Rockers The Wax Poets don’t mind a little bit of mayhem here and there
A band photo shoot last year ended with one member of The Wax Poets fracturing his ribs one puking over a balcony and another spraining his ankle chasing rabbits. Alcohol was obviously not involved. Reclining on a futon in a Calgary apartment the gang of four power-poppers is drinking tea and chomping Halloween candy.
“What kind of band is this?” asks guitarist and bassist Conrad Walz when he notices how mild-mannered his fellow musicians are acting. “I must have the wrong band here.”
The Wax Poets are a meat-and-potatoes rock ’n’ roll band. At their tour kickoff show on Thursday November 13 at Broken City expect asses on the dance floor. Despite housing four songwriters there are no mopey sharing-too-many-feelings moments in their music — The Wax Poets are about crunchy three-minute songs that make you shake it.
“We put buzzers on the seats” says band multi-instrumentalist Cam Purvis. “We got songs that people remember…. A lot of our songs sound like songs you’ve heard before. Probably because we ripped them off. People are desperately trying to remember the words to the song that they know they’ve never heard before.”
While their self-titled debut due out December 13 features Beatles-esque harmonies and guitars it isn’t stuck in one era or sound. These melody makers also switch up vocals between three members making the record a mix of styles and personalities.
“Everybody wants a front man” says Walz.
“These are the days of the American Idol” echoes Purvis. “People want a ‘singer’ but I always found that a bit boring. I like bands that have shades of other people.”
A fall 2006 gig at the now-defunct Tio’s on 14th St. launched the band on the path to madness. A few drinks inspired the band to go outside playing to passersby. Cue a complaining old lady and you end up with Purvis barricading a phone booth to avoid a call to the police.
“These guys had a plan that the way to get noticed in Calgary is to get arrested” Walz says of his bandmates. “It’s kind of an old theory but it’s worked in the past. I didn’t know it was gonna start that night.”
Sadly the band avoided having their mug shots taken that night.
“It’s hard getting arrested on [14th St.] as a band when that whole area is covered in crack whores” says Hutchings.
Competition aside it was only a few months later (and after a trip to rehab for one member) that the group found itself onstage at Flames Central. There The Wax Poets opened for The Violent Femmes and The Old 97’s. These were the band’s third and fourth shows.
“It made us feel real good for two shows” laughs Purvis. “It gave us some credibility and we’ve tried to destroy that ever since.”
“I think it gives you the gumption to keep moving forward” says Hutchings. “If you keep playing shitty bar gigs all the time and nobody shows up you probably might go ‘Fuck it I don’t wanna do this anymore.’ But when you do something like this it makes you think maybe we got something here.”
They’ll find out if they have what it takes when they hit the road. A rental van full of gear CDs and little sleep between gigs awaits them. Having escaped other cities without their truck (it was torched) while being pelted by bananas hot dogs and a jar of salsa the band is always ready for mayhem.
“It’s because we’re always drunk” Hutchings says. “What’s a rock ’n’ roll band without a bit of mayhem here and there? Once it’s full-time tea I think I’m out.”
