by LATEEF MARTIN

The idea of free oxygen may be a given today, but in the future, there might be line-ups for the stuff. “The Free Oxygen idea was born out of the Anonymous Campaign for Free Water [ACFW],” explains 7+, or Seven Positivity, vocalist and mastermind of Montreal’s Free Oxygen Band. “It’s a concept started by a friend of mine in Illinois. Driving across America in 2001, we realized how expensive water was getting. Free Oxygen is a futuristic take on that. It wouldn’t take much to screw up our oxygen supply. We’re entering a new paradigm with different possible outcomes, some of which may be tragic.”

Enter the Free Oxygen Band, purveyors of basic funk with a touch of Scandinavian modernity. You’ll probably hear some Tower of Power, New Birth, Temptations, even a psychedelic Doors kind of thingy in most of their music, as you’d discover on their debut album Funkosynthesis. But there’s more than simply music to the Free Oxygen Band. A whole cast of characters and cataclysms occur in their fabulous future history. The Mirror caught up with 7+ and bass controller El Dogg to get the lowdown.

Mirror: So who is the Free Oxygen Band?

El Dogg: We’re a team of superheroes from [the year] 20,003, part of a pre-emptive campaign for free oxygen. We come from a time where the Reorganitron Bomb has dropped, developed by Spooky Electric for the Big Brass Cat. After the discovery of the Funk Stone, which had developed for 20,000 years or so, its funkiness has seeped itself into the core of the planet. Spontaneously, it erupted as a resource that didn’t exist before. Through the process of funkosynthesis, this stone has been fused with funk and is really good for anything. If you rub it on your clothes, it’ll make them look better. If you’re a religious person, it’ll give you more enlightenment than you’ve had before. But the Big Brass Cat used it to power the Reorganitron Bomb that didn’t destroy the world, but reorganized it, in a sense, turning it inside out. So Spooky Electric, who’s inherently good, created us, the Children of Light, to make up for the wrong he did in creating the Reorganitron Bomb for the Big Brass Cat.

M: Give us a little more detail about funkosynthesis.

7+: Funkosynthesis is the birthing of the Funk Stone. In the old days, they had the Fire Crystal. Then Atlantis sank. Then they had computers, but somebody pulled the plug. The Funk Stone is all about the self. Finding personal paradise by digging real deep. Every solar funk initiate with the right number badge knows the Funk Stone can never be destroyed, even wrapped up real tight in a Benjamin Franklin. Funkosynthesis is and always will be a personal journey.

M: So what’s the next chapter in the Free Oxygen Band saga?

7+: To keep Newark, Minneapolis, Oakland, Gary, Indiana and Motor City alive, and to take the hip hop generation back to high-school dances. On top of that, if we can funk up Repentigny, we’ve won half the battle.

With Vanderpark, God Made Me Funky, Shane Phillips and DJ Casper at Club Dôme on Friday, Jan. 13, 9 p.m., $10, and with the Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band, Steak This Thick and DJ L.A. Funk at the Waterjam benefit at la Sala Rossa on Saturday, Jan. 14, 10 p.m., $15

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