Since this WSRF blog has been dormant for a while, I thought I'd share a live recording (and an interview) from/about Friendlyness and the Human Rights and their performance at the 2009 Winnipeg Ska and Reggae Festival. This originally appeared on my blog WITCHPOLICE. -Sam.
I love this band. I had never heard of them before the 2009 Winnipeg Ska and Reggae Festival, but once I saw them live, I was hooked.
As part of that year's festival, a few of the shows were broadcast live on CKUW and UMFM. I grabbed the Friendlyness and the Human Rights set off the radio, and along with their Ten Songs pre-release (which I picked up at the show), I've been listening to their music pretty steadily ever since.
Here's the audio from their performance at the Royal Albert, as originally broadcast on campus radio, along with an interview with Friendlyness, where he talks about the band's new album, One Thing, his devotion to Rastafari, his long history in the Canadian reggae scene, and his side gig with high-profile Canadian rock band Big Sugar.
Stream it:
2. Human Rights
5. I Want Her
6. One Thing
7. More Peace
WITCHPOLICE: This is a recording of your live set from the Royal Albert in Winnipeg, back in 2009. Do you have any specific recollection of that show?
FRIENDLYNESS: I remember it was a really hot night and the music was good all around... the Idlers were wicked and we had been on the road for a couple of weeks so our performance was very tight.
W: It looks like most of the band's upcoming live dates tend to be in the Toronto area. Is touring a priority for Friendlyness and the Human Rights? Any plans to head west in the near future?
F: We love touring, but not so much in the winter. I've done the cross-Canada tour in winter a couple of times already and it can be rough with whiteout road conditions in the mountains. As much as I love touring, I love my life also. With the full-length album out now, we're hoping to tour again this summer, coast to coast if possible so we can get the music directly to the people.
W: About your new record, One Thing ...is it a self-released album?
F: One Thing is a self released album. We produced it ourselves and paid for the recordings and mixing by pooling and saving money from shows. We also borrowed $2,000 to pay for the manufacturing. We got a lot of help along the way too from people like Steve 'Pro' Legros who put in countless hours of editing and Kate Conrad who did something like 10 revisions to the CD artwork at our request for next to nothing.
W: When you were in Winnipeg in '09, I picked up the CD you were selling at the time, Ten Songs (Pre-release). The track listing is a little different from the eventually released album -- for one thing, there are a few versions on One Thing that didn't appear on the pre-release. There are also some songs from your live set that don't appear on either release. How did you choose which songs made it on the final record?
F: For the final record, we had to leave off "How Can This Be Happening?" because we didn't own the rights to the rhythm track and I couldn't get permission. The junglist remix for 'One More Draw' got left off because it just didn't fit with the overall sound of the rest of the disc. The instrumentals or 'versions' that we did put on are getting a lot of love because we used to always get versions on our 45s ...but since they're not around as much nowadays in the digital world, the version is getting left out. It's a foundation tradition that we wanted to keep alive. Also we'd love to hear some other artists on our version tracks so we put them out there.
W: When you were in Winnipeg in '09, I picked up the CD you were selling at the time, Ten Songs (Pre-release). The track listing is a little different from the eventually released album -- for one thing, there are a few versions on One Thing that didn't appear on the pre-release. There are also some songs from your live set that don't appear on either release. How did you choose which songs made it on the final record?
F: For the final record, we had to leave off "How Can This Be Happening?" because we didn't own the rights to the rhythm track and I couldn't get permission. The junglist remix for 'One More Draw' got left off because it just didn't fit with the overall sound of the rest of the disc. The instrumentals or 'versions' that we did put on are getting a lot of love because we used to always get versions on our 45s ...but since they're not around as much nowadays in the digital world, the version is getting left out. It's a foundation tradition that we wanted to keep alive. Also we'd love to hear some other artists on our version tracks so we put them out there.
W: Following up on that, the song "Jah Rastafari" doesn't appear on either CD, and is, to my mind at least, one of the band's strongest tunes. A live YouTube video of the song was actually how I was introduced to the band in the first place. Is that one being saved for a future release?
F: "Jah Rastafari" is a song that I originally did with a group called Truths and Rights and a live version was released on our 2005 CD Live Up, but we all agree that it's a strong song so we keep it in our live show usually as the first song. Sets the tone for the set, y'know?
W: Obviously the lyrical themes, both in the live set and on your releases, are very Rastafari-heavy. What does Rastafari mean to you, and why do you think it's important to spread that message through your music?
F: Rastafari means everything to me. Love, life, reality, consciousness, spirituality, awareness, mindfulness, the ancient, the modern, relation to creation and the creator. Jah is the same God of the Torah and Old Testament (Psalm 68:4), God of Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Same God of Moses who gave us the Commandments, God of Iyesus Christos, revered by millions as the Son of God/Word of God/God in person, whom Muslims consider a prophet.
Ras Tafari, Haile Selassie the First, is the fulfillment of Christ in His Kingly Character seated in this modern age as the King of Kings in the most ancient Solomonic/ Christian throne on Earth and the love and example that He showed to the world is something that I would like to share with my family. It's important to share because it's like hearing the best-kept secret that's so beneficial for everyone and wanting to share it with your family and friends in the hope that it benefits them also.
W: Has playing such overtly spiritual music had an effect on the type of audience you attract?
F: I think our audience is mostly attracted by the music itself and the message comes with the music. As religious as I am, I don't force it down people's throats either. Most of our songs are about the human experience, the human condition, so people can relate to that. People like to hear songs of reality, consciousness, awareness and even spirituality because they're not getting much of that in the mainstream.
W: As a Canadian reggae band, have you faced questions of 'authenticity'? Obviously at this point, reggae is coming from all corners of the globe, and being performed by people of varied backgrounds, but have you come across situations where the band has to prove itself onstage before die-hard reggae audiences will accept it?
I think it's very clear from your music that reggae is serious business, and that your devotion to Rastafari is not a gimmick or merely posturing, but I imagine there are people out there who think, "OK, this is a white guy named 'Friendlyness' putting on a JA accent and playing reggae music ...I can't take this seriously." Having seen the band live, I imagine once you hit the stage, that would silence any doubters, but is this a common occurrence?
F: I think that there will always be people who think, "wow, a white guy playing reggae" or "wow, a black guy playing skater rock," or "wow, a brown guy playing country,"because historically and traditionally things have been divided in exclusivity but the world is changing and getting a lot smaller. We are interacting more with each other and smashing boundaries and tearing down walls and that's a good thing. On the back of the $20 Canadian bill there is a quote from French-Canadian author Gabrielle Roy that says "could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?"
Furthermore, I would like to point out that I don't believe in such a thing as white or black people. Haile Selassie 1st says that "black and white as a form of speech and as a means of judging mankind should be eliminated from human society." So we just do what we do, who wants to like it can like it, who wants to fight it can fight it.
W: OK, the vibraphone: it sounds great, and that's one of the highlights of your set, but it can't be convenient to lug that thing across the country, especially since it's only really used for the one song. Why do you feel it's worth the effort?
F: The vibraphone is big and clunky and heavy and takes up a lot of space but it is really something different and Eric plays it quite well so it's totally worth it. We have two vibraphone songs now.
W: What are your main influences as a vocalist and as a group? There are some obvious nods to various reggae artists even on this live recording, even in terms of the rhythms used.
F: I got into hardcore Jamaican reggae in about 1984 so I'm influenced by all good reggae from Studio 1 days with the Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo, the Heptones, Soul Vendors; through to Channel One with the Roots Radics, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott; through to King Jammy's, Admiral Bailey, Josie Wales, Little Twitch, through to 90's dancehall, Shabba, Ninjaman, Supercat, Tiger; through to 2000, Sizzla, Luciano, Lutan Fyah, Natural Black, Gentleman, Anthony B even up to some of the newest artists like Vybz Kartel, Busy Signal, Popcaan ...I like all those artists.
My band would have to speak for themselves but I know there's a vast love of varying styles of music from jazz to Brazilian to rock to whatever.
W: You have a pretty lengthy history in the music biz. Culture Shock, which I was introduced to years after the fact (again via YouTube), is pretty great, and it seems like you worked with some key figures in Canadian reggae in that group -- but that dates back to the early 90s, and you're working in a similar style even back then. What was your introduction to reggae music?
F: I guess my introduction to reggae came a little before 1984. In 1982, I bought the Specials album and became an instant rude boy. The English ska revival was it for me... Specials, Madness, Bad Manners, the Selecter, the English Beat was all I listened to. There was an underground movement of mods, punks and skinheads in Toronto at the time and we used to gather at this event called Start Dancing. Well, one night the DJ played Black Uhuru's 'Darkness' and I was like, "what is this!?" From then on it was all reggae and I started listening to a radio program named Reggae Showcase with David Kingston in 1984. At that time Michael Palmer's "Lickshot" was the number one song.
W: Also, I read somewhere that you were involved with Raggadeath once upon a time.
F: Raggadeath was a hip-hop ragga metal band that was fronted by Canadian hip-hop Queen Michie Mee. I had two songs on their second CD and we toured Canada and went to Amsterdam and Germany. Good times.
W: What about Big Sugar? The obvious common ground there is the bass player, who you worked with in Culture Shock, but I saw some footage (again, YouTube) of you playing keys and doing a bit of deejay vocal for Big Sugar at a recent festival. Is that a permanent thing, or was it just a one-time performance?
F: Yeah, the Big Sugar thing is permanent. Gordie Johnson used to come and watch me and Garry Lowe play in Culture Shock even before Big Sugar existed. He invited me on their farewell tour back in 2003 to do some guest vocals and when the thing started up again in 2010, Gordie asked me if I wanted to come forward and do some more songs and play keys.
We've just finished recording a new album that will be out hopefully this spring/summer. I've got some schedule juggling to do!
W: What's next for Friendlyness and the Human Rights? Are you working on any new material? Where can people find your previously released albums?
F: Friendlyness and the Human Rights are working on some new material as we speak. We have a new song called "Right Now" that we're going to release as a single and in fact, it might be more singles until we have enough or close to enough for another full-length album. One Thing took a long time to finish because we really wanted it to be exceptional and we were doing it all ourselves. We don't want the people to have to wait so long before they hear from us again, y'know?
May Jah love be with us all. Rastafari.
F: Friendlyness and the Human Rights are working on some new material as we speak. We have a new song called "Right Now" that we're going to release as a single and in fact, it might be more singles until we have enough or close to enough for another full-length album. One Thing took a long time to finish because we really wanted it to be exceptional and we were doing it all ourselves. We don't want the people to have to wait so long before they hear from us again, y'know?
You can buy One Thing by Friendlyness and the Human Rights at their official site, or visit their Bandcamp page to check out Free Tings, which is a small collection of free remixes.
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