‘Overnight Success’ is not a term that would best describe British
Columbia’s folk/pop–rock veterans Stabilo. Together now for
roughly a decade, it has taken Christopher John (vocals, guitar),
Jesse Dryfhout (vocals, guitar), Nathan Wylie (drums) and Karl
Willaume (bass) the length of some bands’ overall career to finally
get noticed on a grander scale.
After meeting in high school over a mutual admiration for a
then up and coming Dave Matthews, John and Dryfhout began a
musical relationship that would eventually build the foundation
for what would be Stabilo, of course, that’s after being originally
named Stabilo Boss, in tribute to the highlighter marker they had
used to scribble out potential band names.
Throughout their journey from Stabilo Boss to Stabilo, the
quartet would release three LP/EP’s, Kitchen Sessions (1999),
Stabilo Boss (2001) and Beautiful Madness (2002), before being
noticed by the highly recognized major label, EMI Music Canada.
“We were in Vancouver plugging away at the local scene, and
somehow EMI had heard of us,” recalls John from a Toronto hotel
while enduring a hangover and preparing for a gig later that
evening. “We’d sold some independent records, “Everybody” had
been a local hit on the radio, and they just called us up and asked
us to go for lunch.
“(They) said ‘you’re one of the bands in Canada that we’re
watching and think has potential.’ They just encouraged us and
gave us some advice.”
That advice would soon lead to a seven track EP, Cupid?, in
May of 2004, as well as a whole whack of touring that the label
thought would be beneficial to the band. Then, once the time was
right, Stabilo prepared to embark on creating their full length
recording and major label debut, Happiness & Disaster, released
this past April.
H&D was a recording experience that brought the group to
Los Angeles to work with producer Brad Wood, whose previous
credits include Liz Phair and Smashing Pumpkins. Going into this
process, John says that most of the songs were upwards of five
years old at the time, however, this didn’t make the selection
process any easier for everyone involved. Described as a true
“collective” effort between the band, their label, as well as their
management, just about everyone affiliated within Stabilo’s
musical endeavours had an opinion on song selection.
“There were a few arguments here and there, but we all
agree on which songs fit together. There might be a great song
that doesn’t fit with the rest of the songs on the album, so it gets
cut,” explains John, who happily continues to split vocal and song
writing duties with Dryfhout to this day, even if there are a few
duds along the way.
“We both put a lot of faith in each other. Obviously not every
song you write is going to be a keeper. I think it’s actually pretty
obvious the first time you bring a song to the table and the band
jams it out. If it’s not working the first time you jam it out, it’s
probably not going to make it,” he adds.
Apparently, this very concentrated approach to Stabilo
compositions is paying huge dividends for the BC boys. They
recently completed a nine show tour with dance rock veterans
INXS, and are currently in the midst of a nice sized summer
schedule that’ll take them all around Ontario, before going back
home for a few dates.
The band also recently topped the Hot AC music charts with
the single “Flawed Design.” John describes this accomplishment
as not only “very exciting,” but also “a good pressure,” that he
believes will help the band get “better as songwriters, performers
and musicians.” It’s this attitude, and the support of major label
backers, that Stabilo hopes will turn things around after ten years
and continue for many more.
“EMI has been great with us, with the philosophy of building
a band to have a career (of) 20 years if possible,” states John.
“You hear all the time that record labels sign a band, they’ve got
one good song, they put it out and hopefully make some money,
but that hasn’t been the case for us at all.
“They’ve been backing us by saying ‘the longer it takes for
you to go up, the longer it’ll take for you to go down.’ It’s the
bands who explode right at the beginning that have a short
career.”
STABILO
w/ Matthew Barber, Emm Gryner
Tuesday, June 6
THE CASBAH
306 King St W
905.526.6192