Bedouin Soundclash

Part 1

0:00You're a Bedouin Soundclash. That's how I went, man. Good, man. How are you? I'm very well, thanks. So the name Bedouin Soundclash. A little different. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Is any significance behind it at all? Um, yes. Well, it was a Bedouin Soundclash. It was an album that I used to listen to. Uh, I'll say it back in the day, even though it's not really that long ago. Like, when I was in high school, and this album that came out in 1996, um, it was by an artist named, uh, Vidalwe. And he was a Jerusalem producer. I'm Israeli producer from Jerusalem. Yeah. Um, and he moved to, uh, he moved to New York and came out with this dub album called Bedouin Soundclash, which incorporated Bedouin instruments, which is, of course, integrated into Israeli society. Yeah. Um, and so I thought the album was wicked, and when we first started playing, I was like, we didn't have a name.

0:48And I'm like, oh, you know, this sounds like Bedouin Soundclash. And I was like, oh, we need a name for the show. And I was like, well, why don't we call Bedouin Soundclash for tonight? And the name just stuck, and everyone started to know us as Bedouin Soundclash. Cool. Yeah. Was that around the canvas as a queen, and stuff like that? Yeah, exactly. Right. So like, you know, queen, like we played, you know, we used to play this open mic when we first started, and we'd call ourselves Bedouin Soundclash. So when it came to our first show, we were like, we had to call ourselves Bedouin Soundclash, and people knew us would come. Yeah. Cool. I want to start the show off of the song. My favorite dude, Santa Monica, tell her to you guys. All right, yeah. I'm recording the album and downloading. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. Hey, I remember it gets there. I'm not at all like that. Okay. No, I got the other album. So just, you know, Santa Monica is the first dude I heard. So here it is. I'm going through.

1:57I was at Bruce Fabbard. I don't know if he produced everything from AC-DC to Meryl Smith to Don't You Know Be Slippery One Way.

5:57Oh, wow. Cranberry is in excess. Nice Canadian. Yeah, he's one of Canada's biggest producers of all time. I mean, with the exception of Bob Rock, he and Bob Rock both started at the same time. Anyways, so he passed away, and he actually played in a band with us one time at this open mic, so I was just kind of funny. But anyways, it was really hard on my friend. We played in a band together, so I wrote that song, and it was to do with a lot of things going on as well in my life, but as well it was really centered on the fact that trauma as well. So, yeah, I wrote it for him, and it's funny how this song is kind of taken on a life. If it's some people take it for what it is on their own terms, because I get people, you know, it seems to be one of everyone's favorite songs.

6:45Yeah, no, I love it. I think it's a great tune. Yeah, it's cool because it's kind of stood the test of time. Yeah. It's cool. I have to know you wrote something when you're young and it still sticks around. Yeah, exactly. Give me a little confidence there. You wouldn't realize it from that song, but my friend was playing a couple of tunes the other night, and I was like, it's Bob Marley. No, it's better when I was like, oh, no way. Do you guys have an influence on Bob Marley? Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, the Wailers, Bob Marley, you know, the clash, the police. Yeah. I mean, we take our influence mainly from, I should say, I, we all come from different places. And, you know, I took my influences mainly from guys, like, I mean, the first stuff I really got into was the clash. I really liked Paul Simon when I was young. I miss solo work, especially.

7:30I loved it, but I mean, the clash was really my big influence. Joe Stremmer was like the man Andy Stilis. Yeah. And, you know, Bob Dylan, just good songwriters. Yeah. And, yeah, I just, the thing I loved about the clash, though, is that they, and the thing that Paul Simon did was, they took other things and made it something else. And, you know, I made it something interesting, you know, in the context of, you know, western songwriting. They took other elements, especially with Joe Stremmer, took in, like, you know, reggae and all those elements. Yeah. So that really influenced me. And so I just naturally got into stuff like the Wailers, and stuff like this, specials and the Scatalytes. And, English beat, you know, section of the Scatalytes, you know, all stuff. It was white people playing West Indian music.

8:15It was really some, really struck a chord with me. So that's what, that's where I came from. So when we met, when I met Ion, he came from a, he's a guy he's came from a western background. He was, you know, DJing, dance hall and stuff like that. And we just naturally connected through reggae. So that's why we have the spaces of reggae music. Even though you'll find a lot more, I think, in our music. Reggae is something that Paul thought of it immediately, just because that's where we all have a meeting point. Yeah. You know, so, yeah. Cool. You want to pick a song for listeners to hear? Uh, soundy mosaic? Um, yeah. I'd like to, uh, I'd like to request Shadow of a Man. Cool. Yeah. Here it is. 88.3. I like he's got no one.

10:00No, actually. Cool.

14:07Yeah, Wade and George, lead singer. Um, yeah, you know, I'm name dropping. It's so good. I can see them right now. They feel like, okay, saying it. You know, like, I mean, they're, as an example, like, so far they're not, they would sound nothing like, you know, you know, we're mutual fans of each other. Um, you know, I think it's a, especially Warped Tour this past year was, um, was very monotonous in a lot of ways. I mean, there's a lot of bands, there are great bands on it. There are some bands that weren't so great, and there were, um, a lot of bands that sounded like. And when you have that, sometimes it's nice that something sounds different. Oh, definitely. And so we had the, we had the edge being a band that didn't have distortion. We didn't want it screaming. We weren't shouting. But I think that punks, if any true punk will, will, like, see us and say, oh, maybe they don't like, maybe they're, I'm not saying they'll like our music.

14:57They won't like our version, but they'll know that reggae music has had a huge influence and informed so much of the punk music that they listen to. That definitely. That I think there's just a natural, reggae's rebel music and, and so, so it's punk. And so is, you know, a lot of good rock as well. And, and so it just, the two naturally, I think, enhance each other. So we played, we, uh, we were up to a lot of cool, a lot of people were like, you can see some young kids who were like, you know, could, you know, could, you'd never heard that kind of stuff before. Then you saw some older punks there who were like, you know, who got, who were hearing, I think, maybe something of their own as well. So yeah, we're doing, we're doing all of warp tour next year. Yeah. All of the whole thing, the whole thing. Yeah, I think we're one of the only Canadian bands doing the full tour which is.

15:44The whole, the whole thing is here. Maybe simple. Yeah. You don't know about that. Oh, I bet you know, maybe some 41 because they just put it on the aisle. I don't know. I've no clue. I know that, I guess all I can really say is I know we're playing. Yeah. I know I've heard of a few bands that are on it, but I don't know if I, if they are, so I will say that. But, um, for sure. Um, yeah, we're doing the full thing. So that should be really fun. Yeah. Isn't your record gonna be up before that? Yeah. I think we're gonna start working on it. Um, we, uh, we've started, we've done all the pre-production, like we've done all the writing. And then we're gonna go into the studio this, uh, on the 31st of the month. Oh, really? Yeah, so coming up, uh, we're working with Joe and Jennifer again. He's coming up from New York. And, um, yeah, we're gonna start working on it. It's gonna be, I think, one of our best albums. Um, you could have first one, 14 hours.

16:30Yeah. Next one, a few days. What about this one, you guys are planning? We got two and a half weeks. There you go. It's crazy. Yeah. 12 hours, six days, two and a half weeks now. So we're getting a lot more time. I don't know if the quality goes up, but we'll see. Um, I don't know. You know, I, I, I personally, you know, you know, I, I, I personally think this is, from myself, as a writer, this is an album I'm most proud of, yeah. Cool. All right. Uh, when are we gonna expect that in stores? May? April. April, let's say. Um, it's, I'm not sure right now. I think that, I think April, that is the tentative release date. Yeah. So, it's out to more up to where it'll be at. Yeah. It's being released in the States, too. Yeah. It's gonna be released on, um, uh, it's gonna be, well, I, I don't know if I can say the labels. I, I, yeah.

17:15It's, we, we have our, we have our, these scheduled in the States. Yeah. Um, we're not, we're not fully through our, our. I understand legal reasons. Yeah. So that's cool. Don't worry about it. We do a thing on the show called Five Questions Every Week. Sure. Just one word answers, Five Quick Questions. Okay. Favorite album of all time. Sananista, The Clash. Uh, song you've written, you're most proud of. I've written it yet. Alright. Leonard McCarney. Let it. That only the music could have been bad. Yeah. Can I change that to McCartney? Yeah. Why not? Um, because when I was listening to my videos collection, I was thinking, you know what? I don't like, I'm gonna call him McCartney's voice as much, but I like his songs a lot better. They're more, I find them more real. I'd say it's the difference between being kind of sarcastic and psychedelic and writing, you know, let it be in the long winding road.

18:01I'd choose those songs. So if we ever come together. Yeah. That's all later worked though. Yeah. Well, I'm thinking of the Beatles argument now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, well, well, okay. Yeah, exactly. Okay. But even earlier on, yesterday, that's a great song. I don't know. Maybe I'm choosing all their ballots. I like their ballots a lot. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Never floats your boat, man. Yeah. Cool. One word better than Soundclash. First thing. Come on. Oh. Fusion. Fusion. Good word. If I haven't heard that one before. I'll give you a little off of our album. Sounding was it. Cool. J from Bedouin Soundclash. Thank you very much. Thanks very much for having me. I'm on the rock people. Heading down off the mountain south.

18:51And there's my steps. Echo, echo, louder than before. Another day. Say goodbye to the setting sun. Well, I found. Turn back to the ground. Just got before. Hey, hey, hey.

20:01That's why I. Looked it tonight. My song.

21:25I'll be home. I'll be home.

Part 2

0:00Fuel 90.3. It's about the music. REM, some old school stuff. Radio free Europe. You also heard the clash. I fought the law. Clash big influences on you, Jay. Jay from Bedouin Sound Clash. How are you? Good man. Are you? I'm fantastic. Yeah. Clash big influences. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I love the clash. You almost swore there. I almost swore I'd just call myself because I know it's about the music. It is about the music. It's not about the vulgarity. No. So you're in town tonight. Closed out show only gateway students. Or is that the gateway almost safe? Yes. You coming back for a big show here at some point? Yes. We went to the plant. Yeah. We're doing a tour of the States first with Hara, and then we're going to do our UK tour. And then we will come back, I think, in late November to start the Canadian run. Awesome. Just for this record.

0:45They love you in the UK, don't they? We do well there, yeah. I heard they even like, there was one festival you were kind of sick and they sang the entire one that I feel just saw. Yeah. Well, they sang actually the entire set. We did six songs. They sang the entire set? Yeah. Because are they really care about words there? People in the American don't care about words as much. A little bit. They do. And I shouldn't say, but if you notice that their tradition of their songwriters that they uphold is really important, whether it's Paul Weller or whatever new band they have, it's lyrical content that they're really concerned with. At least in their bands, four dudes. Yeah, well, that's where they were set with Dylan, right? When he plugged in and wasn't playing just acoustically. Yeah. And they love Dylan because they love Paul Simon. They love Leonard Cohen, I think because of the lyrics.

1:30I don't know. Maybe that's just something that maybe I just might be in my head. But did you put a lot? Well, obviously you put a lot of thought into the lyrics. But was that something going through your head, then bringing this record to the UK, the new one, saying they're really going to pay attention to these words. I really got to make them good. Yeah, I guess, I mean, whether I don't know whether they're good or not, but I take. There's some cool ones in there. Ruth Rager Rocker, like Lucy in the Sky, Yup, Marley and the Beatles in the same line. That's wicked. I mean, I guess I'd like to be able to tell a good story in the song. But I definitely wouldn't make it for the UK audience. I mean, that's saying, because that said, they're the most fickle people in the world. One day you're the biggest fan in the world and the next day you've done. Yeah, they do. They bring people. And they're monkeys. Yeah, well, I mean, right.

2:15The Arctic Monkeys, I mean, they're a success story. Yeah, well, they're great. Like, I mean, in terms of how badly it kind of fell off of that, and that says, they're a success story. I mean, we had a tour one time. Last two years ago, we went on tour with two bands that are now totally broken up, because they had number one singles within six months. Their band was done. And then they got dropped from the label, and then one of them went on Big Brother. I mean, the stories are out of control. One of them went on Big Brother. Yeah, I mean, like, you can, it's out of control. Like, you can go from playing to 30 people one day to playing to 3,000 the next week. And then you're selling out, you know, Brixton. And then you're doing Wembley Arena. I mean, it's not even a, it's not unheard of there. And then back to 30. Yeah, whereas in the States, we got, in the States and Canada, we always say, you guys don't know what it means to be in a band.

3:01You guys drive 10 hours. You try to be in a band here. Exactly. None of them will do it. So. Well, you're big up here. I'm wondering how things are going in the States. I know Joe Sibs signed you guys down there. And someone dumbed me. And how are things down there? Are you getting the popularity at least? We have like, you know, like, we, we have like, I think, it's cool to go down there for us now. I mean, we're not, we're not obviously not as popular in the States as we are in Canada. But. In the name out there. Yeah. And the thing about it is it's sort of a niche thing like sort of the way we used to be like, it's more like the slackers might be or like, you know, a scob and it's like kind of got it seen. And we're still seeing there for like what we do just on a very real level was in other places like the UK or in Canada, you know, we've had success. So I think some people have, you know, attached ideas of what we are based on a song or based on this

3:52that doesn't exist in the States right now. So it's kind of nice for us to go down there and just play in people, just appreciate the music for what it is as opposed to being like, well, they had a song and a commercial or they did this, you know, something, you know, something totally has nothing to do with. Yeah. Well, we'll talk about that in a minute because I want to get to that. But let's give people the new single, Wall's Fall Down. Yes. Money marks on the track playing keys. Yeah. Yes. Why don't you give us an intro for Wall's Fall Down. All right. This is our. So tell us what it's about. Oh, yeah. OK. I'm sorry. I can introduce it. You can do that after you tell us what it's about. Yeah. Well, I mean, we went all of us went personally through a lot of things like the past year. And the song was sort of written in this in before, before the last record did well, but it was thinking that this band was going to end a lot of things in our lives were changing.

4:40And even over the past year, it makes a lot of sense that some things that seem like foundations in your life in the next minute can become totally broken down and your perspectives completely change. And whether that's a death or whether that's an addiction or whether that's a whatever it may be, you have to reassess like what your values are and everything. So that was Wall's Fall Down is just about taking stock, I guess. Much deeper than I had thought. That's cool. Wall's Fall Down, Bedouin Soundclash Fuel, 90.3. Yeah. So it was written before, because last time we talked, we talked at Laurier like three years ago, it was just before when the night feels my song like broke and that's all just much like everything. And you had said you had already, you're going into the studio to record, you had all these songs written, production was done.

5:26Is that this record? That's, that's this song. This song, Nico and 1259 were all written before that. And that was. And everything else is new. I figured, yeah, you think you would have written songs by then and wanting the new stuff to go on more. Yeah, the new stuff is, it's funny. The new stuff. Yeah, like there's the new stuff I guess is until we burn everything else actually is new except for those. That's crazy. How'd you hook up with Vernon? That's random. Like he sings a tune on the record. sings two and and intros one and then does the and then does like he does backups all over it and Wade McNeil from like some files. Yeah, well he was backstage at that show at Laurier. Yeah, that's right. There are a lot of those guys were funny. Yeah. That's before they got big too. That's crazy. Yeah, that was what well they were sort of bubbling though.

6:13Yeah, I guess I think Dallas is solo record really brought everything. I guess it's hard for me to really yeah, really put that in respects because I know them. So I remember when to be honest, I remember going down to see Dallas show for the first time and we filmed that video that first video he did for Savior's Sizzles and thinking to myself like this is good but like to people like really care with this. It's gonna really care about this record really like it's a singer song. I mean, I think it's you know, I'm like but it's sort of like you know, whatever. So and then I was like and then I we laughing on to where I came back. I'm like, geez, like friends of mine who are not into anything to do with Lux so far. Like you know, girls listening to it like who like Dave Matthews band. Exactly. You know, so I guess it did blow up Alexa so far.

7:00That's crazy. Did it? I think so. Yeah, kind of. I listened to more now than I did before. But their new records get better than their last stuff too. That's one thing I said like Alexa's improved so much as a band over the past like few records as well. Is that just from touring while we're going back on? They got a new drummer I think that's why. Yeah, that helps. Yeah, especially for their type of music. But they're also just talented dudes. I think they're coming into their own. Fuel 90.3. It's about the music. Bedouin Soundclash walls fall down. Jason the studio here. Two tracks on the record. Bells of 59, 1259 lullaby. A little obsession with the number 59. Yeah, I think so. I didn't realize that till afterwards. Alright. 59 is an address. My grandparents has address in Toronto.

7:46Oh, okay. And that song was for them. I wrote that song for them. Which one? Bells of 59. Okay, cool. 1259. It was just a clock. I was reading it. I read the song. I was on the clock. 1259 at night. Worked for Grey's Anatomy. They enjoyed it. They enjoyed it. We'll see there's a little bit of success in the States too. You got the Zellers commercial up here with them. Yeah, it's Grey's Anatomy. Never seen Grey's Anatomy. No, neither have I. I just know the songs. I have no desire to watch it. We're talking off air a little bit about Vernon Buckley. You want to explain to people how you hooked up and how he contributes to the record and why he's actually, you didn't even write lyrics for one song. He sings his own lyrics and you guys just put music to him. Yeah, you just had a rhythm that he sang. That was jealousy. We just started playing this rhythm and he just started singing jealousy all over it.

8:34Then we wrote the last half of the song after he'd finished. We became friends with him. He was a big name in the story. Yeah, yeah, totally. He's a classic cat. He's Studio One straight up. He had bonafide hits in the UK. When we brought him out on tour with us, he opened our tour in the UK about two years ago. He was like his first time back there since 81. The kids there knew the music. Without them even knowing they were singing along the songs. It was cool to see that. He became friends with us. He's from Montreal. We knew he was living there. We did money, worries with him for the last record. Then we just became friends with him because he's just a very genuine individual.

9:24He sings a lot on this record. He sings back ups and stuff too. I was listening to the record today a lot. I've been listening to it since it came out. I love it. If you liked it up yet. Street Gospels is what it's called. If you order on your website, you sign poster. You sign that. You just sign the whole bunch. They're like, this is what it's doing. Oh, my God, that was like three weeks of signing. No. Well, you can go. Yeah. People love it. How do you feel about that? Now, if they want, they could do that. Obviously, I suggest they get the whole record because it's amazing. Or they could just grab tunes for free from wherever. From wherever they get it. How do you feel? Last time we spoke, it was a while ago. It was before success hit you and you could actually make money out of your records. I like the fact that you can get music from the artist very quickly in a very democratic

10:09way that you don't need much money to get your record out and it really helps us as a band. But I sometimes think from, I was talking to someone the other day I'm like, what do you think she was saying, oh well it's fine that I've done this music. I only like, if I don't like this song why do I have to listen to it? And I said well would you feel if you picked up say like Tolstoy or something like that, do you feel it's okay to rip out a chapter because you find that kind of boring? Or do you think that eventually we're going to start losing information and we'll all have different experiences and we'll be very individual. I mean maybe I don't like a few songs on I don't know London Calling. But then if we're going to have a conversation about the clash and there's the you know there's seminal record and we don't know the same songs.

10:57How we really, what kind of history are we creating musically? Aren't those songs somewhat integral to the artistic statement? Maybe it's going too deep with it but I do think that we are losing something when you don't have to listen to something. We're not taking the time to listen to art or music anyway. We're not taking, and it takes time, it's a process to enjoy something. It's not just an immediate hit. And that's what I think, especially in North America. We don't go to see bands anymore, we see DJs. We don't want to have anything, we don't know. We want everything in very like you know small doses that we can enjoy immediately. I think maybe we're losing something that way. You put a lot of thought like is it street gospels? Not a concept record but I mean a lot of thought ones of the track listing I'm sure and which songs made the final cut and everything like that.

11:45And if people were to just grab a track or two you wouldn't get that full experience of listening front to back. Well you wouldn't know our band either. I mean I know a lot of people come to a show and maybe they know a few songs. Well you don't really know our band. I mean you could, because every track is somewhat different. And I think. Oh definitely. So I, but who know? I don't know. I mean the thing is it is a great tool to get your music out. But I don't think there's much maturity involved with it at some point. It's like you know on the internet we're having, I mean Wikipedia or something like that. What is what kind of information are we really getting? Anyone can post anything on there. Anyone can and if you're only, they get comes down as if you can, if you can decide what information you want to receive. Like what, what kind of, how are we communicating with each other then.

12:31So I don't, I mean that's going very deep on the whole issue. But I do, that's the only reason I don't care about the money. The money's whatever. Who cares about that? Everyone's losing money. But you know the, the thing that everyone's working for though is the music. So exactly. I do think we're losing something as well with that. Very nice. Five questions, one word answers and then we'll play a brand new track off the record called Gun Ships. Okay. You can tell us what that one's about. iPod or CDs? CDs. Lennon or McCartney? Lennon. Alcohol or marijuana? Alcohol. Song you've written your most proud of. Hearts in the night. And one word, Bedwind Soundclash. Confusing. Last time you said fusion and now confusing.

13:16What's the same word? Almost. Conflicting was where I was going. Gun Ships off the New Records Street Gospels. Why don't you tell us what it's about? Gun Ships. Gun Ships is about Civil War. I was, I was in a street like a while ago. My girlfriend's street like in and her family Taft Hamill and Halston and Hallease. And the country's just been devastated for a really long time by Civil War since like the 83 or something like that. So then they had a ceasefire but then the tsunami hit and everything kind of blew up. And then as well it's a relationship oriented song. It's a love song. And that's all the kids want, right? Well, all the kids want love songs.

14:03If you get who doesn't want a love song, you've got to have politics affect your life or just live it. So then I have Wade from Alexis. It was an amazing voice. Came in saying backups on that. Alexis on fire. Did I just call them Alexis? Yeah. Okay, sorry. That's cool. Alexis on fire. You're down with the band. I'm so down with them. I just, I just, I actually came out on tour with us and he was out on tour with us for about four weeks singing backups. That's cool. And unfortunately, you know, his day job called him back. He has to go tour with Alexis on fire. Yeah. We've got two shows here in first week of December. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe maybe you'll be here. That's right. Yeah. That'd be nice. We'll steal a little joint.

14:48We'll have you big headlining thing. Or like his Dallas off. Yeah. We'll take like half his band. Exactly. Have George. Being a student color show. Yeah, that'd be good. That'd be a good one. All right. Let's play gunships. Bedouins Soundclash fuel 90.3. All right.

Part 3

0:01Jay from Bedouin, always a pleasure to have you here. Thanks for having me. So you go home yesterday to Vancouver, big free show, and you couldn't play. No, and you're like busted up your gear too? It wasn't our gear, it was the really amazing people who work at Insight. You know, we approached them and said, you know, we'd like to do something for Insight when we're there. What's Insight? Insight is the safe injection site program that they run at Vancouver. So what it allows people in the Lower East Side of Vancouver, addicts to shoot up in a safe environment with health workers around them. And they also offer a rehabilitation program. So the general effect is that they get somewhat of a healthy infrastructure around them as opposed to being out on the street.

0:50So, and it's also under review under the Harper government because they feel it promotes drug use, which is a really short. I don't really understand the thought process. But anyways, a lot of people get it to do. I'd get more controversial with you, but I think we'll keep it clean. Yeah, well, you know, a lot there feeling is that it promotes drug use and somehow the government is sponsoring drug use and bought, and, you know, which is not true. No, they're not supplying the drugs right there. Yeah. They're just going to eat all of them in a room. And the point is that it's a proven track record of working to help these people out. Anyway, so we wanted to do a show for them to raise awareness. And I guess I was told by the Insight people before we went down, there's a riot police down here.

1:41You know, you want to come down and do a show? We're like, yeah, we'll come down. By the time we got there, they had taken all the equipment and put it somewhere. I'm not sure where I was told by the girl at Insight that we worked with it. They had thrown it in the dumpster somewhere and she had to go get it and find it. But they'd somehow destroyed it. The point was just that it was a really intolerable atmosphere. And regardless of, I mean, there's a lot of finger pointing on both sides of that issue. You know, the police say that it was unsafe and they didn't have the permits. I've been told by Insight they had all the permits. We were aware of the show for a month in advance. So I can't comment on that. I can just say that I know the track record of the RCMP and the VPD has been that they really opposed this program

2:26and they would like to see it gone. So maybe their use of force was based on that. But regardless, we just wanted to build awareness. And luckily, at least there was a lot of press coverage for it. So hopefully kids got in, at least maybe we didn't get to play. We want to go back and play. I've heard a lot of reports that we didn't even go, which is impossible because how could I have done interviews from there. That we didn't want to play. We wanted to play. I know it's just surprising the types of people that will say that. So we're like, guys, we were the ones who wanted to do this. Why would we then not want to do it? Anyways, but what I wasn't, it was just amazing to kind of meet these people who are in this program and see their success stories and really puts a human touch on the whole thing.

3:11And I think if everyone was willing to give it a chance and see the positive effects that it has on the community, I think they might be able to change their minds about the whole program and see that harm reduction is related to rehabilitation and that should be the main goal. And it is a problem that it's not going away in Canada. So we have to deal with it. I agree. Yeah. How do we deal with it? I think we deal with it, at least by trying out these different tactics. I don't think we try it out by amping up police presence in these places. I don't think the police have a proven, have a great track record right now in this country. And it's not the RCMP squeaky clean. Now there's the Vancouver Police Department. So I don't think any of us have a pedestal to stand on and say, we know what's best.

3:58I think we have to be open to a conversation. And brute force is not a conversation. No, well, that's why we just had an election. Nothing changed, mind you. But did you vote? I voted. Good for you. Are you still living in Vancouver? I still live in Vancouver. And I'd like to say to anyone who wants to ask me or tell me that first of all, there was a lot of criticism that we were in Ontario band going to do this in Vancouver. First off, that is the most short-sighted look at this problem because they wanted to open an insight in Toronto and it got blocked. And they wanted to... They wanted to try to create more of these programs in Toronto, Montreal. Yeah, well, wherever there's a problem, that they should. But the Health Minister was like, no way.

4:44You know, because this is a trial period for this. Second of all, for all, yeah, exactly. It's going out for a while, but they've been things. But it's a national problem. This is a national problem. Second of all, and more importantly, well, not more of a, that's a more important part. I am from Vancouver. I have grown up in Vancouver. And what does it matter? No, it doesn't. But I'm like, Vancouverites have this ridiculous idea of anti-Toronto and stuff. And you know what, that just makes us small-minded. Like, get over yourselves. Vancouver is not that great a place. And also, any of these issues are applicable to anywhere in Canada. And we're all in the same country. And you're in the world for that matter. Yeah, and there's, and if you look at the way, if you look at, in some European countries, they've used these programs and it's worked out quite well. Yeah.

5:29But yes, I am from Vancouver. I know I don't like the Canucks. What's your theme then, if we're going on the teller? I don't care about hockey anymore. Really? You've given up? I was going to ask you though, because it's almost like I'm on this theory now if everything happens for a reason. Right. Why'd you go to Queens? Was there a reason behind going out there? Because I mean, obviously- Yeah, well, I wanted to, I mean, my family is from back east and they're both in Toronto. Oh, okay. I was actually going to go to art school. And then I took fine arts at Queens. And within the first two days, I met Ion. And he's actually on playing bass. I was like, hey man, you know, he wasn't really a likely friend. I mean, he was into the reggae and hip hop and I was into punk. But I was sort of like, oh well, you know, the clash into that.

6:15We just got along as friends so well. Yeah, we always talk about that. Like if you imagine if we hadn't met, our lives would be so different. And so I do believe in like, faded events, whether they're fake for other people. I don't know, but for us, like for my life, I've been very fortunate with people I've been able to meet. And you know, I met you wouldn't be the new poster boy for this issue that we have right now. I hope I'm not a poster. The people who should be really congratulated are the people who work day in day out in this clinic and are really amazing, amazingly tolerant people. And the fact that they're getting attacked by a government and by police squad, when at the same time their lives are so difficult every day and they're putting in so much time

7:02to make the lives of these people better. I mean, they deserve so much better than what we're getting right now. So they're the real heroes. I just hope that maybe if I go to, I mean, I just knew that this is going on. I just wanted to go down to raise awareness for our fans and for anyone around her. But I mean, no way anywhere. You know, if anyone has wants to talk, they should talk to the people at the site. It's been like what, a year and a half almost since the record came out something like that? Year and a half. Yeah. So this would be the end of the run. Again, we're going to Japan for in November and then we're basically finished. We go to Australia and then that's really it. And then we'll start writing for the new one. What's home going to be like? You've been on the road for so long now? I've luckily had a video time off. Yeah, I'm reacquaining and losing the insane amounts of baggage that I accumulated over five years of being

7:53on the road. But I'm slowly becoming a human being again. This insight thing is my first step towards saying I'm going to be a compassionate person. Reenter society. Three albums deep. I was looking at iTunes yesterday, the first two are Reggae. The third one, pop. Is there genre? What do you think of the next one? Like what are people going to name it? Yeah. Probably. What is indie? I don't know. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. The only reason it's pop is because it's popular. Which is not a bad thing. No, it's not a bad thing. But that's the best. Yeah, you still be. But no, it's not. It's, I don't know. You know, to be honest, a lot of the stuff we listen to is just soul music and we have a horn section now. Really? Yeah. So I have a role with you. Playing on with us tonight, yeah.

8:39That's amazing. It's amazing. How many people? Just two guys right now. Maybe we'll get a third later on. What are they playing? We got a trumpet and an alto sax. Actually, the alto sax, Dennis, he played in this band Pocketweller. Oh, yeah, I know. And one of the best live bands. Yeah. Yeah. So we used to have them in. So it's an honor for us to play with Dennis. He's just a cat. That's awesome. What song of yours sounds the best with horns? What's your favorite every night? My favorite is Nico in the night train. Oh, yeah. It's got a really, really, the horns really bring out soulfulness. Yeah. That's one of those newer songs from the new record now. Obviously old songs have to be dropped. And now you've got three records. You're at the end of the road for the third record. The set list must have changed drastically as things progress, things come in, things come out. What's one song on the new record that maybe didn't work out as much live?

9:27Or is everything kind of, are you touring with everything? Not the Vernon song, obviously. Yeah, we're not doing it. What's one of the songs that hasn't survived? Yeah. What's one that you, we haven't played. We play a trinko dog in a long time. Why not? You know, it's just, I think it's in a meter. It's really tight, I go, I guess, but it's in a meter that is in between a dance, an easy dance. So when we play it, like, yeah, they like it. And they want the song and then, then it sort of like goes to, and then all of a sudden it devises goes dead. So we're like, no, we want to play the ones that are like going out. Yeah. So, yeah. And what are the old ones that stuck around that will always stick around, you think? We'll go back to like, always. From route fire right now, we're playing back to the matter of hand. That's a good, it's just classic scoth of, you think, Shadow and the Emmy always play.

10:16So some will always stand in the test of time, you think? I think so. Pat plays out pretty good. Yeah. You can see that. Keep that one. Nice. New video for Until We Burned Shoutout in the Desert. Yes. I hear there's like a short film brewing or something with the director. Oh, yeah. You want to talk about it? Well, it's not, it's not for sure yet. I don't know. I can't really say much, but it's, I've, we've been talking about doing that. He liked my acting in the, in the video. So, yes, if I was interested in doing it. More in the water on yourself. Oh, yeah. I'm just like, ah, look at me. And so I haven't really ever been comfortable with the idea, but if, you know, if in case it does go through, it's, it's a good challenge and I'd be really open to doing it. Yeah. Cool. Interesting. Jay the actor. Jay, I would never want to be called an actor though. Jay the musician who thinks he can act. There you go.

11:01That's very nice. I don't think anyone else would, I don't think actors would appreciate me calling myself an actor. It's like a movie, someone's like, you, you need a DVD. Do you do actually? Don't we? About time. Go to the Macombo in Toronto, pack with all your friends. That's true. We did that once. Actually, this past year we played at the Macombo with Monin and Black Lungs. George from Alexis came out and sang Pressure Drop with us. It was one of the craziest shows we've done in a long time. I wish you had recorded that one. Should have. Actually, no, we should know if it was so loud and out of control. It didn't, it did not sound like bad when it all just sounded like a punk set. That's awesome though. Yeah. Not a bad thing. Yeah. Like Warp Tour somewhere. You had a short film with this guy, Charles Officer, who's actually just here doing a kink in my hair. There's a CBC show.

11:47He's a filmmaker. Now he's, so he did a film for us that just kind of documented things and it came on the last record and we put it up on our Myspace. You can check that out. It's just, it's just, we just took a camera with us on tour for a year. So it goes to Europe, Japan. Oh, that's cool. It's a lot of people who just went to the States and Canada. Well, I'm... Yeah. I tell people why I should see Michigan tonight. He's got an incredible voice, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he's amazing. He's a real spiritual guy. I remember Eon played me a track of his both four years ago, lonely, and yeah, he's just got a special presence. I think that guy's... Some people have got it and he definitely has it. Yeah. And he's on it eight? Eight o'clock. And you're on one. Three bands tonight? Ten.

12:33Eleven. Ten thirty? I don't know. I mean, people show up early though. Show up early and you'll get bed when, for the last time for a while probably. Probably yes. What? Four shows here on this record? Yeah. Yeah, it's been a lot. Four or five. I don't know. I can't believe these people are still coming. No. No, I haven't watched these since... Well, it's interesting though, actually, the only thing about it, since Wilford Laurier is a university in Waterloo. I saw you play in front of like 200 people probably. Yeah. Back before much happened. And now you're back to the campus atmosphere tonight at the USCC. You're on campus, but it's an actual venue. Yeah. I'm not going to go to the college tour anymore, but this is probably the closest you'll come to. Yeah, we don't. I was playing college. You miss it? Not really. No. Do you miss university? No, well, for some things maybe... Yeah. Yeah. You'll never have to wake up early. No.

13:19I've played a band. You don't do that anyway. Yeah. I'm having a band tonight. I'm having a band. Come on. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thanks a lot, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, no problem.

Part 4

0:01J, welcome back. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure to have you on the show. This time without a band back in you. So what's, why, why, what's all come up? Well, we, when was the last time I saw you? Oh God, like a year and a bit ago. And you told me, Bed, when you know you're going to go back in the studio and write, and you went to her again, and then you went on the road for like another year. And did the no doubt run, and Australia, and all this and itself. You basically built the road for like... That was, that was, that's a good, okay, that's a good place to start. Okay. Because, yeah, we toured too much. So, I started writing, because I was just playing, actually, I wrote one of these songs around that time I started, because I was right after the insight thing, right?

0:46Yeah, yeah, it was the day after. So, yeah, so, Narcirino's just on this record. I was playing that soundtrack that day. I started writing some songs. I wasn't really looking to do a solo project. But, we kind of had, you know, like a breakdown in the band, and then eventually sort of just personally going to try to just hash through some stuff that all those years are touring. Like, you say we're going to stop touring and go back and record, and then we go out and do the no doubt to our new Australian. So, we just need to take a break, and the only way I knew how to keep was to write through it. So, it's hard. I think it's very therapeutic for most songwriters. That's how you get through things. And growing a beard, it seems. Everyone that does a solo record needs to be a beard as well.

1:32That's good. I didn't mean to grow this. Do I have a beard now? Well, it's getting there. I'm not trying to look like I'm in Sam Roberts band. Well, let's go back to the beginning of music for you. Do you remember the records that got you into music? Like, what was one of the first ones you picked up that's like, this is what I want to do with the rest of my life? The first record I ever loved was Twist and Shout by The Beatles. I was like five years old, but that one just really connected with me. My mom was really nice, and she was a huge Beatles fan. Went to the first, she lived in Toronto, saw The Beatles each time, both times it came. So, she was one of those young, young, young, young girls. The scream in the whole time? Screaming, yeah. We were talking about that in the car, and in the van today, and we were like, what was, why did girls love screaming at shows?

2:19When I heard Twist and Shout, I was like a screaming little girl. I would go nuts to that song, like, riff apart the house. So, that's the first song, so my mom took her vinyl and just repeatedly put it onto a cassette tape, and put it on repeat, so I could just put it in, and it would play for hours, and hours. That was the first song. But the first band was Bob was The Clash. My mom was younger, my mom was more musical. I was musically inclined to be like that. I'd like, I'd like, Leonard Cohen and she'd give me a Bob Dylan and stuff. Then I saw, like, with Joe Stromer, it was like all those things, but with what I liked as well. I read somewhere Dylan got you into guitar.

3:05I always just wanted to play guitar. Dylan, one thing I remember is when I wanted, I thought, one of the first sort of bands, I was in the middle of 2013, like, I wanted to play Lay Lady Light, and... Oh, yeah. You get that weird voice he's got on that cut? Yeah, he does when he stops smoking. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, I know, he sounds like Roy Orbison. Yeah, so different. Yeah, it's great. He's that. So, he, anyways, I wanted to play that song so badly. No one else was supposed to play Rage Against the Machine. And you kind of found it in between. In between? That one's kind of in between. Well, more Dylan than... More Dylan than... More... yeah, than Rage. But whatever. And then while this record is extremely different from all that, it's very much Dylan-ish. It's really raw. Like, your vocals sound far away in a lot of it.

3:51Why the production the way it came out? I recorded that in Armory Studios, which has In Vancouver, which has a huge live room. Like, it's built like a cathedral. So, we just set up mics all around the room. There's probably about 30 mics on all the time. We have piano, there'll be stations like piano, and then I'd have my guitar set up here. So then I'd have a kick drum over here, and I would just start layering on the tracks. Oh, so you're playing everything? I'm playing everything. You know, I have a few tracks. The guys in Paul and Stephen Hoddage, he played drums on Santa Monica and piano out organ. And they also played on There's a Light. But other than that, it was me. Kenny Bridges from Onine played on... on... vacant youth.

4:37But other than that, it was me, like, just... I'll do a first take. I come in and put down usually the guitar and the vocals. So we had a lot of ambience on it. There's no... we didn't put it on afterwards. It's just sort of out of the floor. Yeah. And then we have the kick drum. And we have a fire escape. They put mics down the fire escape so that when I played the kick drum it would sound like a cannon. Because we'd make it really high on the end of the stairwell. Yeah. So it would just be bad singing. So it's... We want... I want it to be just brought, you know. I don't mean this to sound bad at all. It sounds like you recorded in your apartment almost in a way. Yeah. Is that what you're going for? You wanted that like home recording. Yeah. You can hear all the stuff going on in the background now because they're sound checking for your show. I wanted to make this interview feel like we've been on a home.

5:24Well, yeah, it's called the Backstage Pass for a reason, right? So, but I'm wondering the tour. It's just you or do you have people coming up on stage with you? Because you're 200 cross country. You know what to expect. Yeah, it's me for the first half of the set and then I have Michael Rolf over there who's on the phone. What's up Rolf? He's like... He's in this... He's in this... We saw Rolf play... He's from Edmonton and he has like a solo project he's doing right now. Yeah. It's really good. And we have Kinney Starr as well. She's opening. And so she's playing with me as well. Nice. And the last half of the set. I read somewhere that writing for Bedwen was never your natural way to write. No, that was what I liked about it. And I think that's been taken across as I know this wasn't like you wanted to do it. It was just that when me and Eon met, our friendship was based on the differences that we really liked in each other.

6:13Like, you know, what we didn't know was exciting. You know, so I would be trying to write something... To impress Eon. You know what? You know what? Yeah, that's strange way. That's what it always is though. You want to impress your friends with Eon? Because Eon always wanted to leave. He was like in the beginning. He was at school and he was like, oh yeah, his band thing back. Man, I don't know what I kept. I'm not going to play in a band. And this is never going to work. I'm like, this is going to work man. We just keep going. So I had to write better songs so that he'd be like, this is kind of cool. That was honestly... That's how it happened. But it was based around like Eon wouldn't necessarily listen to the clash. He would get all into it. So we were just training ideas and it was always like pushing ourselves to do something slightly outside.

7:00Right. It was with this record, it was just... I didn't think about the music. I mean, the music wasn't... It was lyrics and then the music was just naturally... I read. Eon kind of pushed you to make this record. Eon didn't push me. But Eon was supportive. And I've said... One reason I've said that a lot is because I know I wanted this to look like we weren't together. As a unit being like. Right. Because so many people will say, oh, you're band's over or something. And we're so supportive of each other in whatever we do. And that's... Eon liked the songs. He's like, you have to... At times I didn't want to do it. He's like, no, you should put a record out. It's not totally self-indulgent. It's kind of like everyone pushing dowels to put it out in color record.

7:46Yeah. In a way. Sure. I assume bedwinds still, you're still going to do stuff. Recording next in two months, we're going down to Philadelphia and we're recording with King Britt. And it's going to be... we're really excited about this record. We have this new drummer's sake, Google Mumba, and he's incredible. Yeah. So he's now part of band for sure. What happened with Pat? Do you want to talk about it? Do you mind? Because I know that kind of probably spurred a little bit of the writing for this record. Yeah. Not him. Well, you know what spurred it was what happened before. It was just we were happy. So after Japan, it probably would have been not long after I saw you. Maybe I was like...

8:32Yeah, it was my fault, I'm sorry. It's like I signed this guy and you know what I just realized, you got to get out of the band. You know, he's a cool, he's a good guy. You know, I don't have anything bad to say about him. But we just didn't work well together. So it was... So we just said, well, there's no point in being unhappy. And me and you on still wanted to play music. We only wanted to play together and that conversation was like, well, it's our band. So that's what we'll keep it going. And we still have more to do with it. One main thing is that we still felt as artists that we had something more to do with Bedouin and it was never going to be expressed in the negative situation that we were in.

9:18So either we changed it and did it or made it positive and worked for the future. And that's what we did. Santa Monica, that's a song that got me into Bedouin years ago. Why that song to throw in this record? Of all of them. Because this Santa Monica I know I stopped playing with Bedouin. I wrote that song in I was 16. I never felt comfortable with it being in Bedouin because it's more of my song and to me it devalued the thing that we were doing in Bedouin and Soundclash. Wouldn't that whole first record be your songs? Most of the records are. But I wasn't yet writing for Bedouin. So Santa Monica was written in 16, when I was 16. But it fit to this... It's automatically why I wrote that song.

10:05It fit completely with what I was going through ten years later. So it also reclaimed that song for me. And now I don't have to play with Bedouin again. Because of Jim on Eskey's song. Alright there you go. So it's then laid to rest. And what's in the future for you after this tour? What do you have to? I'm going on vacation for a car. And coming back I'm writing a record. I'm doing another side project. And then what's that? I've been writing with... I'm going to do a writing session with Beatrice Martin. She's Cordipirat. Okay. She's from Quebec.

10:50She's going to be cool. But mainly doing the Bedouin thing as well. So we're doing that recording. And I just think that these days I just want to write as much as possible. Do some small tours. Well in that case are you thinking of follow up to this? Would there be on the solo record? Or will you have to go through another traumatic period? Probably. If there's reason to. Maybe in ten years. Well let's hope not. Well let's hope that I'd like to hear another record. But let's hope not for your sake that you have to go through something to make another record like that. I don't want to do that. I know. I mean I'll just... I know it's opened up to the kind of... It's opened me up to just writing a movie general. So good. There'll be another record. Well I'm excited to hear it all. Right man.

11:35Thank you. Thank you.