted with regular airplay. Or, perhaps you caught their second-stage set at this summer’s Lollapalooza at Blossom. If your memory is especially sharp, you may even remember them from one of their previous visits to Cleveland, when they were known as Sal’s Birdland. In any case, there’s plenty more to the story, so we’ll dispense with the formalities and get down to business.
We’ve already learned some of Sal’s likes, though she fails to mention in song her particular disdain for the freezing rain and snowthat assails her as she phones from Ottawa, awaiting the start of a new tour that will bring the band— Sal, guitarist/keyboardist Leslie Howe, bassist Tim Dupont, drummer Andrew Lemarche, and guitarist Michael Goyette— back to Cleveland for another visit. With performances at Wilbert’s and the Euclid Tavern already under their collective belts, they’ll add Peabody’s DownUnder to their growing resume this Thursday, December 18.
In the meantime, she’s got little choice, but to sit back and chill. That’ll be easier said than done, however. Still hyped from their summer Lolla run, Artificial Joy Club are itching to get back on the road. Especially Dupont, who’s freshly recovered from a broken arm that had temporarily sidelined the band.
“[Lollapalooza] was fun. We had a great time,” enthuses Sal — Louise Reny to her old friends back home — an easygoing and talkative soul whose honest and off-center lyrics give MELT much of its bite.
“It wasn’t the coolest lineup in the world, but I enjoyed it cause I really like Tool. And I got to watch them every single day for free!”
It was an unexpected bonus for artificial Joy Club following a long and circuitous path to their current scenerio.
Having finished touring in support of their previos effort as Sal’s Birdland, 1994’s NUDE PHOTOS INSIDE, the band set about writting a follow-up for then-label Discovery Records. Hoping to get away from their everyday responsibilities in Ottawa, the songwritting axis of Sal, Howe, and Dupont packed their bags and headed to Los Angeles to write the songs that would become MELT. Eventually.
“We decided, ‘Let’s just go there for a whole month and just concentrate on writing songs, instead of staying here for six months trying to work between everyone’s schedules,” Sal recalls. “So that’s what we did, and we wrote basically the whole album while we were there.”
Having finished recording in Ottawa, everything seemed to be set for album number two. Or so they thought.
“We delivered the album to Discovery, and they hated it,” Sal offers empathically. “They said, ‘You know, it’s a little weak, and we don’t hear any hits.’
“I just thought, OK, fine, whatever. I don’t agree with you,” she says. “Normally, sombody would say that to me and I’d probably say, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right’ and think about writting other songs, but I was convinced with this album. I was really proud of it, so I was kind of insulted.”
The band asked for and was granted, its release from the Discovery deal. Then, album in hand, it was time to go shopping. Label shopping, that is.
“We got interest right away,” Sal notes. “We were free and clear, and were being wined and dined by all these great record companies. We chose Interscope, and here we are.”
Writting in L.A., Sal says, didn’t necessarily play into the songwritting on MELT, an edgy mix of vibrant mood swings and intoxicating soundscapes. “I’m never really inspired by where I am,” she says. “We were really stuck up in our room. We didn’t take advantage of being in L.A. We weren’t even listening to the radio there. We could have been in a room up in Alaska.
“It was just a question of finding a neutral place,” she adds. “We didn’t spend a lot of nights looking at the sunset over Hollywood Boulevard.”
In any case, the result was as solid a batch of tunes as any this year.
“We’ve been writting songs for a long time,” Sal says, “and some of the songs on this album are some of the best songs we’ve written, for sure.
“The Sal’s Birdland album was more of a whining kind of album, and, to me, this is more of a funnier album,” she says. “It’s a little bit more up, for sure. Both albums have a lot of sarcasm, but I think the first album was a lot angrier. But then the whole Alanis Morissette thing happened, and it was, ‘We don’t want to hear about girls being angry anymore.’ And who can blame you.”
The “Alanis Morissette thing” she refers to goes a little deeper for Sal and Artificial Joy Club than you might expect. Sal and Howe were mentors of sorts for the budding superstar as she was making the transisition from the teen star of her first two albums to the hurricane of emotion that unleashed JAGGED LITTLE PILL on an unsuspecting alternative rock world.
“I’ve known her since she was 12,” Sal says of her former protege. “I was always in a band and she wasn’t. She wanted to be a singer, and we helped her out. I helped her get a record deal and wrote songs for her first two albums. One of the songs I wrote actually got her a record deal.”
The friendship continued as Morissette experimented with the sound of PILL and Joy Club sharpened their edge for MELT.
“Then she got famous,” Sal adds, “and we haven’t heard from her since. She won’t return my phone calls, and it’s really depressing. The worst part is when people think that I copied her. It rips my heart out.
“Everybody in Ottawa knows,” she adds. “In fact, people are pretty cruel about it. ‘She stole from you’ and ‘She’s such a bitch’ and blah, blah, blah. I’m like whatever. We always sounded the same. You can’t make your voice sound like somebody else’s. It was a weird kind of coincidence that our voices had the same tone.
Outside of their hometown, it’s been harder to convince the skeptics.
“It bugs me because, yeah, we do sound alike, but obviously everybody’s going to think that I sound like her no,” Sal laments. “I’m not stupid. It doesn’t matter who came first. She’s a huge star, and I happen to sound like her. So it’s kind of to my disadvantage now.”
Sal admits to taking some pleasure in the pressure that awaits Morissette as she readies her next album. But it’s all in good fun, she insists.
“I have faith in her,” Sal offers sincerely. “I really think she’s going to be the next Madonna. I think she’s going to have a really long career.”
And that’s exactly what Sal’s hoping for with her own band.
“We’re touring untill Christmas,” she says of their immediate itinerary. “And in January, our album comes out in Eupore, so that’ll be good. We’re supposed to go over there for a while.
A tour with red hot Smash Mouth is in the works, and a video for new single “Skywriting” is due in January.
For now, Sal says, she’s happy to be able to stay busy doing what she loves. She’s optimistic that larger success is just around the corner.
“I love playing,” she says. “I love being in a band, you know. Being rich isn’t everything…. I think we have a great album and I’m really proud of it.”
Besides, she adds, “We’re having fun.” And that’s what really matters.
“We had a great summer, and some of the gigs we played were just unbelievable.” Sal relates. “It sort of fulfills some of your dreams. We’ve played in front of 20,000 people at some shows, and it was like, ‘Wow this is pretty cool. This is what I’ve always wanted to do.’ They weren’t all there to see us, but it’s still a pretty cool feeling. So I’m happy.”
Except for the snow, that is.