CALGARY METAL - EXIT STRATEGY

There is dedicated fan base in Calgary devoted to hard-core metal.  Bands like Exit Strategy have been going strong for years.  Founded in 2006, Exit Strategy is considered "Deathgrind" metal—it is fast, really heavy and focuses and brutal, intense sound.  

Exit Strategy formed in 2006 and recently released their third album, "The Atrocity Machine".  I had a chance to catch up with founding member and bass player Greg Musgrave.

Q: Greg, you have been in bands for over twenty years.  What is the most enjoyable part about being in a band?

A: My favourite part of being in a band would have to be the live aspect of when you are in a room with a bunch of people that are loosing their shit being your music affects them on such a level that it become a vibe that both the band & the crowd share & is truly one of the most intimate things that I’ve experienced as an artist, which is a large part of why I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. 

 

Q: What is the least enjoyable part?  Or most difficult part? 

A: Like most things, it’s the business side of things & actually managing & running the band like a business that can be the least enjoyable, while most certainly also being a necessary evil so to speak.

Q: The stereotype of metal fans is that they are loud and dangerous.  I have been to lots of metal shows and the fans couldn't be nicer or more polite.  Does it bug you that metal fans get a bad rap?

A: Yes & no. The metal community has always been a very underground scene, and those who inhabit that scene find refuge among like-minded people who are more than likely not the status quo individual in their workplace or certain social circles. At a metal show they get to tap into that primal feeling that metal brings out in those who really enjoy it & are embraced by those who share their passion. I’ve played hundreds of shows, and I've been to hundreds of shows beyond that, and I can honestly count on one hand the amount of times that a fight has broken out.  Ironically, it’s when some drunken jock asshole has wandered into the wrong bar and starts something with some long-haired skinny kid who he thinks he can prey on; but news flash bucko: metalheads look out for their own, and if you fuck with someone who has nothing to provoke you, and they are in the company of a tight-knit community like the metal scene, then chances are you’re in for a rough night. 

Q: Can you walk us through how you actually go about making a CD?  Let's say someone has written a bunch of songs and can play them - how do they actually go about getting a CD?

A: Good question—and one where the logistics of achieving a recording has changed in a big way over the last ten years. If you are an underground band looking to cut a record, but don’t know anyone and are on a tight budget (which most bands are), there are numerous independent people that record bands for a fraction of the price of going to a professional studio.  Quite often, if you look for people that are within the genre of music that you play, will often get you a result more like what you were looking for just because they understand the genre of music, and they know how to transfer that essence on tape so to speak. For instance, all the CDs that I’ve made over the last 9 years have all been recorded by the band, as we have people within the band with the appropriate gear (and more importantly the know how of how to use it and achieve exactly what we were going for when we wrote the songs). My drummer records bands all the time for a fraction of what you would pay in a studio, and his results are garnishing him more work all the time.

Q: What is the decision-making process like in your band?  What happens when there are disagreements?

A: Being in a band is very much like having an extended family, especially when you’ve been playing together as long as I have been playing with the guys I’ve been fortunate enough to play with. Many times duties are delegated to those who are best suited, and more importantly the most reliable to ensure that those things are done. I’ve been in bands like Caveat & Phantom Limb where I was the key song writer, so I made most of the main decisions & handled pretty much all of the business side of things because (not to sound egotistical), but I am good at it—largely because I’ve been doing it for so long and I know who to contact for shows, merchandise, PR, etc. 

Other times, like in Exit Strategy, many of the members take part in certain duties which make the stress of running a band much less when it’s not falling on one set of shoulders. As for disagreements; were all full grown men, and shit happens sometimes and things are argued about. At the end of the day we are like brothers and we sort things out no matter what, being we are all a part of something that is bigger than one person and you make compromises and figure things out. Luckily I have been working with these guys for so long that we all get along great after all these years as one of the hardest things to find is not only a band of like minded musicians that are musically all on the same page, but personalities that work well together. Personalities & ego are what breaks bands up 90% of the time.

Q: What does the year look like ahead for your band?  Are there any projects, events or shows coming up that you are excited about?

A: Ya, we just released our 3rd album called The Atrocity Machine & have two tours planned—one out west in the BC area in April, and another planned tour in the summer going out to Eastern Canada to promote the album. We are also in the midst of making out first pro video with acclaimed video directer Doug Cook, which is coming along amazing and will be unlike any metal video ANYONE has ever seen, so we are stoked about that. Other than that the axe will continue to grind, as will we.

http://exitstrategycalgary.bandcamp.com/

CAN THE WORLD REALLY BE VEGETARIAN SOMEDAY?

I am normally a comedy writer, but I wanted to take a moment to explore an unsettling subject for many people: animal cruelty and specifically the eating of meat.  Although I am not a hardcore vegetarian, I definitely am trying—I used to eat a pound of bacon on a weekly basis and have meat every day for supper, but after a few years of figuring out some great vegetarian meal options, I am now happily eating beans, way more fruits and vegetables and vegetarian chicken fingers.  I'm not all the way there yet, but I can definitely feel the pull in that direction—the pull of doing the right thing ethically, nutritionally and from a climate-emissions standpoint.  But I don't want to talk about those things in this post—I saw a comment recently on social media whereby the poster said that it is impossible to think that someday the entire world will stop eating meat. 

Is that an outrageous goal—to have seven billion people or so entirely give up eating animals?  It certainly seems that way at first glance—for example, I just drove by a supermarket on the way home that was advertising that if I spent a couple of hundred dollars, I would get a free turkey.  (I assume the turkey that they would give me would be dead.)  Meat is everywhere—it sits on plates at virtually every restaurant, fast-food outlet and in the freezer in grocery stores all over the world. 

I happen to believe that vegetarianism and veganism are healthy goals from a nutritional standpoint, and environmental standpoint, and especially an ethical standpoint.  With that in mind, here are some (hopefully) positive thoughts on where vegetarianism is headed:
  
• Most people seem to agree that animals should not be tortured.  It has been my experience that when someone sees factory farm footage, or film of an animal in a fur farm, or a circus, they are usually outraged and saddened.  This may seem like a logical thought, that of course people are upset and angry—but it hasn't always been that way.  For example, bear baiting was a common practice in England in the 1800s.  For those who may not know, basically a bear was tied up in a pit and some dogs would attack the bear.  People sat in the stands and watched this like we watch a football or hockey game today.  It seems ridiculous by today's standards that people would pay money and sit there and watch a bear (or dogs) be killed, and the practice was outlawed in England around the middle of the 19th century.  Whew!  However, it still goes on today in parts of Pakistan.  Cock fighting (with roosters who fight to the death) and bull fighting (where the matador repeatedly stabs the bull to death) are common practice in parts of Latin America and Europe right now.  And of course, any self-respecting NFL Football fan knows all about dog fighting, ever since quarterback Michael Vick was indicted on felony charges in 2007.  However, these practices are definitely on the decline—where cock fighting and bull fighting were once proud staples of culture, on the cover of every travel brochure, they are not held in the same reverence as they were even a hundred years ago.  We can only hope that the next generation of tourists and citizens will not patronize these activities, and they will eventually go extinct (or be outlawed).  

• There are more vegetarians now than ever before.  When I was kid (about thirty years ago), vegans were definitely considered weird.  People would joke about them not having any energy, and if you insulted one they would try to fight you and faint, and vegetarians were considered wimpy and/or feminine.  Real men ate steak and bacon.  This attitude has definitely changed in many parts of the world and for the better.  There are many high-profile vegetarians in our society over the past hundred years, from Mahatma Gandhi to Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney.  If you think those guys are wimpy, how about NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath and tennis great Martina Navratilova.  I'm pretty sure either one of them could beat me up.  (I know that sometimes vegetarians will eat fish, but the point I'm trying to make is that these are high-calibre athletes and they didn't munch on a huge steak every day for twenty years while winning in their sport.)

• There are many more "partial" vegetarians.  While some hard-core vegan or vegetarian activists might scoff at the idea of being partially committed to something, the fact of the matter is that if someone goes vegetarian for one day, then that is one day better than if they didn't.  For many people, "Meatless Monday" has become a regular, normal attitude in their lives.  If everyone went veggie for one day a week, that would be the same (from a math standpoint) as if one-seventh of the world was vegetarian all the time.  That would be one billion vegetarians.  That definitely sounds impressive!  It is also important to note the psychological barrier that gets broken when a family sits down to dinner, eats a vegetarian meal, and they not only enjoy it, but they don't collapse from low energy after.  In fact, many people report losing weight, having better digestion, and generally feeling great.  The process has started and will be repeated by many people (and possibly increased) over time.

• There is historical precedence that attitudes can dramatically change.  People are sometimes a little reluctant to equate the fight for animal rights to any other causes such as gay rights, feminism, and slavery—so I am not doing that here.  However, it is interesting to note that over the past four hundred years, attitudes in general toward certain rights and freedoms have definitely changed.  Often people today will visit a museum or watch a documentary about slavery and comment that the idea of slavery is outrageous—and yet it existed in the United States less than 200 years ago.  I think it is outrageous that women couldn't vote—and that was less than 150 years ago in many countries.  The more we seem to learn and evolve, the more "equal" things seem to be, at least from an ethical standpoint.

During the Renaissance, dogs were routinely vivisected (that is, dissected while alive) by people trying to figure out how biological systems worked.  While originally scientists questioned if animals even could feel pain, now we know of course that this is in fact true.  It has been measured and observed.  We have laws on the books (like the U.S. Animal Welfare Act) that attempts to minimize this pain—and this is something that the public, on the whole, supports.  Animal experimentation is still being performed today—and while some people are vehemently opposed to it and others cite it as a necessary evil in the exploration of vaccines and medicine, almost all of us can agree that animals should be subjected to either no pain or as little as possible.  Most people have compassion—it doesn't make the news, but it is true.

• The world is becoming more science-based.  Despite getting most of the news of the world through the United States, the majority of the world's population is embracing science and the idea that experiments and observation are important tools to help us define the way the universe works.  Do lobsters feel pain when they are thrown into a boiling hot pot of water?  Thirty years ago, people would often say that lobsters didn't feel pain.  As a kid, I thought this was weird.  How could any animal not feel pain?  Recently scientists have put forward strong arguments that they do.  If we can observe and record this behavior, we must acknowledge it—we cannot simply ignore it.  Even if you don't care about the lobster, what about dolphins?  Fish?  Chickens?  Are human beings truly "special"—the only ones on the planet who can suffer, feel pain and be sad and scared?  All we need to do is spend some time with a dog or a cat to see that this is simply not true.  Biologically, all animals are physically very close to each other.  Mammals, for example, all have lungs, a heart, eyes and a circulatory system—and pain receptors.  So it stands to reason that although animals may not have the same level of intelligence as people, they can feel pain—and for that reason, we should ask ourselves if they deserve a happy life instead of one in a factory farm.    

So is true global vegetarianism an outrageous dream?  As of right now, it definitely looks like an uphill battle.  However, huge social change has happened over the past few hundred years—stereotypes on gender, race and human rights have been changed (and are changing), and what is acceptable today in terms of science and ethics has evolved as well.  Ultimately the only way something impossible can happen is to keep pushing forward until it becomes possible, then probable, and then a reality.

ALTERNATIVE GREEN DAY

I'm a big fan of the punk band Green Day.  It's kind of weird calling them a "punk band", because the lead singer is over 40 years old.  They formed back in the late 1980s and achieved major success with their album Dookie in the early 1990s. 

I have all of their albums—over the last ten years, they have released the hugely popular American Idiot, which was turned into a Broadway musical.  However, even some hardcore fans may not know that there are two albums that are Green Day, but not really Green Day.

In 2007, the band released an album called Foxboro Hot Tubs, based on an alternative band that they formed.  (It was really just Green Day with a couple of other guys. 

The album sounds like Green Day (kind of).  Because there are other members, the sound is a little different but overall, the songwriting is very Green Day—very catchy with good hooks and interesting lyrics.

Foxboro Hot Tubs weirder counterpart is the new wave band The Network.  They released an album a few years earlier in 2003 called Money Money 2020. 

This band sounds like Men Without Hats meets Devo meets Green Day.  The really weird part is that the band all wear masks.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the vocals are Billy Joe Armstrong's (the voice of Green Day).  This is a darker, stranger album and definitely has pieces of Green Day in it, but overall it sounds like a different band.  If you like the techno-sounding bands of the 1980s, you will enjoy this little offshoot album.  

LUDOVICO EINAUDI

I am a big Ricky Gervais fan.  I watched him back in 2000 with the British version of The Office, also known to us hardcore fans as The Office.  I like pretty much everything he has ever done.  There was a TV show that was recently lanched in the U.K. called Derek.  (It is now available in North America on Netflix.)  It's a quirky television show about a simple person who works at an old folks home.  It's not really a very funny show, but it is really heartfelt and more like comedy-drama.  A dramedy?  A coma?  In any event, the show is really moving, because we get to watch Derek (Ricky Gervais) interact with friends and clients (who are mostly old people waiting to die in the home). 

The music on this show is fantastic.  I am not a big fan of classical music.  To me, it is old person music.  I am not an old person!  I can walk up a flight of stairs.  I know how to use a self-checkout machine at the supermarket.  I am young, dammit!  

The composer of the classical music that was used in the show is an Italian musician named Ludovico Einaudi.  I grabbed one of his albums and absolutely fell in love with the music.  Instead of thirty violins all battling it out like crazy chickens in a small coop, the music is melodic and simple.  Check out his song Ancora here: 

Of course, the snobby snobs have to come down from their snobby ivory tower and criticize that Ludivico Einaudi is too simple—that the masses may like it, but he is not considered "real" classical music.  I love this.  I am gladly one of the heathens who doesn't get classical music.  It's too complicated and quite frankly, I don't really enjoy it.  So I love this criticism.  I truly do.  Let me explain: I am a huge KISS fan.  I love those old dudes dressed up in spandex breathing fire and setting off pyro.  The critics Hate KISS.  Yes, that was hate with a capital H.  So to me, Ludivico Einaudi is like the KISS of the classical world.  (He does not, to my knowledge, spit fire or start every piano concert with "who's ready to rock???"

I really like melodies (which is why I like KISS and 1980s cheesy music.  You spin me right round baby right round—where was I?  Oh right.  This is one of his biggest mainstream songs, called Divenire:


It's like most art: either you like it, or you don't.  I like it.  Even if he doesn't shoot fireworks and have a 20-foot tall drum riser.