SEE Magazine
Copyright © 1998. All Rights Reserved.
ROCK
BY STEW SLATERPREVIEW
Captain Tractor
Sidetrack Café
May 28, 29Feeding Like Butterflies
Sidetrack Café
May 30"It's very strange being a band in this country, because we can go from playing to 1,500 people to playing to 50 people," Captain Tractor guitarist Chris Wynters lamented, in a recent interview.
Well, they'll never cram 1,500 people into the Sidetrack (10333-112 St.) on a single night, but you can bet the three-night audience total will be well over 1,500 as two of Edmonton's favorite live acts entertain their home-town fans this weekend. Captain Tractor is in port Thursday and Friday, May 28 and 29, while Feeding Like Butterflies performs a fund-raising gig Saturday, May 30 for a couple of Edmonton sailors hoping to qualify for their second Olympic Games.
Both bands have similar stories to tell. They garnered loyal followings in Edmonton producing Celtic-flavored rock early this decade. Feeding Like Butterflies has since moved in far more eclectic directions while Captain Tractor has held strongly to its Celtic roots, but both have expanded their appeal beyond this city, relying largely on college radio play - with some commercial radio support - and creative videos that attracted the interest of the Toronto-based MuchMusic network.
But both have met with the roadblocks commonly faced by independent bands in this country, preventing them from garnering wide exposure. And chatting with members of each band as their coinciding springtime Sidetrack homecomings draw near, it's clear both bands are working to cross those roadblocks in their own way.
"We've been fighting it and fighting it for so long and I think it's time," Wynters said. "You know, we've always been the band - all in all, we want to do it on our own. But I think we really want to try and find a major label now, we really want to try and do that sort of stuff, play the (music business) game."
For Captain Tractor, that means signing a deal with Outside Music, an independent record distributor in Toronto that also distributes such distinguished smaller American labels as Rykodisc and Green Linnet. For three years, Edmonton's Spirit River was handling Captain Tractor's distribution, up to and including their September 1997 release Bought the Farm.
"When we sell 30,000 records out here, it doesn't mean anything. I think if we'd have sold 30,000 records in the Toronto area, it would be a lot different story," Winters explained. "I think we're thinking that it's probably important for us to start doing things in the Toronto area or, at least, being recognized in the Toronto area."
New bassist Jon Nordstrom, a former member of Moving Bears who took over from a road-weary Jeff Smook following the band's last Sidetrack show Jan. 14, suggests Outside will activate a renewed push on Bought the Farm across the country once the new distribution deal comes into effect.
The band actually recorded and released a new CD since Bought the Farm, but it was only for sale during a recent European tour. Past releases haven't been distributed in Europe so the band decided, for its first European tour, to re-record some of the best songs off the first three releases and offer a CD off the stage entitled Hat Trick. With one brand-new song on it, the CD is also available to members of the band's fan club, but is not generally available in Canada.
For the next CD, Wynters says, the band hopes to do something it hasn't done before - record some demos next fall and shop those around to different producers, hoping to land a big name who will help give the music more exposure.
Feeding Like Butterflies, meanwhile, have been seeing the fruits of their musical association with just one such producer - high-profile Vancouver arranger George Blondheim, who worked on Spirit of the West's recent Vancouver Symphony collaboration, as well as producing FLB's March 1998 release Inside the Medicine Man.
"He's got some good connections down in the states with a lot of people in the music business, especially in the (music) publishing side of things," bandleader Jason Johnson said in a recent interview.
FLB's Saturday concert is a fund-raiser for Edmonton Olympic hopefuls Marc Peers and Roy Janse. To qualify as members of the Canadian sailing team for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the duo needs a certain number of points, garnered from specific qualifying regattas around the world. And they need money to get to those events.
Peers and Janse will host a slide show about their event prior to the concert, starting at 6:30 p.m. And through the course of the night, some great draw prizes will be up for grabs, including a limited edition print from the Art Mode Gallery in Ottawa, a wet suit from Potter's Marine and a limited edition titanium watch from Mercedes Benz.
"He didn't know how to quite ask, but he said, 'have you ever considered doing a fund-raiser?' " Johnson said, explaining how Peers originally approached FLB with the idea. Both sailors, it seems, are big fans of the band and have seen FLB concerts in several cities.
Like Captain Tractor, Feeding Like Butterflies will play various outdoor festivals through the summer. Then in September, they'll make a renewed push - on radio, with a new video and on the college touring circuit - to promote Inside the Medicine Man.
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