Neither rain, sleet, snow nor flooded basement is going to keep Toronto band Dearly Beloved from making the most of their upcoming tour of the Maritimes.
Just last week, Dearly Beloved multi-instrumentalist Rob Higgins had an encounter with the latter catastrophe listed above. Fortunately, none of his musical instruments were caught in the unanticipated rush of water in the basement of his Toronto house.
“It was all stuff that you’d keep in a dusty basement, honestly,” he shares. “It’s personal stuff that still matters but it is not the end of the world. It could have been much worse. It’s important to keep things in perspective.”
Dearly Beloved’s tour of Atlantic Canada – including their stop tomorrow evening in Sackville – marks the first time that the rock and punk inspired band has been on the East Coast in the last seven years. It is not that he and his band mate Niva Chow have harboured any resentment or distaste of the Maritimes, it is simply a matter of keeping their nose to the grindstone.
“For the past number of years, we have just been in this mode where we just forget about perishable stuff as a band and have instead focused on having fun and seeing if working hard helps us accomplish our goals. We want to see the world. We want to play overseas and just want to play as much as possible. That is exactly what we have been doing.
“And then we stopped to lift our heads and realized we have delivered five releases in the last eight years. In terms of doing stuff and having time fly by, it certainly has flown by and we are nothing but thankful and grateful for the opportunities that we have been afforded,” Rob says.
Dearly Beloved’s latest record, Enduro, harnesses a unique kind of energy. It draws influence from the worlds of rock mixed with some of punk rock’s ethics. Remarkably though, the band and their newest record have little difficulty forging a unique path in music.
“We have never been a band that is afraid to take chances. We enjoy taking those creative risks when it comes to writing music so when it connects with a group of people, it really does feel like a victory of sorts.”
As the band has grown over the last eight years, so has their approach to writing and recording their records. Rather than spending endless hours writing and refining their songs, the band let their intuitions guide which ones made the final cut of Enduro:
“When you have had stuff connect with people, you can sit there and wonder why a particular song got the reaction that it did and then write a whole record based on just those songs that connected. For the making of Enduro, we were writing the songs on the day they were recorded. Rather than being too cerebral about the writing process, it allowed some spontaneity and loaned some urgency to the recording. Giving yourself one day to write and record doesn’t allow the band to get too caught up in anything that doesn’t end up serving the song. That simplicity is something that really resonates with us.”
What: Dearly Beloved
When: Saturday June 14, 9:00 p.m.
Where: Thunder & Lightning, 23 Bridge St., Sackville