feeling giddy with treble charger
feeling giddy with treble charger
Pedal back to the Spring of 1995; it's cold, it's dark, and it's time for Toronto indie rock darlings treble charger to fill yet another smoky southern Ontario club with feedback. Like insects crawling high atop a 747, the members of treble charger are mildly aware that they are perched on the edge of something huge. Poised for take-off, singer/guitarist Bill Priddle and Grieg Nori, anlong with bassist Rosie Martin and drummer Morris Palter, know not where they are headed.At the moment, where they've been is confusing enough...
Skate ahead to the Spring of 1996: it's warm, it's bright and the rear of a narrow Toronto coffee house, I meet up with a rather tired and somewhat lukewarm Priddle. I glance st the mirror behind Priddle's head just long enough to catch a glimpse of Nori wandering our way.
When I first spoke with treble charger a little over a year ago, the young band were on the cusp of a cross-Canada tour with American band The Posies. Riding on the success of their debut nc-17, still feeling giddy after receiving a $25,000.00 cheque from Toronto modern rock radio station CFNY, the jiffy-pop stars were on their way to reaching next-big-thing status. Their decision to release music through Hamilton indie label Sonic Union Records, caused major labels reps to cough and gasp. Last Summer, after turning down deals from companies like Sony Music Canada, the do-it-yourself band came out with self=title, a seven song EP complete with a three-hour CD ROM track featuring 35 independent bands from acposs the country. Whether they liked it or not, treble charger became highly esteemed spokesfolks for Canada's independent music scene.
That was then.
Today in this busy downtown cafe, over soup and water, Priddle and Nori and feilding questions about RCA Records-their new major label home. At first, both appear somewhat defensive.. "The answer all your questions will be 'We still do everything, except now we don't pay for it'," Nori says with a smirk. "I think the press really wants to find this angle of, like, treble charger versus Sonic Unyon."
Priddle filters Nori's comment, adding "But it's not like that at all".
It was December whan treble charger first began entertaining the idea of singing with RCA Records in New York City. The deal, while offering the band an opertunity to break into the massive US market, also meant having to part with Sonic Unyon as BMG took over Canadian distribution duties. " We tried to do a joint deal where we could stay [on Sonic Unyon] but get distributed through BMG", offers Nori. "They (Sonic Unyon) didn't want to align themselves with any label yet, which is fair enough because they are so young they don't want to jump into bed with anybody. And they don't have to. When we went down to New York in December to visit RCA it was obvious that everyone in the company was really behind us," reveals Priddle. " Everything there seemed really cool."
"It's more than that though", explains Nori, "At the time there were three labels that were interested in us in the States...but Bob Jamieson (former president of BMG in Canada-current president of RCA in America) wanted to bring us down as one of his first signings. We were told by numerous people 'You'd be crazy to go anywhere else.' And it's true...here you have the president of a company behind you."
While BMG Canada has re'released self=title here at home, RCA in the states has agreed to let treble charger release the EP on Seattle's C/Z Records (featuring American bands on the CD ROM track). Beyond that, the band will deliver a new RCA album next February. In the pre-production during the time of our interview, the guys were very excited about working with producer Lou Giordano (The Goo Goo Dolls, Belly, Sugar, Paul Westerberg). They were also keen on sharing details of an upcoming late summer cross-country tour which will include outdoor campus shows through the interior of Canada and two other anchor shows at the CNE in Toronto and the PNE in Vancouver.
Getting up to pay for my cranberry juice, I am reminded of something Priddle told me several months ago. "With music you can be pretty selfish." he said. "You can do what you want to do and people will like it or people won't like it."
And the band played on.
- By: Andrea Mulder from Access Magazine August 1996
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