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Treble charge it Canadian indie rock heroes make their big-budget U.S. debut by CHRIS YURKIW
"The media kept asking us about it," says Nori from his bathtub in T.O. "They would almost insist there was a story that we were covering up--that there was a falling out and that's why we went to a major, or that Sonic Unyon were really upset about it and now we were enemies. At one point I was almost hoping that there was something juicy to say, but unfortunately there wasn't. Sonic Unyon always knew we would eventually go and it was all really cooperative. We worked out a deal where they still own our first album. That was our way of thanking them." That album was nc17, a record the band now see as an improper album patched together from demos and whatever songs they simply had written at the time. Nonetheless, it was an astonishing document that made treble charger a cause célèbre to begin with. Its nascent songwriting was part of its greatness and producer Rob Sanzo's work was overachieving. For the brand new RCA/BMG debut Maybe It's Me, the band trucked off to Boston to work with longtime alt producer Lou Giordano (Sugar, Goo Goo Dolls, Belly). They lost their drummer and some of their weirder song structures along the way and gained that certain bigness of sound you need to muscle into America--kinda like flicking on the loudness switch when your stereo's already at high volume. But the gorgeous melodies are still there, and hopefully treble charger won't languish between the Canadian cow and the American monkey. A re-recorded version of their semi-hit "red" might help. "We understand that we're a pop band," says Nori. "We knew that we really wanted to make a big-sounding pop album, and that we'd have to spend money to do it. So we went and did it." treble charger play an all-ages show at Kali (1407 St-Alexandre) this Saturday, May 17 with HunnyTruck & Dogs Playing Poker, $6 |
Indie rock is a sacred cow with a monkey on its back. And when the restless monkey tries to hump the cow, things can get messy. According to treble charger's Greig Nori, it was some time ago that the band's monkey started looking beyond the fence of the zoo--despite the fact that the Toronto group had become poster children for the indie cause when it was reported, in early 1995, that the band had rebuffed the advances of all major labels to remain with the upstart indie Sonic Unyon. A year later, treble charger signed with RCA in the States.