Preview
THE REMBETIKA HIPSTERS
Thursday, December 18
Ironwood Stage and Grill
It becomes obvious, in talking to Allan Baekeland about the history of the Rembetika Hipsters, that home is a recurring theme for the members of the band – leaving home, returning home, creating home. The roots of the Hipsters are long, and not just because they’re playing Greek folk music, which has a long history. The founding members, Nick Diochnos and Allan Baekeland, have known each other since the ‘70s.
"We’ve played together in bands, been friends forever, and our lives have paralleled each other in interesting ways," says Baekeland.
The two wove in and out of each other’s lives over the years. Baekeland moved to Toronto, and Diochnos did the same soon after. Baekeland flirted with fame in the form of the lovely, almost-famous band Lost and Profound. Diochnos took a trip to Greece in ’93 to get married, bought a bouzouki (a Greek Mandolin), came back and began to learn how to play it. And then after a few years and two marriages (one apiece), both found themselves back in Calgary.
"I love the spirit here," Baekeland says. "There’s a lot more of a collaborative, open spirit. When we started this band, for instance, nobody scoffed. In Toronto, people probably would have said something like ‘you’re starting a Greek band? What the hell? You’re not Greek.’ But here people just thought it was a cool thing to do."
And then one day, a now-defunct Greek restaurant, Yanni’s, called Diochnos up. They’d heard he played bouzouki and they wanted him to play at the restaurant. He looked at Baekeland, who was sitting in his living room, and asked, "you wanna go play some Greek music?" Not being one to refuse something just because he’d never done it, Baekeland agreed. And the Hipsters were conceived, albeit with a pretty steep learning curve.
"Greek music is tough to learn," says Baekeland. "The rhythms are completely different from what we’re generally used to. There are a lot of odd time signatures." They had a regular gig that treated them so well that they decided to put some effort into improving their sound.
"Nick went back to Toronto in ’96 for bouzouki boot camp," Baekeland says smiling. "He had lessons every day from the guy who originally taught him the bouzouki, Kostas Apostolakis. And then he busked at night. A large part of our repertoire still consists of the songs Kostas taught Nick that summer."
Other band members came on gradually – they met percussionist Ben Johnson at another now-defunct Greek restaurant, found Lincoln Frey through an ad in the paper. The last element came when Baekeland heard Brigitte Daczer playing the fiddle at a local gig.
"She was playing Greek music, even though she didn’t know it," says Baekeland. "I heard her and I was blown away. I knew that this was the last piece – the one that just makes everything click."
Daczer wasn’t necessarily so convinced – it took her a year to join the band. But when she did, things definitely clicked. The learning curve eventually shallowed out a bit, the band gelled as a group, they got a house gig at the Pegasus restaurant ("house gigs are the best," says Baekeland) did some touring around, even took a trip to Greece. And then the unthinkable happened – Daczer moved to Montreal.
"Many of the other band members thought this was catastrophic, that it was the end of Brigitte’s involvement in the band, possibly the end of the band," Baekeland says. "I didn’t see it that way. I was actually excited. I thought it presented us with some interesting opportunities. But we had to have a project immediately if things weren’t going to just fall apart."
So, in the wake of a major band member moving across the country, the Hipsters started to record a second album. This one was different from the first, which had been essentially a collection of traditional tunes the band had learned. The Hipsters were now more at home in the language of their chosen music. Now the process became more creative, bringing their various, folk-punk-jazz sensibilities to inform and enrich the Greek musical base.
"One thing that’s come out of Brigitte moving to Montreal is that people see us as a national act now," Baekeland says. "We have opportunities to play in Quebec. I’d like to see us expand over the next few years to playing internationally, and I think it’s possible."
In the meantime, the challenge of playing world music in a hometown that doesn’t provide many venues for that kind of music doesn’t faze the Hipsters. The usual problems facing artists such as miniscule arts funding and the challenge of maintaining an artistic community has led to a constant loss of artists from Calgary, according to Baekeland. But in the end, the Hipsters have already faced and conquered those challenges.
"Almost our whole band has done that thing of going away, and trying it out somewhere else. We’ve all had the chance to see what’s out there. We’re here because we want to be." |
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