I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

iheartthemusic  got the opportunity to sit and have a chat with a band that have been riding the reggae/rock circuit for quite some time. Rebel Emergency consists of Roddy (vocals), Geoff (guitar), Neil (bass) and Jeremy (drums). After persevering through tough times at the beginning of their career,  these guys have proved that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. With a new album in the works and tons of show dates to come we are sure that Rebel Emergency will be infiltrating your ears very soon.

 iheartthemusic: How did you guys form as a band?

Roddy: I started messing around in a basement with Neil, the bass player, and another dude named Adam, who is no longer in the band. We started out just for fun, writing bad songs and stuff, and I actually went to school with this guy right here [points to Geoff] and saw him play guitar a few times and he was awesome so I invited him to come jam with us. We hit it off and started a group from there.

iheartthemusic: The style of music that you play is quite unique, how did you decide on that?

Roddy: We actually had an opportunity to go and record in New York at a place called John Shop Studio. It’s a place where they record a lot of dance hall and reggae. At that time we were a little more of a rock band, so when we were down there we started to mess around with dance hall beats and a bit more of the reggae style. When we came back to Toronto and played a bit of that style, everyone loved it so we kind of just stuck with it. We grew up loving reggae though, so that sound has always been with us.

Geoff: We were in this environment [in New York] where everyone was creating a completely different style of music than what we were used to playing and so we just jumped on and decided to try it. It was just for fun at first, the same way that we started the band, but then it morphed into this rock/reggae thing and people started hearing it and saying that that is what we should be doing. At the time we were like, “really? That was just messing around.” But Roddy and I grew up in Scarborough around a lot of reggae music, that influence was huge in our high school and circle of friends, so I’ve always had a lot of reggae CDs at home and always loved it.

Roddy: Right after that we moved back to New York to do a full album because we only did a few songs the first time and ended up hanging out with a ton of Jamaicans. They were pretty much our whole circle of people while we were there so we eventually went to Jamaica and played a bunch of festivals and stuff.  It really got engrained in us more and more as we lived it.

 iheartthemusic: When you were in Jamaica, did being submersed in that whole culture influence your sound even more?

Geoff: After seeing the real deal over there, we tried our very best to hold that authenticity. Other bands come from a punk background and then they merge into ska and then maybe English beats, but we’ve tried to take what we experienced directly from the Jamaican culture and the Jamaican dance hall culture and infuse that style into our music. So we aren’t necessarily coming from a punk background but more of a straight rock, straight Jamaican, straight dub sound and have tried to uniquely put that into our music as it is. I mean, we love English music, and of course it’s going to come out in our sound, but our standard has always been to keep it authentic and true to the roots of music that we were engulfed in at the time when we were down there and in New York as well.

 iheartthemusic: Do you find it tough to promote yourselves with that genre of music, not being so mainstream?

Roddy: It’s tough but I think that reggae is such a likeable genre. I mean, you can’t really not like it because most of the time it’s just easy listening and a good vibe. It’s what you would listen to if you’re at a cottage or on a beach, it just adds to the good time.

Geoff: You didn’t answer her question at all [laughs].

Roddy: What was the question again?

iheartthemusic: [laughs] Where do you see rock/reggae music right now?

Roddy: I think there is definitely an audience for it and I think there’s room for more good rock reggae bands out there.

Geoff: The industry is very strange these days and I’m not quite sure what to do with it.

Roddy: There are a few good bands out there that have made it though like illScarlett and Bedouin Soundclash and they have been very successful doing it, also tons of bands in the States and overseas. There is a market for it, you just have to know how to present it and put yourself out there.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of illScarlett, you guys are opening for them tonight, who else have you been able to share the stage with?

Roddy: A lot of the big reggae artists like the Marley sons; Damian and Stephen.

Geoff: We played in LA with Ky-Mani and Rohan Marley as well. We also played Sumfest in Jamaica, which is a huge festival and that was jaw-dropping.

Roddy: Also Fantasia and T-Pain.

Geoff: Jadakiss and T-Pain a few times. In Jamaica they just throw all the international acts together. We’ve been really fortunate in the reggae genre of stuff.

Roddy: We did a song with Bounty Killer actually, which was really cool.

Geoff: We’ve played some great Canadian gigs as well. We played with The Trews and illScarlett was great, Down With Webster is also awesome, we love them. We are fans, I do listen to them.

iheartthemsic: You’ve also played with Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (USS), who have a completely different sound to you guys. Does the genre or style of music of other acts ever come into play when you are booking shows?

Roddy: Not really, we are open to whatever. I like shows sometimes where there are different styles but they are both good bands. With USS it’s just a good night because you know they are going to be awesome so it makes you want to bring your game up too.

Geoff: We played one or two shows with them, just off the cuff, when we were both pretty small and when we played with them we kind of just looked at each other and were like, “you guys are fucking awesome,” and they were like, “no you are awesome.”

Roddy: It’s become more of a friendship with them. They are probably our best friends band wise.

Geoff: It’s weird because it just works. I know we are polar opposites when we play, but at the end [of the show] everybody is like, “that was amazing.”

Roddy: It’s the same with playing with Down With Webster. They bring so much energy and we feed off each other.

Geoff: I think it’s great when you have different genres that almost compliment each other because when you have the same sounding bands, after a while the sound starts to blend. When we play with USS they get on and sound nothing like what we just did and visa versa.

Roddy: It’s still the same energy though.

iheartthemusic: What can we expect from your stage performance then?

Roddy: Energy, passion and good looking dudes.

Geoff: Good looking dudes for sure.

Roddy: We come across best live because we really feed off the audience and we love it.

Geoff: We try to leave it all out there. We love to see a band that is basically falling over when they walk off stage so that’s what we try to do.

iheartthemusic: You must have some crazy stories from performing.

Roddy: There have been a few mishaps for sure. I fell off this [Sound Academy] stage a couple of times before because there was a gap between the speakers and the stage and I fell in the gap.

iheartthemusic: So did you just try to act all cool after that?

Roddy: Yah I did. I thought I broke my thumb actually. Neil, our bass player, has fallen off the stage before as well.

Geoff: Watch, something is going to happen to me tonight now.

 iheartthemusic: That’s always the way it goes, you are next I guess! Where has been your favourite place in Toronto to play?

Roddy: Sound Academy is probably up there. We have played here a few times. I also like Mod Club just because the vibe is great there and the lighting and stuff.

Geoff: We did a show at Kool Haus with 311 one time which was awesome too. It was a great venue.

Roddy: That was a wicked show. Horseshoe is always fun, it’s got that legendary thing going for it.

iheartthemusic: What crowd blew your mind?

Roddy: Montreal is always good. I think they have that European mentality in that they aren’t too cool to clap. They just have fun and they’ll clap along, sing along, and dance along to anything.

Geoff: We did a show in New York City which was a part of the Irie Jamboree Festival a few years ago, which is a huge festival. When we played that we just saw people as far as the eye could see. We only had about 20 minutes on stage, but just to see that many people was incredible. There were probably 10 to 15 thousand people there.

Roddy: That was our biggest show. Actually another band that we forgot about was Gogol Bordello who are from New York and are like a gypsy punk kind of band, but that’s probably the best live show I’ve ever seen. We got to tour with them a bit.

iheartthemusic: So you have a new album coming out soon, do you care to leak anything about that with us?

Roddy: Hopefully you can expect it out next month and we think it’s going to be called Love Ain’t Free. That’s one of the song titles from the album and also a theme we have going on that corresponds with the artwork as well.

Geoff: It’s a big leap forward for us as you might say.

iheartthemusic: Anything else you want to add?

Geoff: I’ve had a wonderful time. This is the highlight of my day so far.

If you missed out on their show during CMW then don’t worry, these boys are back THIS Friday (March 27th) at the Sound Academy to rock the house and surf the crowd. Check out their MySpace for dates and show information!

Photography provided by Matt Vardy

Day four of CMW brought team MKAY back to the Sound Academy to interview and check out two Toronto based bands that have a similar vibe to them, and yet are very different in their sound. We first spoke with the boys that make up reggae/rock group Rebel Emergency. These guys took to the stage and brought with them sunshine, good times and great music. They played a mixture of old and new tunes that kept the audience (and us) wanting more. By the fourth song, lead guitarist Geoff was able to show us all the talent he’s got with an incredible solo that even had him body surfing the crowd while playing! We had never seen anything like that before, but I’m not too sure how the crowd below felt carrying him along. What was also cool to see was that this band had two back up female vocalists that added to their sound. They were very polished and lead singer Roddy’s voice was reggae inspired with a twist. They definitely played to the crowd and by the time their set was over Roddy’s shirt was off and the surfboard was out. You may be wondering why a surf board when we are in the middle of March? The answer to that is to surf the crowd of course! Well, at least that is what the boys from Rebel Emergency did. Roddy got on top of it while the crowd below shuffled him along. It made for a very unique ending to a great performance! Overall this is a band that we are now a huge fan of and cannot wait to see again. Check out our interview with Roddy and Geoff!

After Rebel Emergency came the boys from Down With Webster. This is a Toronto based band that we have personally known for quite some time and have watched them grow in both their talent and fan following. You could tell that the majority of the people who were in attendance that night came to see DWW as the chants for “DDUB” started well before they hit the stage. As soon as the curtains were parted the crowd went nuts and we even caught a glimpse of their good friend Gene Simmons, who was in 

attendance, get super excited when they hit the stage (rumour has it that he has signed the boys to his record label). These guys came on stage with a bang and ended with one too. They are known for their explosive stage performances and they did not disappoint this time. Halfway through their set they started to throw red plastic cups into the crowd that were each branded with their “DWW” emblem. What can we say, these boys know how to market themselves and their merch table was no exception as they sold t-shirts by the truck load. They played some old favourites such as “Grind” and added a few new tracks off their forthcoming album. Keep it up guys, you make Canada proud!

photography provided by Matt Vardy              

You know you really must heart the music when you make the trek in Canadian cold all the way out to the Sound Academy (formerly The Docks), which is nestled between lots of nothing and the lake. It was a bitch to get to, but once inside the energetic crowd and tunes (and maybe a G&T) immediately warmed us up.

The Salads were about half way through their set by the time we arrived (which meant we missed Outspoken who opened up the show, whoops). We were just in time to see the undisguising of the drummer who, after wig and glasses were removed, turned out to be Darrin Pfeiffer of Goldfinger. How Pokaroo! The boys put on a good show serving up a delicious reggae-ska-punk punch cocktail.

Next up was the band we were waiting for: The Johnstones. Yowza! They burst out in chaotic energy running around the stage and playing what looked like a game of musical instruments (the trombone player picked a tambourine before jumping on the keyboards, etc). With the amount of running about it seems like their shirtlessness may be more practical than gimmicky. Full of vigor and fun, The Johnstones played a mixture of original punky-ska tunage with rapid-rap and added their personal flavour to covers (like The President of the United States of America’s “Lump” and, Emer’s fave of the night, Moxy Früvous‘s “The King of Spain”). Another highlight was Ryan Long’s wicked drum solo full of flare and stick flips. This is a band to keep your eye on if your corneas can keep up.

When GOB finally got to the stage and we must admit we were left gobsmacked. Having never heard them before we naively expected overly loud punk metal that can be hard to digest. Instead we gobbled up their polished punk (which could be due to the age/musical maturity of a band that’s been around since 1994). Just one question, if GOB were superheros, would the everlasting gobstopper be their archenemy?

Après show iheartthemusic locked ourselves in a bathroom backstage to chat with Johnstones’ lead singer Jarek Hardy (and were later joined by trombonist Julian Warmé who joined us when he needed to come in a take a piss). Check out that interview…

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