1840s Contemporary: The Schomberg Fair Set Free Fresh Hell

Photos by Matthew Filipowich//

Steel Bananas’ Photo Editor, Matthew “The Pro” Filipowich and I are sitting at some ill-lit corner booth at the ancient West End haunt, the Lakeview Restaurant on a dark, wet and miserable evening. I’m wrapping up the “official business” section of our meeting with Toronto’s the Schomberg Fair, a band that can very loosely be described as playing psychedelic-folk-rock-blues-gospel-country-punk. The singer-songwriter/guitarist/banjoist/harmonica player of this demonic, ungodly outfit, one Matt Bahen, has ducked out of the interview to get another beer; thus, naturally, the conversation has steered in his direction.

“When Matt’s trying to tell us that he wants us to be on blogs and stuff,” says drummer Peter Garthside, attempting to suppress an enormous grin as bassist/vocalist Nathan Sidon pre-empts the anecdote by laughing boisterously beside him, “he says ‘The computers need to talk about us.’”

“’The computers need to talk about us,” repeats Nathan.

“I think that Matt should have been born in like 1840.”

“Or we should create a society where it’s 1840 for him to live in, like in that M. Night Shyamalan movie. He’d fit in perfect in that village,” Nathan concludes, chuckling.

“He told me today,” says Peter “he was referring to a conversation he had with someone, a very brief conversation as ‘He had a good jaw-wag.’ They wagged jaw. Sometimes I think he doesn’t belong in this time at all, he’s a timeless guy.”

When I heard this information about Mr. Bahen, something kind of clicked in the way I understood how this group and the music they play operates. They run on a completely different plane from everyone else: they sound like everything and nothing you’ve ever heard at once; they are both painfully old-fashioned and at the same time, tremendously unique; they weave fluidly between genres, tones and scenes and resist any and all attempts to be pegged into categories.

They, quite sincerely, evoke a time and a place that may never have existed – that of rolling trains, chain gangs, bar fights, hard work, hard times, cheap whiskey and cheap women – and do this so believably because they don’t try to emulate anything verbatim. While there are heavy, thick traces of pre-war blues and traditional American folk, bluegrass and gospel in the music of the Schomberg Fair, there are equal parts searing punk rock and hazy, rumbling stoner rock involved in this raucous, fast and explosive hodgepodge. This is the new outlaw music.

“The early blues guys, they were the first outlaws and the punk rock guys considered themselves outlaws. Why wouldn’t they get along?” says Matt matter-of-factly.

“I was listening to punk first, but when I was in my mid-twenties I got into like Robert Johnson and the pre-war blues,” says Nathan, “and that’s much heavier than what even most early punk songs were doing. They’re talking about going for a walk with the devil and all of the terrible things they do and they aren’t really saying it in a bad way, they’re just saying ‘I’m a bad man, and this is what I do.’”

“The narrator of the song is morally suspect and that’s what makes it so interesting,” says Matt.

Nate continues, “I think we’ve go the same kind of thing going on. We’re not really saying what’s wrong and what’s right, we’re saying ‘This is something that’s happening.’”

“Who doesn’t love the anti-hero?” adds Peter.

Indeed, for just three guys, the Schomberg Fair make one unholy amount of noise, playing their blues with extreme speed and ferocity. Their live show is an intense, sweaty and primal ordeal. Even in the most decidedly indoor of venues, you can’t help but imagine that they’re playing in the middle of a torrential thunderstorm; a great black cloud floating around the ceiling, a savage wind blowing through the bar. Their sound is gigantic and powerful and the men themselves are menacing and imposing as they pound audiences into submission with their workmanlike, wild music.

Photo by Matthew Filipowich

Between Bahen’s rugged, fiery howl and galloping banjo and Sidon’s distorted, thundering bass guitar and chilling, ethereal bass vocals – not to mention the muscular drumming of Garthside, it is quite apparent that these men are an extremely well-oiled multi-genre machine, geared toward the ultimate pulverization of any listener unfortunate enough to stumble into their dark, twisted midst. The Schomberg Fair are the barbarians of the Toronto music scene, the mad preachers of the indie apocalypse, sliding effortlessly around multiple local circuits.

“It does sort of seem like Toronto is very much an indie-rock kind of city,” says Nathan, “we play with a lot of indie-rock bands and we like them. But it’s not what we’re doing. We keep an open mind toward them and for the most part, they keep an open mind toward us.”

“The nice thing about the band is that we fall kind of in between a couple different genres,” says Pete, “so it gives a lot of versatility when it comes to our live show. We can play with a lot of different sounding bands, and we can always kind of fit.”

Matt adds, “We’ll play a show with the Warped 45s and the next night play with Parlor and Whale Tooth and while those guys couldn’t be further apart, we can do both. I think just as long as the energy is there, then it’s fucking awesome. And people are so open minded these days that you can listen to Ella Fitzgerald, and then the Dwarves, and then Mariah Carey and everything – well, everything except the last one, is totally fine.”

“You listen to a lot of Mariah Carey. For the record,” says Nathan.

“She’s got a three-octave range. It’s incredible,” Matt retorts.

Alright guys, I’m going to tell you what’s up now. We’ve been dicking around for nine hundred words already, let’s cut the bullshit here. The Schomberg Fair are fucking badass, you know that; I know you guys aren’t stupid. But this here, this is the goods: the new album.

Gospel is the Schomberg Fair’s first release with local imprint Hi-Hat after self-releasing their last record, 2007’s Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground, which is a blistering thirty-one-minute ride through every corner of the band’s expansive musical universe. From breakneck speed-blues hell-rides (“Angel’s Wings”, “Tall Grass”), to gentler, more subtle folk tracks (“Strange Kind of Grace”), to traditional gospel spiked with hazy, swirling psychedelia (“Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down”, “Trouble Will Soon Be Over”), Gospel is a clean, powerful record that is as earnest as it is feral. A mix of traditional songs and original compositions gives the record an interesting flavor that establishes the legitimacy of its creators; that they can so impressively rework old standards and blend them seamlessly with their own songs is a rare feat – it is very difficult to determine which are which.

Having listened to the record several times now, I’m quite delighted to find that it has unfolded for me in a different way with each coming spin. Despite its brevity (it comes and goes in a blink), there’s so much texture and meat to grab on to with Gospel that it becomes pretty clear that the record was designed to be a concise thrill-ride rather than a slow-burning epic, which is easily the direction it could have taken. Recorded at Chemical Sound in Toronto’s East end docks, the latest from the Schomberg Fair is an album that has the band very proud.

Says Matt on recording the album: “It’s really nice when the guys recording the album and the band are on the same wavelength, it’s really helpful. I think almost, at least most of the time, musicians – the band, doesn’t quite have the vocabulary to articulate what they want it to sound like. So you kind of have to trust the guy making the record, because playing a show live and making a record are not the same activity. I know for myself, personally, it was a bit weird to go in there, so it’s good to be able to trust everyone.

“I think that this record is different from the last one in that I think we had a bit of a better definition of ourselves. Just from playing one hundred and fifty shows and touring so much. Whereas before, a lot of those songs were songs that I had before even the band was started, so then it was a lot of work and ‘this is what we had, let’s go cut it.’ It’s not like I’m embarrassed of the last record or anything, but each record is kind of a snapshot of where the band is at, at the time. So a year-and-a-half, two years ago, that’s where we were and now we’re in a different spot. I would hope that we would be and I hope that we’ll be in a different spot next time too.”

“The sound’s evolved a lot,” says Nathan, “Before, there was a lot of country, and now there’s very little country. We’ve got a new drummer, Pete, who’s a lot different from the last one. He’s a fantastic drummer, totally different style than what we’re used to.”

“He adds a lot of dynamic,” says Matt.

“He adds a lot of dynamic, so the record incorporates a lot of new things; there’s a lot more kind of stoner-rock in it – I think it’s a stronger record and we’re really proud of it.”

“The writing on this record was a little more collaborative than before, I think,” adds Peter, “Before, I think Matt would bring in a lot of songs and music for those songs, but now Matt will have a really good song with a structure and then Nate and I will flip it around, come up with some new parts and really make it our own.”

The Schomberg Fair seem incapable of not making anything their own because frankly, there isn’t really anyone around that’s doing what they’re doing right now. The scene for grimy, gospel and blues inspired stoner/punk rock is not exactly burgeoning these days, which allows the Schomberg Fair to occupy a niche I wasn’t even aware needed filling. I’m glad they’re doing it anyway, though. Interestingly, many of the original compositions on Gospel, dark tales of lonely junkies and drifters, are partially inspired by the real stories of people whom Bahen has encountered in his day job as an outreach worker.

“They’re all kind-of true stories, snippets of things that I’ve dealt with directly, or things that someone told to me. So most of it is based on actual events and people.”

“That’s what the lyrics are about,” Nathan jumps in, “The kind of dichotomy and juxtaposition is in the lyrics being about that and the music is really punk rock and fast and rousing. “

“I’ll write the tune,” says Matt, “so I come in with a pretty finished song, more or less, but then, if I was playing it by myself, which I’m not. So I bring it to the band and I’ll say ‘Here man, what do you guys think?’ And it will either be dismissed out of hand, in which case I’ll go do another one; or if there’s parts that the guys like, they’ll work on it and it becomes something else entirely.”

It’s funny that the Schomberg Fair, who are so intense on record and so intimidating on stage – Nathan Sidon’s voice alone, I’m sure, has the ability to inspire nightmares – are, and full disclosure on this one gang: like the nicest guys ever. Though I’m sure they will deny this up and down (being outlaws after all) and accuse me of slander. Really though, Matt, Nate and Pete are just a bunch of seriously good guys, just solid, personable, down-to-earth guys who are really passionate about what they’re doing. It’s great.

We chatted with these guys for over three hours, and I have to say that I have rarely enjoyed doing an interview more, or at least not for a very long time. All three of them are so likeable and easy to talk to that even Matthew “The Pro” Filipowich got in there and maybe – just maybe – dropped his cool for a second. Though I’m sure he will deny this up and down (being The Pro and all) and accuse me of slander.

After having something of a bad taste in my mouth lately with regards to the whole music journalism thing, it was very refreshing to sit down with some good, sincere guys. The Schomberg Fair is a great band, Gospel is a great album and I am pretty well spent.

-The Schomberg Fair totally rule. You can check out some of their tunes on their myspace.

-The 'Gospel' according to the Schomberg Fair is now available in stores and it's a gooder.

-The Schomberg Fair are having their CD release party for 'Gospel' at the El Mocambo in Toronto on October 24th. I'm going.