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I Mother Earth to touch down in Whistler

Armed with a new album in stores April 8 Who: I Mother Earth What: DKNY Jeans Outdoor Concert Series Where: WSSF When: Friday, April 11 I’ve been sitting on a secret all week and as a reporter, let me tell you, that’s a very hard thing to d

Armed with a new album in stores April 8

Who: I Mother Earth

What: DKNY Jeans Outdoor Concert Series

Where: WSSF

When: Friday, April 11

I’ve been sitting on a secret all week and as a reporter, let me tell you, that’s a very hard thing to do. I’ve had the new I Mother Earth album in my private possession, along with a stern warning from the record label that I would be "hunted down and killed if it got into the wrong hands." I’m assuming they were joking but then again, new album releases are serious business and I’m guessing the "wrong hands" belong to those pesky internet file sharers.

So in the privacy of my own home, I peeled off the security tape screaming "High Security" in bold black font and slipped the contraband titled The Quicksilver Meat Dream into my Walkman, eager to see what all the fuss was about.

And I rocked out. Several times. Each time discovering a new song that impressed the heck out of my limited, but ever growing, hard ’n" fast rock ’n’ roll range.

For those uninitiated in all things I.M.E, here are the basics: They’re one of Canada’s premier live acts, well known for their densely packed sound, rich with layers of guitar and percussion. With a blatant disregard for today’s mass-market musical formula, I.M.E have three successful albums under their belt and keep up a full-time career as true road dogs.

Their live shows are legendary thanks to ripping guitar riffs from Jagori Tanna; big, brisk drum beats from his brother Christian; solid bass lines from Bruce Gordon and power-packed vocals from frontman Brian Byrne. A crazy mosh pit doesn’t hurt either.

They’re one of the few northern acts that managed to crack the U.S. market to some success and are well-loved in the faithful hard rock heartlands of Europe. What’s ironic about I.M.E’s success story is that while maintaining a legion of fans over the years and even nabbing a few Junos, they’ve barely broken radio rotation. Not to worry though, the Quicksilver Meat Dream could be blowing the winds of change their way in no time. I.M.E’s first single, Like The Sun, is already making positive headway. You may have spotted the video in the top 10 on Much Music’s Power Shift. The band’s Web site has been swamped with pre-order e-mails for the new LP.

Another track, Juicy, featured on the xXx movie soundtrack, sent the boys on an MTV-backed campus tour across the country not long ago.

Which brings us now to the World Ski and Snowboard Festival. I.M.E will open the concert series side of things the afternoon of April 11 and even stick around for a few days to shred and schmooze, said the band’s producer and guitar god, Jag Tanna. He gave us the good oil on coming to Whistler and the beef behind the new album while waiting for a delayed flight at Edmonton airport earlier this week.

Pique:

Congratulations on a great fourth album. It seems to be quite different to I.M.E’s others, would you agree?

JT:

Thank you and yes, it is a bit different. When we were deciding on the direction for this album we all thought about what we wanted it to be. We asked ourselves, "at this point in our careers, what do we want to do?" The unanimous answer was "be happy," which meant playing the music we like to play. That meant ignoring tradition and showing everyone who we really are. Hopefully people will like it. It’s almost like writing the first record again where you don’t know any better because we didn’t let outside influences penetrate the rehearsal room, and I think it kinda shows in the finished product.

Pique

: So many songs on this album have different styles. Excuse my comparisons but there’s a diverse choice of tracks ranging from Chilli Peppers-sounding bass lines, to slower more tribal drum oriented songs and then some dark, space-agey vibes, sort of reminiscent of Radiohead. Then huge guitar riffs like Tool. Was the mix intentional?

JT

: Experimentation is something we’ve always done on tour but gets toned down along the train of production in the studio. The mix just naturally transpired. We never thought, "well we want a song that sounds like the Chilli Peppers, or we want a song that sounds like Tool." However we are very aware of those artists and respect their work, which may subconsciously rub off as an influence on creativity I guess.

Pique

: I believe you had an original selection of songs for the album but you scrapped them all and started again. Was that a hard decision to make or perhaps a breath of fresh air?

JT

: You got it. There was a reason we scrapped it which wasn’t that it was bad music, in fact I still have those songs lying around, but we just didn’t seem happy about them. We had a band meeting and said, "Why are we doing this? Why don’t we just forget what anybody wants us to do and just stick with our instincts?" The original offering sounded like we were trying to please somebody else, namely radio, and when those sorts of influences infiltrate the creative process you just end up having to play boring music you’re not passionate about, which is torture.

Pique

: It must be hard balancing being creative and challenging yourselves yet also sticking to some stuff the fans have come to know and love you by.

JT

: It’s always a tough one but by scrapping what we had and starting fresh I think we did the right thing by our fans. We’ve never really fit in with what’s popular anyway so we’ve kind of built that type of fan base. They expect us to be different and if you come to the show, you’ll see what I mean. Starting all over again was definitely worth it in the end.

Pique

: Brian’s voice seems to have matured on this record compared to the last.

JT

: We don’t use the word maturity when we talk about Brian (ha, ha). He would hate that, but yeah he impressed all of us with his range, including himself. My job was to push each of them to their highest level of musicianship. With Brian, I just kept pushing and pushing, trying to increase his confidence until he was doing things he didn’t know were possible. He was amazing.

Pique

: So this album comes out April 8, that must be exciting.

JT

: It’s terrifying. In this business it’s tough. You’ve got to be so creative and clever in getting a new album heard on the airwaves, which is tiring, and we’re throwing our heart and soul out for criticism basically. You have to have a pretty thick skin but so far so good. The response from fans who’ve listened to the new album is really positive, so fingers crossed.