There are maybe a half a dozen local bands that could book the Arden Theatre and sell out weeks before the performance date. Rule of Nines is one of them.
“We probably could have booked two shows and sold out,” says Rule of Nines drummer/songwriter/producer Bernd Gretzinger.
Explaining their popularity, the St. Albert resident says, “We’ve been around for a long time and people like our music. We write from the heart.”
Tonight at the Arden Theatre the foursome release their fifth studio project, Just a Moment Ago, a 16-track compilation of the band’s fan favourites with new singers and a new spin.
“We wanted to take some material, perfect it and make it even better. We brought in Darren Labrentz, who was with us from 1994 to 1998. He was the perfect choice to record songs with us,” Gretzinger says.
“There’s lots of variety and the music takes us on an emotional level. It has hard rock and soft rock. And people will be blown away by the production.”
In addition to Rule of Nines that includes Gretzinger, Doug Wark, Jason LeBlanc and Maurice Sim, tonight’s concert will also feature Labrentz, Mike LaRocque, Phil Wilson and Jasmine Howell, the female vocalist on their albums.
Rule of Nines has trucked through the club circuit for the last 15 years, building momentum and a fan base that far exceeds Alberta’s boundaries. And along the way, they’ve justly earned many music industry accolades.
Their first album Angel was nominated for the 2002 Prairie Music Alliance Awards.
“When it came out, our fan base grew and grew and grew. It was pop rock and it appealed to a lot of age groups. Our music was very melodic. It had lots of harmonies and we put in a lot of emotion.”
The work paid off. The band felt truly honoured when the Canadian organization Child Find selected the title track Angel as its theme song.
As the story goes, a missing Oshawa girl named Linda who ran away from home at 15 inspired the song. For 22 years her sister Karen tried to find her. And she found her in an unmarked grave in Florida. Linda had been involved in an auto accident and her only identifying mark was a tattoo on her arm.
“What grabbed me was the parents’ perspective. When I read the story, I could imagine the torture they went through. The pain they went through every morning when they woke up.”
Rule of Nines sophomore CD, Another Space and Time, released in January 2004, ended up surpassing the accomplishments of its debut CD with radio airplay across Canada and three full-length music videos – I Won’t Let You Down, Lost in Silence/The Call and the title track Another Space and Time.
Another Space and Time would later serve as the musical backdrop for the indie movie Seven on the Wood filmed in Edmonton.
The compilation album receiving its first release tonight was two years in the making.
“The ultimate idea was to come up with something new, take the best of what we had and put new singers to the songs. What we’ve come up with is an album that sums up the last 10 years.
The Rule of Nines concert starts at 7:30 p.m.
