Hang 12
>> A dozen years in, Montreal’s Grim Skunk
are primed to catch their biggest wave yet

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

There’s always been a connection to coastal surf culture for us,” says Grim Skunk singer/guitarist Franz Schuller. “I guess it’s the kind of music we play. When we started pre-production on the new album, writing the songs, we spent a month in Oceanside, California, right on the beach. We crammed all our gear into a tiny hut and jammed for a month in there. We had the water nearby all the time, so it was a source of inspiration.”
An inspiration, right down to the stunning artwork by Ben Robitaille and the title, Seventh Wave. “That’s the myth within surf culture of the best one, the one you want to wait for and try to catch. You spend a lot of your life waiting for something powerful and wonderful to come along and take you on a wicked ride. I can tell you, as a surfer, that when you catch a wicked wave and ride it, you could die right there and not care, you’re so happy. That’s what life is about. You go through years of struggle, pain and suffering for five or ten seconds of magic that you feel every now and then, whether it comes from music or surfing or whatever. That’s what the spirit of the album is.”

The kids are alright

Grim Skunk have been chasing those moments of magic for twelve years now, since rising from the ashes of NDG hardcore act Fatal Illness to create a heavy, hemp-stained hybrid of punk, metal, world beat, folk, pop and classical. As time has passed, they’ve refined that sound, and Seventh Wave sees them at their most grounded—gone (sadly, this writer notes) are the phantasmagoric flights of fantasy and the Bach-rock organ motifs of Joe Evil, who now sings more. In their place is a focused, polished fusion-rock sound that flirts with mainstream accessibility without cowering before it. Their most mature effort, so to speak, that nonetheless reflects, with greater insight than ever, on the emotional rawness of young people and the dignity so rarely afforded them.

“The main motivation behind the music in our lives,” says Schuller, “has been freedom, fun and being a kid. That’s what it’s all about. There’s adult music that I like, world beat or rootsy, folky stuff, but you won’t see the band doing much adult music. I think the kids need music more than anyone else in the world, the expression, the energy and the uplifting experience.”

That need doesn’t go unheeded, not by Grim Skunk and not by Indica, the label they started. “We answer pretty much every e-mail we get, and usually, when we do shows, we’re standing there by the stage until everyone leaves. It’s not an image thing, I just don’t want them to feel like crap. Sometimes kids have no other source of encouragement, stability and positive reinforcement, because their parents are assholes or neglect them, the schools don’t fucking listen—when you’re 13 to 18, there are maybe one family member and one community member you can relate to, and that’s pretty lonely and depressing.”

Barrier-busting

Indica’s Mariana Gianelli echoes Schuller’s words. “It’s the same idea as with Grim Skunk, to stay in touch with the kids. The first thing we did when we started was to start a mailing list and start sending out stickers and newsletters. There are two things that are important to Indica. One is to be honest with the artists, to have real relationships where the artist participates in the success of his career. The other is being in touch with the kids—we’re still sending out newsletters, five years later. That’s why Indica was created—to cater to artists properly, and to reflect that there was nothing real, nothing non-commercialized here for teenagers. We’re trying to create something honest and real that we hope they’ll respond to. Obviously, they are—Indica is growing every year.”

In its five years, Indica has signed numerous, disparate indie acts—the rap-metal of Race, the think-punk of Vulgaires Machins, the organo-tronica of Freeworm (on the Hydrophonik sub-label). “We can put out Tryo,” says Schuller, “which is this super-hippie, youth-revolution band, then we can put out a total hardcore assault. Look, Tagada Jones are playing with us this weekend, a total hardcore band from Rennes, France. Tryo is this pop-folk-hippie-reggae-acoustic act. One of the guitarists in Tryo lives right outside Rennes and is good friends with a guy in Tagada Jones. Sometimes you have to look beyond the typical barriers in music to find the connection between humans. It’s the spirit that connects people, and that’s what the label’s about.” :

With Capitaine Révolte (Friday, April 26) and with Tagada Jones (Saturday, April 27) at the Spectrum, 8pm, $15, all ages