Week of November 22, 2006, Issue #579
MUSIC
Mythical Jakalope returns to the prairie to play
EDEN MUNRO / eden@vueweekly.com
Industrial/pop band Jakalope came together a couple of years ago under the guidance of producer/musician Dave Ogilvie, a man who has had his hands all over many an industrial record, from Skinny Puppy to Nine Inch Nails.The thing that makes Jakalope stand out amongst the other industrial bands of the world, however, is the contrast between the gothic influences in the music and the sweetly innocent vocals of singer Katie B.
Despite the impressive meshing of the disparate sounds, Airdrie native B says that she doesn’t put a lot of thought into intentionally trying to make Jakalope sound different—it just sort of happens when her and Ogilvie work together.
“I do what I do and as long as the important people—the fans—like it and it’s supported, then that’s okay with me,” she says over the phone from Vancouver, where she has lived for nearly six years now. “I can only be who I am. I certainly have never set out thinking I’m going to be this or I’m going to be that. I’m just going to write some songs and sing it and be me. That’s what I do. And maybe people would classify Dave as being a goth rock kind of guy, but that’s just him. He’s just him and I’m just me.”
B admits that much of who she is musically is an amalgamation of all the music she’s listened to throughout her life. When B first moved to Vancouver she was writing her own soft rock songs on an acoustic guitar in her living room and that influence asserts its presence on Jakalope’s latest album, Born 4, in the form of “Unsaid,” a folky duet with Jeremy Fisher.
There are also other surprises in Jakalope’s industrial grind, like some tasty guitar courtesy of Rush’s Alex Lifeson.
“It was so neat hearing what we had started and then hearing what he added,” B reflects. “When you’re starting a song you’re so involved and when you give it to somebody else who’s coming in from the outside they’re hearing their own thing and they can quickly add something that you never would have thought of.”
One sound that doesn’t make much of an appearance on Jakalope’s albums is New Country, but B admits that she herself is quite familiar with the genre.
“Growing up in Airdrie there was obviously a lot of country music,” she laughs. “George Strait and Clint Black. Alabama was the first concert I ever went to. Yeah, I love it.” V
Tue, Nov 28 (8 pm)
Jakalope
With The Hollow and Guests
Powerplant, $17.50 (all ages)