In between hanging out with No Doubt and The Roots, Bedouin Soundclash are Canadian ‘outsiders’ who seem to fit any party (or a party mix tape, for that matter). Ahead of the reggae-roots-rock sensations latest visit to Australia, vocalist-guitarist Jay Malinowski is obviously overjoyed at the prospect of once more bringing the Bedouin Soundclash party vibe back down under.
In between hanging out with No Doubt and The Roots, Bedouin Soundclash are Canadian ‘outsiders’ who seem to fit any party (or a party mix tape, for that matter). Ahead of the reggae-roots-rock sensations latest visit to Australia, vocalist-guitarist Jay Malinowski is obviously overjoyed at the prospect of once more bringing the Bedouin Soundclash party vibe back down under.
Jay, the story goes that you met friend and bandmate Eon (Sinclair) when he lived across the hall from you at Queen’s University in Toronto. What were your first impressions of him?
“He was the nicest most well-mannered person that I had met. I remember thinking ‘we’re going to be friends because we’re close to each other on the same floor but, we have nothing in common; if we hang out together I’m probably going to corrupt him’ [laughs ]. We both felt out of place at the school that we went to. It was somewhat ‘preppy’. The other interesting thing is that my mum met his mum on the first day we moved in. My mum came in and said, ‘You should meet this kid Eon.’ It was like our mum’s knew we should be friends!”
Did you corrupt him?
“You know what? I didn’t know he played bass. One day I walked by and saw him and told him we should play together because we’re friends, both play instruments and collect records. I didn’t realise how fucking good he was! [laughs] And he didn’t know how good he was! I spent the next two years trying to convince him – sometimes against his mother’s wishes – that he should play these shows before school. I think I did corrupt him.”
When you guys started making music, you’d take old records, sample them, and make them into something new again adapting that, where do you see yourself now with what you’re doing?
“In Canada, especially in Toronto where we live, there is a really strong Caribbean and West Indian population. I live in a market where all day all you hear all day is reggae. It’s part of our culture and we always wanted to reflect that in Canada, because all we were hearing was indie rock – not that there’s anything wrong with that. We have never really known where we fit or where we exist.”
I think that’s the beauty of Bedouin Soundclash though, that you can adapt to play anywhere with anyone. Bedouin have played with everyone from No Doubt to The Roots, and then you spend the summer on (punk festival) the Vans Warped Tour. Bedouin are like a big mash-up of ‘awesomeness’.
[Laughs] “I know! It works for us and it works against us – we’ve always been outside of things and that’s really helped us. Our fans are our fans; they come for all different sorts of places. No Doubt was really great for us.”
Both No Doubt and Bedouin have a great love of reggae, dance hall and dub, did you have a chance to bond over the mutual passion?
“Oh yeah, we talk to them all the time, they are really genuine people. They’ve been really huge supporters of our band taking us out on tour with them. They have a similar love of other things too like Hall & Oates; they love the ’80s; they love Eddy Grant – that’s all that you’d hear backstage, which was great!”
BEDOUIN SOUNDCLASH play The Prince Bandroom this Thursday October 14, (tickets from ticketek.com.au ticketek.com.au, 132 849 and princebandroom.com.au) with King Cannons. Their new album Light The Horizon is out on Pirates Blend Records.
