Geronimo
w/ Kill The Lights, 40 Thieves. Feb 15. The Pawn Shop (10549-82 Ave).
The members of Regina’s bygone cult indie rock band Despistado have traded in the thin, angular guitar sounds of their former act for a new, sprawling, synth-laden sound. Now calling themselves Geronimo, their 2006 self-released Enlightenment in a Small Town EP managed to convert some Despistado diehards, but for the most part Geronimo is off in its own world.
“For me, Despistado was a dance-rock band,” says guitarist John de Gennaro, the newest addition to the Geronimo family. “Geronimo is thicker; there’s more of a full sound. There’s a Korg synthesizer, and musically it’s put together a lot differently.”
That might come as a surprise for those who long for the heavy post-punk of Despistado, but the band’s commitment to the Canadian independent music scene remains strong. Despistado was signed to the revered independent label Jade Tree Records and touring Canada when Broken Social Scene, Metric, and Stars were still small dots on the map. A lot of changes have taken place in the industry in the years spent between projects and reorganizing Despistado as Geronimo.
“We’re starting to feel like the record label is becoming obsolete,” de Gennaro says. “They don’t have much of a role right now: with music sharing and CD burning, people aren’t buying discs anymore. They want to take a cut from everything else the bands are doing, and to us it’s like ‘What are they actually doing for you now?’”
Geronimo doesn’t just support this DIY ethos; he lives it full-on. The band’s records are self-released, they book their own shows, and, with heavy touring, they follow the ancient punk tradition of climbing in the big, white van and hitting the road to the extreme.
“There are bands coming out now that have had just as much success without doing it with label support,” de Gennaro notes. “That’s not to say that if the right opportunity came we wouldn’t take it, but we’re starting to feel like we don’t need that. Anything that they have to offer we could probably do ourselves, and do it with our own control. I think a lot of people are starting to realize that it’s starting to go that way: the things a label could do for you are things you could probably do for yourself. I think that labels still have a place right now, but it seems to be on the decline.”
It’s hard to believe that back in the Despistado days, criticizing record labels was a radical stance; now, skepticism of labels is commonplace, even in the indie scene. “Three or four years ago,” de Gennaro concludes, “indie music was just more indie. There are those big ‘indie’ bands now, but they’re at the caliber of any other huge bands, no matter what category.”
