After a seven-year hiatus, Toronto reggae/ska band Bedouin Soundclash returned in 2017 with a few more things to say. But vocalist/guitarist Jay Malinowski says the band wouldn’t be playing together again unless it was from the heart.
“The only way we were going to start playing again was if we were creatively inspired,” says Malinowski. “We didn’t want to just play some reunion shows; we wanted to actually feel vital onstage when we did it.”
It was the song “Like Clockwork” from their latest album, 2019’s MASS (their first since 2010’s Light the Horizon), that instigated a new energy and direction for the band. Malinowski initially wrote the song on piano instead of his usual guitar, drawing inspiration from big bands and the swing music he had been listening to at the time.
“I think all instruments just naturally will push you in different directions,” says Malinowski. “Ultimately, I kind of always take a song—whether it’s been written on an organ or on a keypad—back to the guitar, and if I can play it naturally with guitar then I feel it’s somehow real and tangible.”
MASS was named for all of the people, places, and collaboration involved in the making of the project. Recording initially began in New Orleans in the heat of summer, and the influence of that city is palpable on the record.
“Being in a place like New Orleans is just naturally going to seep into what you’re doing,” says Malinoskwi. “We also had so many players in the studio. That’s why we called it MASS, because we thought it was going to be a coming together of a ton of different people.”
One example of the collaborative atmosphere during the creation of the album took place during a massive thunderstorm. The tropical summer weather brought a monsoon and lightning, which caused the power in the studio to shut off during a recording session.
“I remember we were sitting there like, ‘Oh god, it’s gonna start to get really hot in this studio.’ We opened the doors and there was this flood of water. All the gospel singers just started singing, improvising over songs—they were just singing,” says Malinowski. “I was thinking, ‘This is such a New Orleans moment,’ that they’ll find something musical to make out of a situation at any time.”
Collaboration and connection is a theme throughout the the album and throughout Malinowski’s own relationship with music—he has worked with many artists and also has a solo career.
“I think that collaborating musically is the highest thing you can do,” says Malinowski. “Music is a conversation, and a lot of times it’s a compromise conversation… You’re creating something that’s totally different from something you would have done, and what they would have done, and it becomes something new.”
He says that overcoming the challenges involved in working and creating with others is one of the most rewarding experiences in music.
“I learn so much more from working with people,” he says. “Music is about feeding off of everyone else’s energy and creating something together.”
Malinowski says the duo are looking inward and focusing on themselves after just starting to play live shows again. A focus of their performances will be spreading the feeling of mass connection to their audiences.
“One of the things that we have so much gratitude for now, after doing a lot of different things, is just hearing people sing, in a joyful way. It’s so… it’s just incredible,” says Malinowski. “We sometimes can’t believe that we got so lucky. I hope people leave feeling a sense of hope and humanity.”
Bedouin Soundclash
Friday, February 7
$22.50, Capital Ballroom
thecapitalballroom.com