>>PREVIEW
AZEDA BOOTH
Red Mittens Collective Two-Day Festival (all-ages)
Saturday, November 25
Chinese National League
There is always a period of grace for a new performing band that can vary from a year (Reverie Sound Revue) to as much as seven years (The Dudes) when the band finds its legs and audience. In the case of Azeda Booth, it took only a year to realize their sound and their esthetic – and two shows.
After recording a number of inspired laptop-electro tracks in their homes for two years, forefront members Jordan Hossack and Morgan Greenwood agreed to play a show in September of 2005. Playing a self-described "gong-show," the unprepared Azeda Booth failed to make a splash on the scene with their debut. The duo slipped immediately back into their bedrooms where they remained completely inactive for a full year.
Not that they had a choice – vocalist Jordan Hossack’s strained faux-feminine vocal style, affected by heavy smoking and bronchitis, followed by laryngitis, and then strep throat, kept him off the stage and in the hospital.
Since abandoning his distinctive sound was out of the question, Hossack quit smoking and decided to find a sustainable way of continuing his head-turning singing style.
"I think that (in early recordings) I was trying to sound just like a girl, or maybe just like something that you’d hear and sounded weird enough maybe that you’d want to hear a little bit more," he shares. "But since then, I’ve been trying to make it not so much a novelty voice, but something I can spend time developing."
Once Hossack had recovered and Azeda Booth thought about returning to the stage, the duo felt that they were on the verge of becoming formulaic in their collaboration. Luckily, Greenwood happened to be friendly with then recently defunct Veritas, Calgary’s metal/prog masters. Drummer Mike Wallace and guitarist Chris Reimer joined the band, as well as Myke Gallant who was affiliated with Veritas.
The result for the new Azeda Booth is a sound that surpassed the sum of its parts. Live instrumentation that includes laptops, bowed guitars, tape recorder played into guitar pick-ups, found railroad spikes, mandolin, drum machine, as well as standard rock and percussion instruments.
Beginning with recorded experimental-pop songs that already sound finished, the band seems totally comfortable with creating new sonic textures. It’s what makes Azeda Booth’s live shows so mysterious, bold and fascinating.
"Azeda Booth is the first band I’ve ever been in," says Hossack, attempting to explain their haphazard boldness. "I think that we kind of went backwards into it, we sat in our rooms for two years and wrote songs together and then decided to start playing."
Azeda Booth plans to come out from under the radar in 2007. Though their first demo was a CJSW-only collection that is not available in stores, they are planning a CD release for early 2007 that will launch a five song EP entitled Mysterious Body. This EP will be the last of the duo material to be shed as the band presses forward with the new collaborative lineup.
"It’s amazing to find people musically fit so well and are so talented," summarizes Hossack. "(Morgan and I) are both from a no-theory kind of background. The other guys have this musical language, and we have no idea what the hell they’re talking about. But we feel really happy to be in this band." |
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