FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.


Sugar, awww honey, honey
The Brown Eyed Susans are your candybar and they'll have us all craving more
by Aubrey McInnis

Brown Eyed Susans with Ginger
at the Republik, Tues Jan 21
and CD release party at Dinnie's Den

Sitting in a trendy downtown café, I'm eager to meet the one local band who is inarguably the most unsupported by their peers. For the most part, this includes the hotshot "let-me-be-your-mentor" bands of Calgary too. Let me stress the excitement of meeting a group which has not complained, bragged or depended on being friends of so-and-so (yawn) for its livelihood.

The Brown Eyed Susans haven't cuddled up to other local bands. This is an oddity since those involved in the music scene usually need a network (or support group) to exist. Well, the Brown Eyed Susans have just released their debut album anyway. No one has taken them under their wing. Why bother? By the sounds of Afternoon Tea the Susans don't need it.

What Dave, Rich, Billy and Troy are in need of at the time of the interview is sugar. Not the wimpy I Can't Believe It's Not Sugar, but real sugar and plenty - no - copious amounts of it. Their Earl Grey tea arrives and they all dash for the sugar bowl. I hope a) they don't notice me noticing them and b) to avoid getting in the way of the sugar bowl. The correlation between sugar and the Brown Eyed Susans - besides the fact it courses through their veins - is stronger than you think. Check out their album cover for example.

"The cover shows what our music is about," Dave says pointing to a mucky picture of a rich Chocolate Pepper dessert.

"Gluttony," Billy interjects with a huge grin. "Pure, unadulterated gluttony!"

"It's sort of overindulgent," Dave continues after our sucrose-induced mini-fit of laughter. "The music is sugary. And (the cover) conjures up those images."

Dave isn't joking. The 10 tracks on the album are reminiscent of Willy Wonka meets Alice in Wonderland. The song "Yes Means No!" introduces a dreamy, cloud-gazing sound the Brown Eyed Susans have both artfully produced and refined. They admit to being influenced by Jellyfish and the Beatles with sprinkles of Spinal Tap and the Rutles here and there. Melodic tunes feature a component they insist has been locally ignored - the chorus. You'll be wishing for printed lyrics and Mr.Bubbles (oops, that's the live show. A bubble machine has in fact been confirmed for their upcoming gigs.)

In relation to the album, the Susans admit that their sound has altered since the addition of Troy, ex-drummer of the Plaid Tongued Devils.

"The live show is more... explosive," Dave says sending his bandmates into an uproar with his choice of words.

"It's more driving and hard-edged. More intensity."

"We're not Motorhead!" comes an exclamation from Billy's end of the table.

(Of course not, Motorhead would never have bubbles at a show.)

"Half the stuff we do now comes from what we did in the studio."

Billy explains that Steve Noftall (the Susans' producer / engineer) "thought that we were going to go in and do these simple little songs and it would all be really easy to do. He didn't know the nightmare he was getting into."

"We thought to ourselves, '(If) this is the only album we are ever going to do, we might as well have a good time doing it,'" explains Rich.

Dave confides that they wanted to go nuts in the studio, but Billy wouldn't let them.

"They were starting to lose it," Billy asserts. "We decided to go (into the studio) and make a really good CD and then from that base of having a CD, try to build up a fan base and try to get a lot of shows from that. And it seems to have worked out well so far."

"Now that we have the CD the songs are out and people can hear what we're about, now we're getting the interest. This is to show we can do it, this is what we can do."

Dave's on a roll.

"There are only 1000 of these things in my basement. Now, one day this is going to be, like, the most amazing thing in the world.

"It's going to be so big. They're going to have an original Brown Eyed Susans CD before (the Brown Eyed Susans) made it big. Those things," he points to my copy, "are going to be worth so much money, and if anyone wants an autograph they can call up the number on the back and we'll give them an autograph."

"Or if they want their sidewalks shoveled...," Troy offers.

S'pose unsupported musicians, no matter how talented, have to find income in the meantime somewhere.

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