The
Breakmen Break Rules of Traditional Bluegrass
Yukon
News
Ben
Rogalsky, centre, and Matt Lawson of the Breakmen rehearse with the
rest of the band at Old Crow Recording studio. They are playing
at the Old Fire Hall on Saturday.
An
auspicious meeting with Yukon musician Bob Hamilton five years ago
has pulled roots group the Breakmen up to Whitehorse.
Archie
Pateman, lead vocalist for the quartet, travelled to Atlin a few
years ago to play the summer music festival with an earlier band of
his, the Boot Screefers.
Pateman
had long been a fan of Hamilton, admiring his work in the Undertaking
Daddies. But he’d never actually met him.
Then,
just as Pateman and his band took to the stage in Atlin, he saw
Hamilton pull up on his Harley.
“Archie
was preparing to sing a song called Isabel and he saw Bob and refused
to do it because Bob was in the audience,” said Matthew Lawson, who
plays upright bass for the Breakmen.
After
the show, Pateman ended up meeting Hamilton.
“Bob
was really gracious and said, ‘On your way back to town, why don’t
you stop by,’” said Lawson.
And
Pateman did, kicking off a friendship that has lasted since then.
The
rest of the Breakmen eventually hooked up with Hamilton during a
yearly bluegrass festival in Sorrento, BC. Hamilton was teaching a
workshop.
“We’ve
always clicked well with Bob and had fun, going back to the
(festival) bus, having a whiskey and shooting the shit,” said
Lawson.
“And
we’ve always aspired to his style of music and professionalism.”
Now,
Hamilton has invited them back into his home.
Last
week members of the Breakmen arrived in Whitehorse to start recording
at Hamilton’s Old Crow Recording studio.
It’s
the first time the band has travelled to the Yukon together.
The
four musicians are working on their third album since they started
playing together in 2005.
Their
first two albums, When You Leave Town and The Breakmen, feature
rolling banjo picking, booming upright bass, mandolin and harmonized
vocals that stray from traditional bluegrass songs.
The
energy and enthusiasm of their shows has led people to compare them
to bluegrass giants, Old Crow Medicine Show.
“I
think it’s the younger energy and the string band thing we have
going,” said Lawson explaining that musically, the band doesn’t
mirror the sound of Old Crow Medicine Show.
For
their third album, the band is trying to move even farther away from
traditional bluegrass and roots and cross their music with other
genres.
It
will have more of an edge because of the new elements we’re adding,
said Lawson.
That
includes adding drumbeats to each of their songs, when with their
earlier work, drums were only an afterthought.
“The
result is a sound that’s really up front, rhythmic and driving,”
said Lawson comparing the recent recording to “roots soup.”
The
band is hoping the extra blend of music on this record will make the
Breakmen more appealing to a general audience.
Not
that Canada’s bluegrass scene is struggling to attract listeners,
it’s actually bigger than it’s ever been, said Lawson.
The
motivation to make its sound more accessible is more about the band
wanting to branch out creatively than thinking the bluegrass genre is
dying off, he said.
“When
you’re not restricting your songwriting and song structure to a
traditional (bluegrass sound) you can do so much more with it.”
The
geographical distance between band members has also forced the
musicians to be more creative.
A
year and a half ago members of the band scattered from Vancouver to
different towns in Canada and the US with Lawson living as far away
as Ontario.
But
the distance hasn’t been an issue for them, said Lawson.
“It
creates an interesting dynamic,” he said.
Good
musicians should be practising on their own anyhow, he said. So when
one of the members of the band has an idea, they write the music for
it, throw down some bass, guitar and vocals and send it to other
people in the band and ask what they think.
“That’s
the power of e-mail and modern technology,” he said.
When
the band showed up in Whitehorse last week, the musicians had a sense
of what they were going to play but didn’t have their record
completely mapped out.
“It’s
been an experimental process and it’s been pretty exciting like
that,” said Lawson.
“When
you record that way something happens that isn’t rehearsed and
it’s, well, magic.”
The
Breakmen play the Old Fire Hall Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
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