>>PREVIEW
JIMMY SWIFT BAND
Friday, February 2
Vern’s
There are a few points that Craig Mercer, the front man for the Halifax-based Jimmy Swift Band (JSB), wants to clear up. First, there is no Jimmy Swift, just Mercer (guitar and vocals), Aaron Collier (keyboards), Mike MacDougall (bass), and Nick Wombolt (drums). Second, even if the four-man outfit has built a fan base around extended improvisational sessions, don’t call them a jam band.
"Honestly man, it’s been our nemesis since we started," says Mercer over the phone while waiting for the Victoria ferry to take the band to its next stop. "The term jam band comes with an association with bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish, so people automatically assume we sound like them."
Mercer himself grew up in rural Cape Breton, surrounded by older friends with a taste for metal. One, he recalls, actually wore a leather jacket year-round, scorching summer heat and all. There aren’t any floating guitar solos or gentle vibes at a JSB show – Mercer wants the audience to expect "balls to the wall" rock, even if they can also expect that it won’t be the same.
"When I go to a show and see a song played the same way it’s played on the record, it just gets boring," he says. "I try to bring something different to the audience every night."
It’s that variation that Mercer is counting on to attract a group of fans he expects to come to every stop in the Alberta leg of the band’s tour, including Banff, Canmore and Edmonton.
Currently touring in support of JSB’s third album since their formation in 2001, Weight of the World, Craig admits that the band’s improvisational style and personal involvement led to a few false starts in the album’s mixing. Three versions later, he says that the learning curve has finally started to plateau, even if it didn’t come cheap.
"It’s like paying really expensive tuition," he says. "So hopefully by the time we’re really old, we won’t make the mistakes we made when we were younger."
Mercer himself is an honours philosophy graduate of Dalhousie University. He had originally considered going on to take a law degree, but as the paying gigs began to stack up, he decided to trade barristers for bassists. The Jimmy Swift Band itself came out of Mercer’s last band, PF Station.
But, reflects Mercer, in a way music may be the best application of a philosophy degree available, so the degree isn’t wasted. The band will also be taking a turn as cultural ambassadors this summer when, as part of the Maple Rhythm Festival, they’ll be touring to Shanghai’s Oriental Arts Centre.
"It has international incident written all over it," laughs Mercer. |
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