Since the 1997 release of their self-entitled debut, Wide Mouth Mason have brought their mix of rock, blues, and funk to the forefront of Canadian music. This year saw the release of their third big label disc, "Stew". I caught up with Shaun Verreault (lead vocals, guitar) and Safwan Javed (drums, vocals) before their November 8, 2000 gig at Sin City, and had a chance to ask them about the new album, their philosophies on music, and what's happening with the band.
That afternoon: The interview
Interviewer: As far as the creative process goes, you are a songwriter's band. Could you walk me through your creative process?
Shaun: I
think it happens differently every time. We don't really have a set formula or a
set way of doing it, or a given way to start it off. I think because we've
stayed open to it coming from a bunch of different places, it does. So sometimes
it'll come from jamming, sitting down to write songs, playing onstage,
conversations we have, or things that we see ... so there really isn't one
consistent thing, other than by the end of it the three of us have kind of got
our fingertips all over it. This time, we brought in Craig Northey to write with
us a bit, and Gordie (Johnson, from Big Sugar) actually co-wrote a couple
things.
Interviewer: I was going to ask you about that. How was working with Gordie?
Shaun: Really good. We've known him for a long time, and he knows us. We know each other's tastes in music. Having seen us live so much he had a really good picture in his head of what the band sounds like and what parts of us to get on disc that have never been captured before.
Interviewer: The new album is a jump ahead in the blues and funk influence, and Canada is not really known for that. How do you explain being a multi-cultural Canadian act that's so DAMNED FUNKY?
Saf:
Maybe it's because we're multi-cultural. We just like music, we explore
everything we can in the world of music. Funk just happens to be one of the
things all three of us agree on. It was a great era when funk was "the stuff",
when it was the shit so to speak. It just happened to hit us at that moment, a
bit of Gordie's influence, a bit of Craig's influence, the whole rhythym and
blues thing, the old school R&B sort of vibe.
Shaun: I think having been on the road with a "head" record (Why) rather than a "body" record, having the energy of the live show and trying to get that on disc is sort of the way we went.
Interviewer: What are you guys listening to now?
Shaun: We're all over the place. Everyone sort of branches out between albums and buys records and then brings them back, to expose the others to things they might not have seen. Myself, I'm in a mix between old Aretha (Franklin), Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke kind of stuff and singer-songwriter stuff, people like Richard Thomson, Nick Drake, and Tom Waits.
Saf: The
new Blackeyed Peas is nice, there's a Funky Presidents CD which is a bunch of
explosive west coast underground hip-hop cats. I just got into Zion 1, a really
underground freestylist guy, Blackmoon, lots of hip-hop.
Interviewer: Where did
the idea for the comic book cover art for Stew come from?
Shaun:
When we were demoing (the album) we ran into a guy who was showing us his
independent disc, and we just went "Wow, who did this cover?" He said it was
actually a guy from Saskatoon, who also happens to be a DC Comics artist named
Tom Grummett. He's done a whole spread of stuff, but probably the most famous
thing was the Superman issue in which Superman died. We got in touch with him,
and we threw around some ideas, and that (the cover) was what he came up
with.
Interviewer: So if you are comic book characters, what are your super-powers?
Saf:
Shaun's is the Banshee's scream, Earl's is martial arts extraordinaire, but
like, video game martial arts, where he flies around and stuff. I don't know
what mine is, we're still trying to figure mine out.
Shaun: you would have
this thunderous kick on the ground that would make the whole ground shake,
knocking people over.
Saf: Nah, I think I'd be like Beast from X-Men.
Interviewer: You guys are not the typical Canadian band, what do you think sets you apart from a lot of Canadian bands?
Shaun: I don't know, it's hard to pick a Canadian band that's "typical". I guess you would say the Hip are maybe the Canadian sound, but I don't know, but it's hard to put a finger on, I don't know if there's a Canadian sound.
Saf: There's a lot of good music in Canada, I don't
know if there is a Canadian sound or not. How do you compare the Rascalz to
Zuckerbaby? There are a lot of different styles out there. I do know that we're
pretty close to having OUR sound, although I'd also argue that anything we play
is our sound. I don't know what sets us apart... maybe the fact that the three of
us take part in songwriting and every facet of what goes on. We're not afraid to
blur roles, and that helps to create records that all of us like, and by the end
of the year we can all look back and say "Well, I like every song we put
out".
Interviewer: Is there ever that temptation to do revisionist work on things?
Shaun:
Yeah, well sometimes. You listen to your records from years ago and you think
"ahhh, we're much better singers and players now, and we know how to approach
music differently", but I think you can get into
a real
circle if you judge your past on what you're capable of doing now. I think we do
it live. We change the songs around when we've been on the road for a while, and
do them the way we feel they should be done at that time.
Interviewer: How does WMM from "The Nazarene" (their indie release) era compare with WMM now?
Saf: A lot shorter hair. I think we're better players, more mature songwriters, I would hope that everything that we've been doing we've improved at. We're constantly drilling it into each other's heads the role you have to play as a group, understanding that it's about the group as a whole, and that means sometimes doing things differently than you would if you were by yourself. I think that's been a big lesson for us. We're still learning.
Interviewer: What's a question that no one's ever asked you in an interview?
Shaun: I don't know, someone asked me that yesterday, and I was trying to figure it out.
Saf: "Have you ever had hot hamburg with pot?"
Interviewer: And what's the answer to
that?
Saf: No, I haven't [laughter]
Shaun: "Would you please take this money from me?"
Saf: "What's it like to sell 3 million albums?" [laughter]
Shaun: Our favorite interviews are the ones like this that turn into a conversation, so there are things that we've ended up talking about that people didn't necessarily ask about, the conversation just winds its way there.
Interviewer: Could you sign my CD? (At this point, the interviewer becomes a gushing fan, and the interview comes to a close).
That night: The
Concert
In a word, excellent. WMM entered the stage in funk-approved attire, from Shaun's flashy red cowboy shirt, to Earl's bell-bottoms-on-acid pants, and kept the capacity crowd at Sin City on their feet the whole night.The main set included much of the material from "Stew", a number of songs from "Why", and a few from their debut album (the notable absence being "This Mourning", their first hit). When the lights went down, the crowd wasn't letting Wide Mouth Mason out of their grasp, and the group returned to thunderous applause to play a medley of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)".
Interview by Brian Benwell and SIN CITY