Friday @ #1 Legion = Wyrd Fest 2010, Interview w/ collaborator Paul Lawton
By Kait Kucy
Incredible music history will be created this Friday evening at the downtown Calgary #1 Royal Canadian Legion when Wyrd Festival smashes through all three floors of this beloved Canadiana-induced bar/bingo hall. 15 bands will hit the stage so be sure to get down there early if you want to catch all the shows. This night will also launch the new 7″ record “Bloodstains Across Alberta”, in which myself & New Canadian Modern are partnering with Mammoth Cave Recordings for this showcase on Alberta bands. I got in touch with my collaborator for the project and the reigning Albertan force in organzing the Wyrd Alberta Travelling Festival to talk about these projects and upcoming work.
Kait Kucy (KK) : Exactly what is Wyrd Festival?
Paul Lawton (PL): The “WYRD ALBERTA TRAVELLING FESTIVAL” is a three day, multi-city travelling music festival bringing fringe bands from all across Canada. April 30 (CALGARY :: THE LEGION), May 1 (EDMONTON :: ARTERY) and May 2 (LETHBRIDGE :: HENOTIC). Bands include Women, Nu Sensae, Shearing Pinx, Oman Ra II, JAZZ, Fist City, Myelin Sheaths, Myths, Krang, The Famines, The Wicked Awesomes, Cosmetics, my new band Radians, and my new favourite band TOPLESS MONGOS!!! So much more. Lethbridge has a lineup of 35 bands over 12 hours.
Kait Kucy (KK) : How did you get involved?
Paul Lawton (PL): May 2009, I had invited the Wicked Awesomes, in my mind one of the most entertaining bands Alberta has ever seen, to come play my Mammoth Cave Fest as one of the headliners. Lethbridge loves the shit out of The Wicked Awesomes and they sell out every show they play here. I guess they had a great time and Tyler and Levin got to talking about doing a similar thing in Edmonton, which later became Wyrd Fest. Those guys basically stole my idea and made it way better, and everyone knows that I invented the two-stage festival!Before Wyrd I, Levin had my band Myelin Sheaths and The Moby Dicks up to Edmonton to play the Wicked Awesomes LP release show at a shitty bowling alley that was put on by Aaron Levin of WeirdCanada.com, and it was the best show I have ever played in Edmonton ever – chaos, fights, cheap beer, bowling… we got invited back to play Wyrd I and came back and Wyrd took over as the best show I have ever played in Edmonton ever.
Wyrd I was everything a festival should be – good bands, sweet merch setup, and Fordist managerialism. I was extremely sick that night as I ever have been at a show, but still managed to unload $700 worth of records and have the best time.
Last December, Levin calls me up and we got talking about lining up Mammoth Cave and Wyrd Fest and making it easier to pay bands to come to Alberta with guarantees and safe-bet shows. We both drew up a short-list of bands we wanted and 100% of the bands I asked couldn’t come and 100% of the bands Levin wanted could come. We both have a pretty strong relationship with Sled Island, and we got them on board pretty easily.
Kait Kucy (KK) : How many bands are touring?
Paul Lawton (PL): There are about 15 bands touring together. There was talk at some point about Women getting a bus, but I’m not sure if that is happening or not. I hope it is happening.
Kait Kucy (KK) : What can show-goers expect this Friday at the Legion?
Paul Lawton (PL): I think Calgary is gonna see a side of the Legion that they’ve never seen before – we’re utilizing the Basement! Lots of people might look at this lineup and be confused because the bands are so obscure, but every band was heavily vetted and we really took a long time to invite the bands we are really the most excited about. I think people who come will be pleasantly surprised and I honestly believe that there is something for everyone.
Kait Kucy (KK) : Mammoth Cave Recordings is also releasing a couple new records including Bloodstains Across Alberta — a 7″ featuring 10 Albertan bands playing 10 FAST songs about Alberta. I had the pleasure of being a sponsor of this project and I am very excited about future releases. What was your process in selecting bands for this record and what was it like providing a theme for writing material?
Paul Lawton (PL): Evan VanReekum and I came up with a shortlist of 15 bands we liked. I wanted the Bloodstains comp to be tied in with Wyrd Alberta because we thought we could sell most of our limited run in one go. Deadline was set to give us a one-week buffer and we waited, not sure what to expect. I figured we asked 15 bands (5 from Lethbridge, Edmonton, Calgary) that we would get 5 or 6 songs actually submitted, and we actually got 10! Six of the songs were recorded by me in the Mammoth Cave studio (including the Famines and the Throwaways tracks), two were done by Ryan Saddler in the Spectra-Tone studio (Topless Mongos and Tension Slips), and Grown-ups and Outdoor Miners went at it alone. To say I am happy with the songs we got for the comp would be an understatement.
Kait Kucy (KK) : Any other new releases to speak of?
Paul Lawton (PL):Alongside the Bloodstains Across Alberta 7″ comp (our 10th release!!), we have a 7″ from The Famines (from the same session as their Bloodstains song, the band has never sounded better) and my Radians project, which started with the songs I was writing for the never-materialized Endangered Ape full-length. This summer will see 7″s from KRANG (Edmonton) and hopefully TENSION SLIPS from Calgary if I can ever get them down here to record.Later on this summer, we will see the Bloodstains Across British Columbia, the next in the Bloodstains compilations. By December 2011, we plan on having one Bloodstains compilation for each province and then the Territories, and the plan right now is to then re-issue them in a box-set or a compilation LP of the “best” stuff. With the profits from that, we are gonna invest our money in a little artificial intelligence company out of the Silicone valley called SKYNET and make a billion dollars.
Kait Kucy (KK) : The Calgary Wyrd Fest is linked as being a Sled Island Warm Up Party — what have you got cookin’ for Sled Island this year?
Paul Lawton (PL): Aside from playing in a bunch of bands selected – Myelin Sheaths, Radians and possibly Square Waves who are on the wait list, I’m organizing something at Comrad sound for the day-time when nothing is happening and us Lethbridge vagabonds have nothing to do – looking like its gonna be a record fair/merch setup with bands and BBQ and good times.
Kait Kucy (KK) : Lastly, the question everyone is asking — are The Moby Dicks really over?
Paul Lawton (PL): Honestly, that is up in the air. Joel and I are working really hard on the Myelin Sheaths LP that is coming out on Oakland, CA’s South-Paw Records. Evan is working really hard on the Fist City LP that is coming out this Summer on Deadbeat Records out of Cleveland. Moby Dicks got some label interest for a 7″, but nothing really. We always have a great time when we play, our tour with BA was super fun and paid well, and there is a possible tour in the works with The Ding Dongs (Mark Sultan and Bloodshot Bill…).
We can just never get it together to jam, write new songs, record and our ambitions lie elsewhere. Technically we played our last show last week at Marquee Room which was a crazy show – 10 minute set where we fucked around and played an improvisational “interpretation” of MAGIC BUS, played two other songs and then got out of there. The drive home afterwards, we felt pretty good about the fuckery and said “band on”. I mean, I already technically quit in December, but here I am so who really knows. As Joel said “Moby Dicks are like a turd that won’t flush”.
