The Uniter Article on Mahogany Frog, Electro Quarterstaff and Ham – April 5th 2007
Sound test
Local prog rockers bring you their musical experiments
Aaron Epp
Mahogany Frog plays the Collective Cabaret on May 4th.
Mahogany Frog’s music has been described as progressive rock. So maybe it’s no surprise when guitarist/keyboardist Jesse Warkentin shows up to the interview wearing a shirt that says “I [Heart] Prague Rock.”
His band will play the Collective at the beginning of May with Electro Quarterstaff and Ham. Although the three bands are quite different in terms of genre, all three “challenge people’s ears a little bit, and give listeners something they might not always hear,” Warkentin says.
The “prog rock” label is one that reviewers have used to describe each of the bands. Originally conceived in 1998 as a psychedelic rock act, Mahogany Frog has spent four albums incorporating rock, electronica, jazz, late ’50s “ultra” lounge and ambient music to create their unique instrumentals. They are currently recording their fifth release with engineer Mike Petkau at MCM Studios. It will be released this fall.
Electro Quarterstaff released their first full-length album, Gretzky, on Willowtip Records this past October. The band’s three guitarists and one drummer line-up is “dedicated to the Almighty Riff,” writing thrash metal songs influenced by technical death metal, doom, grind and modern classical.
If one were to take the show at the Collective and play a game of “one of these things is not like the other,” Ham would be the one thing—they have a singer. Over the course of 11 years and five releases, including 2006′s Comrades Demand Conquest, the quartet has drawn from a wide-range of influences to create a sound they describe as “Zappa-meets-Povlo math rock.”
While all three bands create music many describe as less than conventional, they don’t do so in an effort to alienate listeners. If anything, the opposite is true. Warkentin describes his band as a group of “popular experimentalists.” In his opinion, a lot of music that’s challenging and obscure is written just for the sake of being challenging and obscure.
“Bands aren’t trying to make [experimental music] palatable,” he says. “I think you need to grip people before you take them for a loop, whereas a lot of bands just go straight to throwing people for a loop.”
Andrew Dickens of Electro Quarterstaff agrees. “You need hooks to draw and maintain people’s attention, or else they’ll walk out of the venue and never look back.”
For Ham, accessibility has come from writing cohesive, focused songs, as opposed to using every riff or idea they can come up with.
“We look at the song as one big vision, instead of many different small ones,” says singer/guitarist Jim Demos. “Our music has become more melodic for sure, but melodic in the Ham way. When you think about the song as a whole, it becomes more melodic. It becomes less about cutting and pasting.”
Pushing boundaries while grabbing the listener is key for all three bands. Another thing they have in common is a sense of humour.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” says Dickens. Bandmate Drew Johnston agrees, citing it as part of the band’s appeal.
“I think people can relate to four guys having a good time, so even if they don’t like our music, we can get them in our corner, even if just for a minute.”
Demos says that Ham are deliberate about their music, but have fun at the same time.
“You can’t take yourself too seriously or you’ll get upset all the time,” he says.
Mahogany Frog will spend two weeks in April playing shows in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. Warkentin is excited to play the Collective when his band returns to Winnipeg, as he has great respect for Electro Quarterstaff and Ham.
“They look like they’re having a huge amount of fun, and they’re not mean metal assholes,” says Warkentin, describing Electro Quarterstaff. And what about Ham?
“Their music is rooted in complete weirdness. They’re weirdos man, real weirdos.
“Just like us.”
See Mahogany Frog, Electro Quarterstaff and Ham at Collective Cabaret on May 4. Visit www.mahoganyfrog.ca, www.electroquarterstaff.com and www.hamtheband.ca.