Toronto
Stabilo's Christopher John goes wild when he spots a ratty Dave Matthews Band sticker on this reporter's notebook.
A self-proclaimed Davehead himself, the coppery blond singer-songwriter, still damp from his band's just-finished soundcheck at Toronto's Mod Club Theatre, informs me that it is Matthews' brand of acoustic-rock that drew him and fellow lead vocalist, Jesse Dryfhout, together, informing much of the melodies that weave its way through the group's first full-length disc, "Happiness & Disaster."
"That ability he (Matthews) has to write something with great melodies is really amazing," he says, perched on a bar stool in the hazy-orange glow of the club's second level.
Apologizing for making us start without him, Dryfhout arrives moments later, sinking himself into a couch along the back wall. Hearing how my own DMB obsession has led to several road trips south of the border, the behatted frontman nods.
"His guitar playing definitely influenced us musically," he says, John now sunk firmly in beside him.
Friends since meeting at the same school in Surrey, BC, John got his start with grunge outfit, Molly, when Dryfhout was brought in to drum.
But unlike the Dave Matthews Band, in which the 39-year-old Virginian handles all of the vocal duties, John says that after he'd heard the Dryfhout-penned "Everybody," he knew that Stabilo would have to learn to make waves with two frontmen instead of one.
"With two lead singers sharing the vocals, it allows us to experiment with varying sounds," John says. "It meshes together pretty well, but splitting it up this way means we can be different on pretty much every single track."
"Plus," Dryfhout adds with a chuckle, "I don't like to share my songs."
The grunge sounds ditched, current drummer Nathan Wylie, a childhood friend of both singers, took his spot behind the kit and, with the addition of bassist Karl Willaume, a university colleague, the band became known as Stabilo Boss.
"We were sitting around, trying to figure out what to call ourselves, and someone saw a highlighter and said, 'Hey how about calling ourselves that?'"
Something of a local phenomenon in and around the Vancouver area, the foursome got a boost when "Everybody" ended up topping a listener-voted competition on Vancouver's alternative XFM station.
Nominated for a Canadian Radio Music Award for Best New Rock Group, the band moved 5,000 units of its self-released debut. Shortly after, label heads took notice and the group was able to pull some new material together with Marcy Playground's John Wozniak for their 2004 EP "Cupid."
Recorded down in Los Angeles with Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate) last year, the pair says the alt-rock veteran understood how to keep the band on track when they began recording "Happiness & Disaster."
"It seems like it happened fast, but there was a lot of work involved," Dryfhout concedes, now faced with the band's sudden spike in popularity (the record's first single, "Flawed Design," is rapidly climbing the charts).
Freely acknowledging that his band stands in stark contrast to Quebec darlings Mobile and the Arcade Fire, Dryfhout says that part of what has helped Stabilo "sound the alarm" is the quartet's willingness to let fans in on their innermost thoughts.
"These days, I think people are drawn to music that has lyrics which are more personal," he says.
So, when a John Mayer-styled riff bleeds into Dryfhout's Damien Rice-ish voice on the wry "Delivering Idiots," he tells us, "It's not the songs/ that determine if the record sells/ It's the faces in the videos/ we exploit so well... They package our emotions/ and they market our fears/ It's nothing to be proud about."
And elsewhere, on his catchy "Don't Look In Their Eyes," Dryfhout gets butts wiggling while slinging arrows at America's Iraq debacle. "Oh no, go get your guns we all fight like/ cowboys then pray like nuns/ Then we'll dance around the open flames,/ if it gets too hot/ well we have no shame," he sings cheerily. "That song certainly touches on what's going on over there," he says.
Pointing to the album's title, John calls the record an exercise in opposites. "It's that whole yin yang concept," he says. And like Dryfhout, he too agrees that the personal makes for a far more profound batch of tunes.
Sounding a bit like Neil Finn, John can chronicle narcissistic youth ("Habit") and unrequited love ("Ordinary"), without missing a beat. "Definitely, there's a dichotomy between the darker lyrics and the music's upbeat, almost sunny vibe. But I think that's kind of in keeping with what's going on all around us."
Holding down the opening slot on INXS' recent Canadian tour, Dryfhout and John should seem a little nervous that tonight's show is being filmed for a future DVD release.
But the duo has more pressing issues to consider. "It's our first night playing with a keyboardist," Dryfhout remarks. "We're wondering how that's going to work. Hopefully we can get him to stick around."