FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Tales from an obsessive audiophile
Songwriter brings his record collection to lifeBobby McAlister & the Telstars
Wednesday, December 3
Ship & Anchor PubBesides a clandestine peek into their medicine cabinet, one of the most telling clues about someone you've just met can be attained with a quick scan through their record collection (Toto's greatest hits should have you heading straight for the door just as quick as that unwitting discovery of the extra large tub of Anusol). Watching Calgary's Bobby McAlister shuffling various platters back into their sleeves after a late night listening binge, and one thing comes to mind: obsessive audiophile.
Lying next to The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour is the first Oasis record - pretty obvious stuff, mind you, for a guy with a Rubber Soul 'do' and baby blue bell-bottoms (which, for the soft-spoken McAlister, conjures up an image of a more benign Gallagher brother). But, as he flips through his stack a few surprises come up; Pet Sounds is followed by Kenny Rogers (he karaoked to "Islands in the Stream" with his wife at their wedding), which precedes a Hank Williams collection. Then, unlike most people who would shove it somewhere in the back, McAlister carefully places a Bee Gees record at the front of the pile.
"But, everybody's got something they're good at," he laughs defensively. "I can't even fathom how they did all those vocals.
"I really get into an artist for a while, like the Bee Gees or the Beatles or Al Green, and I'll listen to them exclusively for a while and figure out how they did that, like how they wrote those songs. There's no teachers in my life so I have to get it from the records."
McAlister then relates that as a teenager, the same time he began songwriting, he learned how to do multi-track recordings using two boom boxes. Those humble beginnings led to his own studio, Band of Gold, which he eventually packed in for what was to be a career move down to Nashville. Unfortunately, US customs, probably suspicious about the hair and the pants, suspected poor Bobby of carrying marijuana (he wasn't) and denied him entry. Not letting that pitfall get him down, McAlister headed to England where he ended up playing Paul in a Beatles cover band, The Top Mop Tops. Needless to say, he eventually came back home with the intention of starting up some original projects; which he did, only to see them fall through after a couple of gigs.
But, then came his current outfit with the full working title: Bobby McAlister & The Telstars. It features McAlister with three veterans of the local scene - guitarist Aaron Booth, bassist Aaron McCullogh and drummer Cal Becker - who McAlister describes as the "the best musicians I've worked with ever."
"I don't want to be condescending about it, but I was always basically running the show and it's really exhausting to do it that way," he explains about the dissolution of past bands. "But, I find now that I've got some guys who are all songwriters on the side, too, so when I have an idea they can all expand on it; like Cal, our drummer, is fantastic at word pictures. He'll take the lyrical idea and with the strings or a keyboard part he'll think about it like that. I can go for a pop and come back and he'll have done something. I think that's the only way really great music gets made: with a lot of people getting involved. Like I said, it's the best band I've been able to find in a long time."
Listening to one of the band's demos reveals many tinges of the record collection eclecticism; part twang here, part folk there and a whole bunch of early British pop in between.
For the time being, at least, McAlister and Co. are happy to just shop the demos around to labels and do a whole lot of gigging.
"Combined I think we've put out seven independent CDs and it just doesn't really... I don't know; it's a lot of money," says McAlister. "To me, it all comes down to marketing - your either pulling something through or pushing something through and I'd rather pull it; I'd rather have people want it. God knows, when you're trying to push a record on somebody you're trying to create this aura of success around your band that doesn't even exist."
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