PREVIEW
Kobo Town
Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Arden Theatre
5 St. Anne Street
Tickets: $35 Call 780-459-1542 or at www.ticketmaster.ca
If there’s one thing that successfully chases away the end-of-winter blues, it’s the sizzling beats of lilting calypso.
St. Albert is in for a thrill as the socially conscious, lyrically oriented Kobo Town, winners of the 2018 Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year, perform at the Arden Theatre on Thursday, March 29.
Fresh from a European tour that brought Kobo Town global success, the Juno win telecast on Sunday night, celebrates the historically significant Where the Galleon Sank.
Although the band did not attend the Juno ceremonies held in Vancouver due to a prior engagement in Yellowknife, frontman Drew Gonsalves provided the Gazette with a few comments after the win.
“It was such a lovely surprise. Everyone is thrilled. It’s such an honour to be recognized by your peers and the wider community. We’ve been flooded by messages from the four corners of the world,” said the Trinidadian-Canadian singer-songwriter.
He added, “Whenever you are recognized, it’s really the fruits of so many people’s work and time, and to try and enumerate them is staggering. We are humbled.”
Kobo Town’s other band members are Robert Milicevic (drums), Jan Morgan (trumpet), Linsey Wellman (saxophone), Patrick Giunta (guitar) and Don Stewart (bass).
A few days prior to the Juno Awards ceremony, Gonsalves participated with the Gazette in an email Q & A. The result is a personal look at Kobo Town, their music and what the future holds.
Q. For listeners unfamiliar with Kobo Town's music, how would you describe your sound?
A. Two parts calypso. One part ska. A dash of rock and roll. (Shaken not stirred)
Q. Your third full-length album, Where the Galleon Sank, is nominated at the Juno Awards' World Music Album of the Year. What inspired the album?
A. The title came to me when I was out on a fishing boat in the Gulf of Paria (between Trinidad and Venezuela). On the way out I saw shadows of sunken ships and I thought about how much of our history in the Caribbean is buried under the ocean. Many of the songs on the album use places or events of historical significance as points of lyrical departure, so I imagined that writing them was somewhat like trying to raise one of these sunken vessels to the surface again.
Q. This (Where the Galleon Sank) is Kobo Town's second Juno nomination. What does it mean to the band?
A. It is a great honour. All of the other nominees in our category are friends and artists I admire greatly, so I am deeply honoured to be included among them.
Q. To what extent has your Trinidadian-Canadian heritage influenced the music you write?
A. Coming from Trinidad, I grew up around calypso music – but only grew to know and love it after moving to Canada and rediscovering it through re-releases of old records. Besides an encounter with new sounds and ideas, life in Canada has perhaps given me a vantage point from which to view and write about the Caribbean which I would not have had if I stayed. Sometimes a bit of distance helps you to see the bigger picture.
Q. When you write songs, where do you draw inspiration from, and what's your favourite part of the process?
A. I draw inspiration from events in the news, observations of commonplace things, poetry, and ideas encountered in conversations and books. My favourite part of the process is rehearsing the song for the first time – to finally hear all of the parts together which had existed separately in my mind.
Q. What artists have been major musical influences over the years?
A. Old time calypsonians like the Roaring Lion and Lord Kitchener, dub poets like Linton Kwesi Johnson, Cuban tresero Arsenio Rodriguez, ska bands like the Specials.
Q. If you could open for any artist, who would it be?
A. I am not sure ... maybe Ben Harper or Michael Franti.
Q. You just returned to Canada from a European tour. What were the tour's highlights?
A. It was a great tour – the audiences were wonderful and enthusiastic everywhere – but our shows at the Theatre Onex in Geneva and at the Festival Banlieues Blues in Paris stood out for me. Sometimes you feel you have that extra connection ... whether it is a response to the lyrics or more furious dancing ... and I certainly felt it there.
Q. When touring, what are five things you can't live without?
A. Hmm, maybe (and in no particular order) – regular sleep, daily contact with my family at home, good walking shoes, a book to read, a sense of humour when things don't go quite as planned.
Q. If I could turn on your iPod, what five pieces of music would I hear?
A. Unfortunately, I am a bit old school and don't have an iPod. My record and CD collection is very wide ranging – and ideas for melodies come from them.
Q. When you perform at the Arden Theatre on Thursday, March 29, what can fans expect to see and hear?
A. A mix of songs from our current album and our two previous ones and our own take on some classic calypsos.
Q. On the professional front, what is next?
A. A summer tour between Canada, the US and Europe (where our album was just released). Collaborations with Calypso Rose and the Freetown Collective – a group of wonderful songwriters from Trinidad. Later this year, we are going to hit the studio to begin recording our next album Carnival of the Ghosts.
