Bedouin Soundclash is headlining at the Big Time Out music festival in the Comox Valley this Friday, so we caught up with band vocalist Jay Malinowski to hear what he thinks about Vancouver Island, the band’s brief hiatus, and songwriting, as well as what’s next for the group.
Have you been to Cumberland before?
Yeah I have actually. We played that festival probably right around the release of Street Gospel, so probably like 2007, and also my family has a place up in Nanoose… so I’ve gone through there a few times.
What do you think of the Island and Cumberland?
Well I love going to the Island – I’m from Vancouver originally but there’s something different about the Island, it’s more peaceful. Actually almost all of the records that I’ve written, a lot of the writing has been done on Vancouver Island in Nanoose. And the cover of this last record Light the Horizon is actually an arbutus tree on this hike we go on that overlooks the Strait so we actually owe a lot to the Island.
What do you think about doing a smaller venue show like this?
We don’t mind at all actually. We just played at a festival that was really small called Little Fest outside of Nelson, B.C. and it was really local; it was all just locally funded and organic and I thought it was a really nice feeling because it has a real family aspect to it. So sometimes for us playing the smaller ones is sort of like – it has a real home grown feel to it, which I like ‘cause I think that’s what festivals are kind of about, is people coming together and the bands are there, but it’s about the experience of the people going as much as the show itself.
How does feel for you guys when you’re up on stage; the difference between tons of people at a big venue and something that’s really small like that?
It doesn’t make much difference. (Laughs) My band jokes with me because I really don’t notice much when show’s happening. I actually have my eyes closed for most of it. They’ll mention stuff that happened and I’ll be like really that happened during the show? You know it doesn’t make a difference to me at all really. The only times for me was when I was doing my solo tour, and you go from playing with Bedouin and it’s a bit bigger, to playing for like 100 to 200 people, and it’s in a small room and it’s a lot quieter; that can be a little jarring because you actually can communicate with the people in the audience and they can communicate with you very easily. But at a festival, yeah it doesn’t really make much of a difference.
So I have to ask, how come you close your eyes when you’re singing?
I don’t know. (Laughs) It’s not like I have my eyes closed the whole time, but I don’t see much that happens. I don’t know why… I think that I was never a person who loved to be on stage. It was never something that I dreamed of doing. I love writing music and playing music, but I think there’s a point where – maybe early on in our career – where I realized that you kind of have to turn that part off, like the audience for me, because I think it was intimidating for me when I was younger. You know especially when you’re starting and playing pubs and stuff, and it was a rowdy crowd and you kind of had to turn it off. So maybe that’s why. I don’t feel that way anymore but maybe it’s just out of habit.
The song Mountain Top or some song that you’ve played a million times because it’s a really popular song; how do you keep it fresh for yourself when you’re up there? Is it just like you’re doing your job, or do you do something to keep yourself inspired?
You know, it’s funny, I was having this conversation with another musician in another band and he was talking about When the Night Feels my Song and asking the same thing. I guess the thing is I would never play the song on my own, ever. I would never sit there and be like ‘oh I’ll play one of my own songs.’ That personal enjoyment for just yourself is gone. But I think that in a live setting it’s nice for it to become public property, for it to become someone else’s, and so their enjoyment becomes just as important as you playing it, and it kind of overrides any feeling of boredom.
So going back a bit, when the band had a little hiatus, why was that?
I think that the catalyst for what happened to us as people within the band definitely was affected by our success. It happened really quickly. It happened with one song. And I think that when that happened, the band, like I said before, it becomes public property as much as it is yours now. When you’re just playing and you have your own fan base where you’re not on the radio or anything like that, you still have a lot of ownership for it, and I think that loss of autonomy that you feel as you become more public can be really destructive too. And I think that’s why you see so many artists, or so many musicians, or actors, or whatever do ridiculous things, because I think maybe it’s a sense of trying to get autonomy back when they feel a little bit powerless over their situation. So for us it was just important that we felt that autonomy again; until you know this isn’t something that’s just on the rails. This isn’t a job. It’s not something that we have to do, and it started to feel that way; that we had to do it. That killed the spirit of why we were doing it in the first place. Everything became more important than being healthy as human beings and being inspired to play, so that was why we took the – and it’s funny that we say hiatus now because really I did a solo record, and then did another project, and then we did Bedouin, so it wasn’t like there was really any time off, but I think it was not just doing one thing.
Would you say that you liked being solo or with the band better?
They’re really different. I think sometimes you need the solo stuff and sometimes you need the band. After doing the solo tour I was pretty ready to go back with Bedouin because when you finish a song, when you stop playing, everything goes silent, and it’s nice to have guys backing you up on stage, and also I really love playing with Bedouin. I think everything’s just in balance.
What’s your all time favourite song that you have written or sung?
Hmm… I think Remembrance Day from my solo record was one of the better songs I’ve ever written, and I think Brutal Hearts is one of the better songs I’ve ever written for Bedouin.
Why are these your favourite songs?
You can write a song and it’s calculated and mechanical, and you know where it’s going and you know what it’s doing, but I think when you can write something that just happens where you don’t really understand it as much – you know it’s just a general shape of a song. I mean I feel that way about When the Night Feels my Song too. I remember writing it, but I don’t remember how I wrote it. (Laughs) You could be technically really good at writing something and you could write songs everyday, but only every so often does something happen where it has nothing to do with you, or it just came together. I don’t really feel responsible for them.
What’s next for Bedouin?
Well we’re going to Leeds and Reading after the Cumberland thing – we’re playing the U.K. for a bit. We’re doing some shows with K’naan, and then we’re kind of just wrapping it up for this record and working on a couple other projects. We’re in a good place right now. We’re inspired and we’re just going to take our time with the next record.
