Stolen sound

>> Montreal's Rhythm Mercenaries aren't that kind of jam band

by SCOTT C

It's pretty much a given that it's easy to get creative in Montreal. Inspiration has a way of hitting you in the side of the head here, as if to say, "I've been here all along, you idiot." Montreal's own Rhythm Mercenaries are a band that takes full advantage of that fact, taking their mix of rock, funk, and hip hop wherever the sound will allow. Their self-titled CD is only a glimpse of what these guys are capable of. The six-man team have been gigging around the city for almost two years now, able to mix it up with just about anybody. The Mirror spoke to guitarist Roger White about the band.



Mirror: It's pretty clear just listening to your CD that you guys are getting influenced from a lot of different areas. How do you make that come together to form the Rhythm Mercenaries sound?

Roger White: Obviously we all came from different musical backgrounds, so everybody's bringing some different shit to the table. Chicu [Gardiner, vocals] is an MC with a hip hop background, me and Ted [Yates, keys and guitar] are coming from a rock point of view. We all write together after jamming something out, so it's inevitable that all these things are gonna surface in the end result.

M: Do you guys consider yourselves a jam band?

RW: Yeah, but not in the conventional sense of what people think a jam band is. It's not like those American hippie-style bands--

M: Like Phish.

RW: Yeah, like those dudes. We're not at all like that. We do write from jamming a lot, and we're really big on improvising, but I wouldn't consider us a jam band like that. I think we were in the beginning, but we made a conscious decision to tone it down a bit more.

M: What's the connection between you guys and the KOPS graffiti crew?

RW: We all kind of grew up together artistically, as teenagers, and they've supported us all the way. We all get our inspiration from the same place.

M: I think I jammed with you guys once, at some party in Old Montreal!

RW: Yes! Over at that loft on St-Sulpice. That was a few years back, I remember. You were on the drums. Sebastian got his bass stolen at that party!

M: Oh, yeah. It's all coming back to me now.

RW: We actually got it back from the fuckin' pawn shop! It was at York like a year later.

M: Serious?

RW: We're in the shop, we see it on the wall and start freaking out, saying, "That's the one! That's the one!" Dude comes over with this big smile like he's gonna make a sale and we were like, "No! That's our bass man. It was stolen from us!" There was like all this legal process bullshit to get it back, too. They were asking $1,000, but after all the paperwork, you only pay what the pawn shop paid, which was $400.

With Bad News Brown at Petit Campus on Friday, Sept. 21, 9pm, $5