Category: Interviews
From a growing independent music scene in Canada’s capital, there is a familiar sound bursting with an untamed rawness and power. Already creating a buzz on Project Opus, these boys are pushing the boundaries of the country rock art form while staying true to its bluesy foundation.
Listening to The Bushpilots is like paying homage to some legendary songwriters. From the first crunching guitar chord and driving drum beat, it’s clear that Rob Bennett and his band have studied from the masters. The simple, honest and poetic stories that wind through the catchy melodies set the pace for modern classics.
Of course, the band hasn’t forgotten that it’s still important to party, and they put together a show full of energy, fueled by beer.
Between shows and the studio, we had a chance to ask Rob about his music, his band, and what to expect from The Bushpilots.
You can check out their latest digital release, New Levels of Truth, exclusively on Project Opus.
Project Opus: Your list of influences are some of the big 70s and 80s country and rock crossover artists: Neil Young, Georgia Satellites, Steve Earle, Dylan, Springsteen. What is it about these artists that inspires you?
Rob Bennett: Everything they do comes from the earth. Turns out all of them are a bit left of centre as well, now that Neil and Bruce have become more outspoken in the last few years. As songwriters, Neil has tended to write mainly abstract stream of consciousness pieces that can mean different things to different people, something that Dylan does most of the time as well. This is pretty much the songwriting style I evoke. I also love Neil’s ability to effectively switch scenes in the same song, so that each verse is its own little drama contributing to the song’s overall theme. Steve Earle and Springsteen, on the other hand, are great at creating these characters and little three act dramas that leave little doubt as to what the song is about. I tried to do this in “Designer Life” and in a few of my newer songs. That to me is quite challenging as a writer; creating a novella that you tell in three to five or eight minutes.
As far as the Georgia Satellites go, that is a band that I always hold up as the shining example of the ultimate bar band. They had much more depth than that big radio single they had, and could put on a rock show in the late 80’s that I haven’t seen equaled in a bar before or since. You knew that these guys just hung on to every note of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, The Stones, The Faces … very steeped in rock tradition. Dan Baird is a great, overlooked songwriter in the rock and roll pantheon. I was fortunate to open up for them once and hang out with them a few times. The energy in “New Levels of Truth” was inspired by them.
Ottawa isn’t exactly the gritty back roads of the southern US, and your lyrics are well beyond the pickup trucks and failed marriage themes of clichéd country music. Where do you find inspiration for the lyrics that you write?
Travel. I’m inspired by place most of the time, at least on Sonic Scenery, but a lot of the new stuff I’ve been writing is more character driven. I’m still somewhat of a fledgling at the art of songwriting, but I’m discovering new things about the process and myself all the time.
The band gets a lot of comparison musically to Neil Young, who has been a fairly outspoken and opinionated artist. Do you have any need to make obvious political or social statements with your music?
That’s an artist’s prerogative. Neil does it magnificently and to great effect on Living With War. Some think that artists should stick to car and girl themes, but if the artist chooses to make a statement, so be it. Using the stage as a political soapbox is nothing new, I mean look at Woody Guthrie. What’s great about it is that you get to yell from a stage about what bugs you and, if you’ve got a 10,000 watt PA system behind you, nobody can disagree with you until you’re finished. I guess ol’ Woody didn’t have a 10000 watt PA. Didn’t need one though. I think everyone was listening.
“Crash”, “Mama Don’t Go Downtown”, and “New Levels of Truth” all have elements of personal commentary, most of it is veiled references. I still like people to be able rock out on a Saturday night and so not to bring them down I try to balance it. That doesn’t mean that anything coming down the pipe WON’T be more outspoken.
Your latest release, New Levels of Truth, is more high energy rock & roll than the country influences of your other songs here on Project Opus. We can tell from the very first beat that this is going to be a different song. At just under 7 minutes, it is also another blatant disregard for the 3 minute pop formula. What inspired this new song?
We needed an end of show rave up. The melody popped into my head one day and there it was. I got to marry up this exuberant melody with stuff that’d been bugging the hell outta me.
In the post 9-11 society that we’re in today we’re bombarded with half truths, inaccuracies and some blatant lies from both our leaders and the media, a whole new level of truth. Verse one is pre 9-11, chaotic and clueless; verse two, post 9-11, chaotic, clueless and paranoid.
There is more than just guitar, bass and drums. Who joined you in the studio?
When you work with Dave Draves, you not only get a first rate engineer, you also get a pretty talented instrumentalist. As a kid he worked as a piano player in the bar car on the tourist train that runs from Timmins to Moosoonee playing a large Elton John repertoire, so needless to say he’s got pretty good chops. The week we moved into the studio to start recording he had just acquired a gorgeous baby grand piano, and lucky us! So that’s him on piano on “New Levels”, “Something’s Got to Give” and “Flagstaff”. He also played the Hammond Organ on “Crash” and “Designer Life”.
Our buddy Pat Robillard plays the pedal steel on “Halfway Lake” and “Flagstaff”, and our friend the lovely Miss Maureen Hogan from Good2Go sings with us on “New Levels of Truth”. Pat and Maureen have both performed with us live, we’re still trying to get Dave out for a show, but he’s got lots of obligations where we haven’t been able to connect. Besides I don’t want to help him move that blasted grand piano.
The Bushpilots is a pretty cool band name. Where did that name come from?
Our original drummer was keen to come up with a band name when we first started messing around. We showed up one evening and he had a list of a dozen names. The Bushpilots was one and we settled on it right away. I thought that it may have had something to do with the fact that I was taking flying lessons at the time. Some might think differently.
You’ve been together with this line up for three years now. Tell me about the dynamics of the band. Is songwriting a collaborative effort?
I bring the songs in pretty much finished. But it doesn’t sound like The Bushpilots until the other three guys sink their teeth into it.
Playing with Tom is like playing with Clapton. He’s such a gifted virtuoso. He’s one of these guys who could play anything, but he chooses to slum it with me. He calls me the Tie Domi of rock and roll … what I do as a guitarist ain’t pretty but it gets the job done.
Jeff I’ve played with forever. He’s your classic stoic bassist. Always in the pocket and gets better every time I hear him.
Kevin is just a rock and roll animal. When we were looking for drummers everyone else was scratched off the list when he showed up. He basically came in and bashed the shit out of the drum kit and informed us that he was indeed in the band.
As a group, I believe there’s a lot of what we have come to term as “rock sense”, or “WWED; What Would Elvis Do?”. There seems to be an innate sixth sense that gets everyone on the same page pretty quickly and knows what NOT to do.
Last week I woke up at 5AM with a song that was pretty much coming to me all at once. I finished it off in half an hour, took it to the band that night and we had it after three takes. It’s a lucky songwriter who gets to be able to play with three guys who enjoy playing your songs and who also interpret them so eloquently.
Via Dolorosa is an epic 8 minute song that created quite a buzz here on Project Opus. Tell me about that song and how it came together?
I’d always been a fan of Neil Young’s epics; “Like a Hurricane”, “Cowgirl in the Sand”, “Change Your Mind”. Neil uses extended guitar solos as a brush in which to create huge sonic landscapes, or sonic scenery, hence our album title. I first wrote it on acoustic guitar about nine years ago, then it slowly grew into the feedback monster it is today. Lyrically it was inspired by a road trip from Port Alberni to Tofino, BC on the Pacific Rim Highway. At the same time I was marveling at the beauty of the landscape I was equally horrified by the huge swaths that clear cutting had made across the mountains. That led me to think about my grandfather on my mom’s side who joined the army only to be assigned to help build that highway, which had been commissioned to help supply bases in Tofino and Uclulet that had been hastily built in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. When he came back from that assignment, despite never having seen action, he was a different man who developed a whole new set of problems. My mom’s family fell apart in the years following. The rest of the song is populated by a few more characters who had equally harrowing journeys down that “road”.
I know that road well. That story adds whole new dimension to the song, and the drive.
How’s the music scene in Ottawa?
Healthy, vibrant. There is a long list of success stories emerging out of here. I’ve been in it quite awhile and have seen quite a few changes and the changes have reflected the reality of the industry. When I started doing this there was about 3 and a half original acts in town. Now it numbers in the 100’s. The biggest change I’ve seen is that the indie scene is very supportive of each other. Bands stick together for their mutual drawing power. We have great clubs like the Rainbow, Barrymore’s and The Bayou, and cool bands like Good2Go, The John Henrys, The Double Pumpers, The Sick Fits and Big Jeezus Truck. List goes on and on …
You seem to be getting a lot of attention lately. Do you see a lot of familiar faces at shows?
As anyone who’s started a band knows, your first audience is your family and immediate circle of friends. We must be doing something right as the family and friends are still hanging in there and we’re getting to meet more and more audience members more than once.
You’ve described yourselves as a “live rawk juggernaut on the brink of chaos”. What can one expect from a live show with The Bushpilots?
Beer, feedback, broken strings and little chatter. We love a fast paced show.
What's the strangest thing to ever happen at one of your shows?
That I didn’t break a string.
I am afraid to ask, but how much beer gets consumed at one of your shows?
By the audience or the band?
I will assume from your previous comment that the answer is plenty for both.
What brought you to Project Opus?
My wife works in the media and was on your mailing list . She passed it on to me. That connection is great for getting early news I tell ya. I was impressed with the format and editorial content and that made me sign on.
There is a huge shift happening in the music business these days thanks to the Internet. Is the new technology something you are embracing, or are you still trying to figure it out?
I love it … the possibilities are endless. Look at Arcade Fire; they sold 200,000 albums on line before the record companies woke up and took notice. Sometimes I think their move to a label maybe wasn’t necessary. They seemed to be doing OK on their own. Bottom line is you have the whole world at your disposal with regards to distribution. Since we’ve signed on to Opus, I’ve gotten more and more excited about it. We get to put what we want on a record, and the people get to decide what they’re going to listen to, not having someone else do it for them.
I love the digital world for all these distribution possibilities, but I’m still somewhat of a Luddite when it comes to recording. Little Bullhorn Productions, where we recorded Sonic Scenery, is good ol’ sixteen track reel to reel … two inch tape. You have to buy the tape on e-Bay or what have you now, as they’ve stopped manufacturing it.
Do you have any plans to tour this year? Can we expect to see you on the west coast?
If you blinked you would have missed it. I played a set of Bushpilots songs, unplugged, at an open stage in Whistler back in the first week of April. As far as a full fledged tour we would love to come out there tomorrow if the demand was there. We’ll see what transpires with the next record. Mud River would be a cool band to play with.
What’s next for The Bushpilots?
We’re back at Little Bullhorn first week of June to start the next album. We plan on making it a more live from the floor affair, much like we did with “Georgian Bay” and “Via Dolorosa”. No overdubs. We’re doing the second session in September. Because we’re getting quite comfortable playing together and that we’re taking a minimalist production approach I anticipate the initial recording to go much faster. We would rather spend more time at the back end in search of that perfect mix.
Look for a November release date … and we promise a Project Opus exclusive for an online release in advance of the hard CD.
Thanks Rob.
delicious | 
digg