Montreal electro-soul band Busty and the Bass look, at first glance, like an orchestra. That’s because there are nine members in the band. But Alistair Blu, one of the vocalists for Busty and the Bass, says that while having so many members makes organization harder, the positives outweigh the negatives, and it actually creates a pleasant working environment.
“It can be stressful at times, with things like coordinating all the members to go on tour or even booking studio time, but there are a lot of perks as well,” says Blu. “There are so many hands on deck and there are so many vital opinions that can be voiced and heard. I think overall it’s a really positive thing to work and be around.”
Most of the band members started off as jazz musicians, so for them to all come together and create music in a different genre is surprising. But Blu says that none of them wanted to be stuck doing jazz forever.
“Our style just came out of what we wanted to make and what we like. We all started as jazz musicians originally, but that’s not the sort of thing we wanted to play or listen to forever,” he says. “Nick [Ferraro] and I started doing vocals, but even that didn’t come until much later. But basically we just wanted to make what we liked and wanted to listen to, so that’s what we started to make, produce, and record.”
Blu says that ever since Busty and the Bass started performing at festivals and larger shows, the band’s ambitions have grown and gotten them to the point where they’ve played shows overseas. He says that although there are always some nerves among the band’s many members at first, even playing for small audiences in pubs or bars, eventually those go away.
“I love playing for as many people as possible; it’s an opportunity to get better as a live performer and just display what we’ve been working on for so long,” he says. “I think it’s nerve-wracking at first to play for bigger crowds, but once you get used to it you crave it and you want to play for more people as the shows go on. We’ve been to the UK a couple times now, and that’s kind of our biggest market in Europe, but it’s starting to spread. It’s so nice to be over there with different cultures, and the fact they seem to appreciate our music is very nice, as well.”
Blu is actually from Victoria, but he moved to Montreal due to its strong music industry. He says that although the culture is different and the city is great, he misses the west coast and enjoys the moments when he can come back to visit friends and family.
“There’s such a great art and music scene here [in Montreal], which is why I came here in the first place, but I miss the west coast a lot, especially in winter. But it’s nice that we do get to go back there every now and then to play shows and see the parents. I usually like to go back in the summer, since that’s the nicest time,” he says. “I needed to get away, though, in terms of music and so on. I feel like there’s a bit of a bubble that you get stuck in if you try to stay there forever, and that’s something that I definitely didn’t want to be stuck in.”
Busty and the Bass
Monday, March 5
$18.50, Capital Ballroom
atomiqueproductions.com