>>PREVIEW
SLED ISLAND
MATES OF STATE
Thursday, May 28
The GRAND
It’s OK to hate Mates of State. Not their music. You’d have to be half deaf, half dead or just a real jerk not to get off on their smile-inducing synth rock. Drummer Jason Hammel and keyboard player Kori Gardner have been melting hearts with melodic dueling vocals since 1997.
When I say it’s OK to hate Mates of State, I mean them. And I mean in that selfish clock-punching nine-to-five way. ’Cause while most of us are trapped in jobs we hate, working for people we have long since stopped respecting, these lucky bastards are living the rock ’n’ roll dream.
"I feel like we are retired already," says Hammel. "For one year we will travel the world and then we’ll come home and for a year we’ll wake up late, read the newspaper, practice our instruments, write some music for awhile, watch movies and go chill out with friends."
You could call it Freedom 55, but for that to apply to this duo, you’d have to combine their ages to get close. Not that they didn’t earn it. They have a rabid fan base and their 2006 Barsuk release Bring it Back has been winning critical praise. Loaded with fuzzy feel-good pop anthems and delivered with raw unabashed enthusiasm, it lays down piano pop foundations with doo-wop accents and kitchen sink recording tactics to make good on the promise of their first three albums. And while the rigours of recording and touring no doubt take their toll, they’re having such a good time, there’s no way this is work.
"We just have fun while we are playing music," says Hammel. "Even when we are singing about something that is depressing or sad, music brings out the hope in whatever the problem is. No matter what we are singing about, there is an underlying element of hope and that is the enthusiasm in the song."
Hope and enthusiasm? That sounds like the desperate ranting of someone who is happy in his professional and personal life. Probably because he is. You see, Hammel and Gardner got married in 2001 and, if the photo on MySpace is to be believed, they have an adorable child to show for it. Just one more reason to hate the Mates. They get to do what they love, with someone they love.
"We were sort of scared to play music together in fear that if it did work musically then our relationship would kind of go to crap," says Hammel. "So we went out sort of tepidly to play one night together and we both opened our guitar cases and they were both complementary colours and the same shape. We were like, oh, this is a good sign."
That little musical experiment a decade ago has paid off, leaving Hammel and Gardner with almost no care in the world. Almost. You see, making music is how they pay the bills. With another mouth to feed, Hammel starts to get antsy if he has too much down time.
"We do count on it for our subsistence," he explains, "and that is sort of a weird way of doing things. It’s so up and down and volatile. I’ve always got it at the back of my mind, questioning whether we are doing enough."
The stress of making a living in an industry that is supposedly on its way out isn’t enviable, but ultimately they needn’t worry. If the bottom drops out of the Mates of State franchise, Gardener can return to teaching, Hammel can get back to medicine and they can still play music in their spare time. That’s just one more reason to hate this band. They aren’t in it for the fame or the money. They’re just doing it ’cause they love it.
"You can erase everything about touring and making records and recording and all that when you stumble on a good song or a good melody, that’s the feeling that we strive for," says Hammel. "It’s almost like a shot of heroin. All the other stuff about getting the drugs is just a precursor to the real deal. You just want that feeling that a good melody gives you." |
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