Eon Sinclair

Solid Bass

Over the past eight years Bedouin Soundclash has proven to be one of the most innovative bands in Canada, fusing elements of reggae, rock, punk and soul into crisp, memorable songs. Sitting on the tour bus recently before a show at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario, bassist Eon Sinclair took a moment to think back to the formative days of the band. Sinclair met singer and guitarist Jay Malinowski while the two attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. They started playing small clubs in Kingston like AJ’s Hangar as well as the campus bar, Alfie’s. If you happened to see those early shows, it is easy to remember that there was a quality and distinctiveness to the band that set them apart from the very beginning. “We were able to foster our band there and really grow in an incubator,” Sinclair recalls, “whereas a lot of bands get thrown out really quick and have to fight before they develop properly.” This gradual development set them on a path that has seen them collect a Juno award and play to large festival crowds in the U.K., Japan, and across Canada. Canadian Interviews caught up with Eon Sinclair in the afternoon before their opening set in London in which the band warmed up the crowed for No Doubt, the Grammy award-winning band fronted by Gwen Stefani.

Fuelled by the heavy rotation of singles such as ‘When the Night Feels My Song’, ‘Walls Fall Down’, and ’12:59 Lullaby’, Bedouin Soundclash has come to a point in which the band members find themselves in considerable demand from charitable groups and even political parties. Just as the band has learned to play in different venues over the years, they have also learned how to handle the various requests and demands that come with success. On this subject Sinclair offers his thoughts on how it is best for a band to decide what they will do and what they will not do when it comes to supporting different causes. “I find that, if you spread yourselves too thin, it seems to be more about you than the cause that you’re representing. In the past we’ve played for a lot of different causes. We’ve tried to narrow it down to the David Suzuki Foundation, War Child, Doctors Without Borders, and Insite, which is a safe injection site in Vancouver.” Earlier this year the band collaborated with the David Suzuki Foundation to help draw people to the David Suzuki Nature Challenge. On the Foundation website, the band premiered the video for the song ‘Hearts in the Night’ from the 2007 album Street Gospels.



In the following interview Eon Sinclair discusses the connection between Bedouin Soundclash and the David Suzuki Foundation, how the opportunity presented itself to open shows for No Doubt, and reflects on the differences between Canada and the United States when it comes to the way in which musicians engage in politics.

CI: How did the opportunity come about to open shows for No Doubt?

ES: Well, it’s funny because I don’t know the specifics of the situation. Really all I know is that Tony Kanal, the bass player, became aware of the band somehow. I don’t know how he came to know Bedouin. I’m not sure what that connection is. We just hopped back on the tour and we’re just getting to hang out with them. I’ll definitely ask him and figure that out because I’d like to know! He expressed interest in the band early last year and actually talked to our management about potentially producing for us, producing a record or some songs. We weren’t in a position where we were recording at the time, but he has kept in touch with our management. When this tour came up, I’m assuming that he was probably influential in getting us in there. We’re at the end of our record cycle right now. We don’t even have too much new material and we’re not touring heavily. It’s rare for a band that’s kind of chilling out to get asked to do a massive tour like this, a reunion tour. So I’m assuming that he was in part influential. His connection with our management, that relationship, definitely helped get us this stage.

CI: Street Gospels came out in 2007. Are you getting close to putting together a new album?

ES: Yeah, after this tour actually we’re just going to be doing some college shows and a couple festivals in Canada, but for the most part the fall is going to be dedicated to writing and recording. We’re going to try to release something in the spring of next year.

CI: For your band, having built up an audience across the country and beyond, do you change your approach at all when you’re opening a show night after night for another band?

ES: I guess the hardest part is just building a set-list that works. When you have your own show, you have however long you want to play, right? Typically we play about an hour and fifteen or so. We like to think of our sets as an arc and try to create a flow that builds to something. When you only have about six or seven songs, it’s hard to decide which songs you think are the ones that will connect the fastest and best represent your band, but also it’s one of those things where, by the time you’re done playing, maybe you’ve got the audience hooked but you have to leave. Really it’s just about trying to put your best foot forward and figure out what your best foot is. We don’t really like to take too many risks in terms of what we do when we’re opening for another band. We’re just trying to get our own point across in the best fashion possible. In our own sets we’ll start improvising stuff. You have the freedom to do those things. In an opening set it’s very finite and you want to respect the other artists as well. We have a twenty-five minute set. We don’t want to be going over more than twenty or thirty seconds, really. We would even like that thirty second gap just to make sure that they have all the time they need to keep the show running. I guess that’s the biggest difference for us.

CI: Now I remember back in the early days you guys playing in Smidgies [a small bar in Kingston, Ontario]. From there to here on this tour, you have played bars, halls, festivals, and now massive hockey arenas. Is there a size of venue that you think the band is best in, or is it something that just evolves and you’ve got used to switching back and forth from being in a club to being in an arena?

ES: I don’t know if there’s a particular environment where we play better than another one. Smaller venues are nice just because you get a more intimate atmosphere and you can actually interact with the crowd a lot easier. As time has gone on, from Smidgies to Alfie’s, from Alfie’s to AJ’s, from AJ’s to the Kool Haus, and the Kool Haus to here, you learn, you learn. I think the best shows are almost more dependent on the fans than on us in a way. Obviously we have to play a great show and be really energetic about it, and that’s something that we try to do no matter what size the room is. When you are closer to people, it’s easier to get them motivated that way. The other thing is that, when you’re playing a show like this, again, as an opening act, a lot of people are coming to see us, I’m sure, especially in a place like London where we have been many times and we have a fan base. In Kansas City we may not have that same fan base. Most of the people are coming to look at No Doubt. It makes it harder to pull people in because they are not necessarily looking to be receptive.

CI: Earlier this year your original drummer [Pat Pengelly] moved on from the band. Just out of curiosity, as you guys have been working together for quite a while, has it been a real difficult adjustment to play live with a new drummer and work in new feelings of familiarity with another person?

ES: You know, it’s just a ‘time’ thing, I think. It’s just like anything else. If any changes come in, it takes a while to really settle in and get comfortable with it, but I think we have moved pretty quickly. Musically it’s been amazing. At a personal level, we’ve known Marco [Raposo] for a while as well so it’s been a pretty smooth transition. Again, it’s one of those things where I think, yeah, there are some difficulties in terms of understanding our language amongst ourselves because you develop a language when you’ve been with the same team of people, the same social group, for a long time. It’s going to take some time, but it’s coming. We’re very optimistic and it’s going really nicely. We can’t complain.

CI: This past March you collaborated with the David Suzuki Foundation on a couple fronts. Bedouin Soundclash premiered a video [for ‘Hearts in the Night’] online to help draw people to the David Suzuki Nature Challenge, and second, you performed a set yourself as a DJ at the closing gala for Vancouver Fashion Week. How did you get hooked up with the David Suzuki Foundation?

ES: I guess we’ve always tried to be reasonably eco-minded, but really it was that they came to us and actually expressed an interest in working with us, which we took as a huge honour. Growing up in Canada, David Suzuki – I mean, growing up anywhere in the world he’s a legend, and he’s a really positive influence on people worldwide with shows like The Nature of Things and stuff like that. You grow up watching him on CBC and thinking ‘wow, that guy’s pretty cool’. He’s led an amazing life. He seems real nice and cool and he’s trying to take care of everyone. Yeah, they approached us. I guess people in the Suzuki Foundation were aware of the band and what we did. I think one of the things that has been a real blessing for us is that, with the way that Jay writes his lyrics, he likes to write lyrics that have some sort of message, a positive message, and a hopeful one. I think that attracts a lot of interest from charities. They came to us and said, “We’d like to work with you”. We suggested, well, if you’re watching this website right now, maybe we can collaborate somehow, and we came up with the idea for the video exclusive. For the DJ gig, it was a combination of that previous association, and also having people that were promoting the show know that I deejayed and know that I would be there as well.

CI: Is deejaying a sideline activity or more a hobby? How often are you doing that?

ES: It’s something that I used to do a lot of when I was in high school and a little bit when I was at university as well. With the way that the band was starting, and the amount of work that we had to put into that, as well as trying to finish school, it was like I didn’t really have the time or the opportunity to do it as much as I would like to. Then going to touring, we were touring nine months of the year and it just wasn’t feasible. Now we’re in a position where we can try to plan and we have time off. In those gaps I am always more than happy to go out and do a jam somewhere. I love it. I just love exposing people to new music, and I’m always digging for new music. It’s a good opportunity to share it with a lot of people.

CI: I know that, a few years ago, the band contributed a song to the ongoing effort that War Child Canada is making, and now you’re working with the David Suzuki Foundation. A lot of artists sort of connect themselves to one cause and ride it out year after year. Do you find it effective to drive your efforts into one project at a specific time when you see an opportunity to do it and you agree with what is happening, instead of campaigning actively on and on? How does the band approach that?

ES: Yeah, it’s a good question actually because it’s one that we’ve talked about a lot. As I was saying just a second ago, there’s a lot of charitable interest groups, politically motivated groups, that approach us to do different things, everything from the David Suzuki Foundation to the Liberal Party, all kinds of people. We try to be very selective because our motivation in making music isn’t to be political necessarily, but in writing it you’re espousing your own politics anyway. So if it’s congruent with what we’re thinking, then we are more inclined to do it. Now, that said, we are also very wary that a lot of artists and a lot of people that aren’t really fully devoted to a cause and aren’t fully representing it – you know, they’re artists first and then spread themselves too thin. I find that, if you spread yourselves too thin, it seems to be more about you than the cause that you’re representing. In the past we’ve played for a lot of different causes. We’ve tried to narrow it down to the David Suzuki Foundation, War Child, Doctors without Borders, and InSite, which is a safe injection site in Vancouver. For now, those are the primary organizations that we’re working with. Not to say that that won’t change or that we won’t add anything else, but for now we’re trying to be more specific with things like that.

CI: It’s funny that you mention the Liberal Party because I was actually thinking on the way over here that, in the United States, if you think about the election last year, you have everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Beyoncé getting behind Obama in his campaign. And it wasn’t just that election. That has happened in other election campaigns in the States over the years. In Canada, it seems that musicians are a lot less likely to align themselves with a political party, whereas in the States it happens more. Could you ever see you or your band backing a specific party, or do you feel better just supporting the charitable foundations and initiatives that are specific to a cause?

ES: I think we would be more inclined to back the idea of people making educated decisions when they vote. I think that is the more important issue. We’re in a fortunate position in Canada, I would have to say, politically, where yeah, we still have politicians, and people don’t like what’s going on politically, and people curse the politicians and this and that and the other, but at the end of the day the parties more or less are representing a common interest - more or less. I find the disparity between the parties a little bit more grey than maybe in some situations between Republicans and Democrats. It is a lot more defined there. I don’t know if that’s a popular culture thing, or if that’s really what’s happening in terms of their ethos. But yeah, I mean, we actually got asked by the NDP as well to play a rally once. Jay responded and said, ‘Yeah, we’ll totally do it - if we can invite the leader of the Liberal party, the leader of the PCs, the leader of the Bloc, and we can all wear Green party t-shirts!’ You know what I mean? To make it non-partisan. And of course they wouldn’t go for that, right? But that is kind of where we’re at. It’s more about making people make educated decisions than us forcing them to make the decision that we see fit for the country.

CI: As you go across the country on a tour like this, or on your own tour, are there one or two cities in the country that you feel like you’ve developed a special connection with, somewhere you really look forward to playing?

ES: Hmm. I mean, I think hometowns are always just really nice. Part of that is because we spend more time in our hometowns playing than in some of the other cities. Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, we spend a lot of time in, so we’ve developed a really nice fan base, and we also know the cities. On a more personal level, it’s just because you get the opportunity to see your friends and family, and that’s a rare thing when you’re touring as much as we do. You look forward to those shows. Beyond that, obviously Kingston is a city that we always hold in high regard because it all started there. We were able to foster our band there and really grow in an incubator, whereas a lot of bands get thrown out really quick and have to fight before they develop properly. Waterloo is another city like that. It’s quite similar, a city where we spent a lot of time just developing what we’re about.

Date of Interview: 06/30/2009
Location: John Labatt Centre, London, ON
Link: www.bedouinsoundclash.com