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.
