Where the rubber hits the road

>> Montreal’s Trip the Off brand
themselves with their new album,
Street Music

IN THE SWING OF THINGS: Trip the Off

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

In the five years since Trip the Off released The Bong Sessions, the band has played hundreds of shows and let life take its course—a baby born here, a line-up change there, new songs written everywhere. Their third album, Street Music, is another skunky blend of reggae, ska and punk, featuring guests such as Liquid (ex-Bran Van 3000), who lays down vocals on two tracks, and Lorraine Muller (Lo and the Magnetics, les Handclaps) on horns and back-up vocals. Recorded chez Terry Gillespie, renowned musician and father of Trip the Off singer/guitarist Kristin Daniel, the record is a labour of love for the full-on-indie band, whose aim was to define themselves with this sound and these lyrics.

Mirror: What’s the sentiment behind the first song on your new album, “Rock Bastard”?

Kristin Daniel: It’s been one hell of a fight being indie and still playing big shows and getting respect, but even though we’re indie, I’m not gonnna let some guy from a major label ever talk down to us. We’ve always just done our own business at our own rhythm and I’m very comfortable in that, and we’re definitely gonna hold our ground, so it’s the absolute slag-up pride for indie music.

M: I gather that the song “Street Music” is trying to put the stylistic confusion around your band to rest.

KD: It got complicated after a while ’cause yes, we play some ska, we play reggae music in our way, we play punk rock in our way and when you mix it all together, it’s very accessible music and something that most people can relate to. And that’s when we decided to answer all that in one song, in one word.

M: What are some of the other inspirations in the lyrical department?

KD: We definitely cover a lot of things. “Subtle Confrontation” [addresses] the everyday struggle that people have, [people who’ve] learned a lot of the bad habits that are passed on from grandparents to parents to youth. And it’s the first time ever that I kinda dealt with relationships at the same time, with songs like “Never Quite Easy.”

M: I noticed that you got Paul Edwards, the singer from Lesley Lane, to mix your album.

KD: That’s something I’ve always done on my own in the past but I wanted somebody else to really help me grasp what it is, this sound we’re going for, where even if it’s a slow-ish reggae song, it still sounds like jailhouse doors slamming with every beat. Whether it’s punk, ska or reggae, one of the defining qualities of our band has always been that rough and raw sound, so it was important to me that it wasn’t over-produced, that it sounded like a live band. I think this is the closest we’ve ever come to getting the sound that I’ve been hunting after for all these years.

With the Sell-Outs and Stepper
at Café Campus tonight,
Thursday, May 24, 8:30 p.m., $6