The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer, Commodore Ballroom, Saturday, April 22, 9:30 p.m.
Shawn Hall and Matthew Rogers have come a long way together.
The duo behind the popular Vancouver-based blues band the Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer are wrapping up their current tour this Saturday at the Commodore Ballroom, the finale in a cross-Canada journey that has taken them to many stops throughout the country.
“We’ve actually done the proper tour across the country,” says Rogers, the band’s guitar playing “Axe Murderer” and one-half of the duo. “I think it’s been like 10 years for me since I’ve actually driven across the country playing gigs.”
Since forming about 10 years ago, The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer have become a mainstay band in Vancouver’s music scene, imbuing it with their fiery take on blues music that is just as likely to get audiences dancing in their seats as it is to envelop them in the genre’s tradition-bound liveliness.
Rogers jokes about the “romantic notion of it all” with regards to the band driving across the country for this tour, piled in a van together, listening to books on tape to pass the time while rolling through vast empty stretches in Ontario.
But in reality, the band drove across the country for practical reasons, not romantic ones.
They’ve added a drummer and singer (and tour manager) into the mix for their current performances, compelling the group to take to the road whereas in the past Rogers and band mate Shawn Hall might have simply flown.
The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer are touring on their latest album, Apocalipstick, the band’s fifth release and most ambitious to date.
In the past Rogers and Hall have generally recorded and performed as a duo, but for their latest album they sought help from some hired guns, rounding out the band with a drummer, keyboard player and a multitude of different voices and singers.
While Apocalipstick still incorporates the band’s searing take on the blues, the duo – and new collaborators – have amped the sound up, experimenting with what Rogers refers to as “doomsday sort of textures.”
While the 13-track album is louder, heavier and more psychedelic than the group’s previous efforts, the band didn’t have much of a guiding force when they were writing and recording it, except what felt right to them at the time.
“We’re just kind of doing what we feel is best, not what necessarily helps us stick to a certain label or helps people necessarily even define what we’re doing,” Rogers says. “We just want to do what we enjoy and what makes us happy and what feels like a natural progression for the band. Doing something a bit nosier and a bit more sing-along-able was what we felt was right for this particular record.”
Songs such as “Father’s Son” and “Forever Fool” demonstrate the band’s newfound fondness for catchy, energetic songs that don’t always adhere to the benchmark three-minute strong structure.
Rogers also points out that this time around there’s more guitar solos in the mix.
“I guess we just felt it was time,” he says with a laugh. “I’m not a really guitar solo-y type of guy. I was just excited about it on this one, for some reason, to just try it out and do something different. And then I think in the back of our minds we were thinking that we would have a drummer when touring this album and knowing that I knew that I could just go and do some of those live.”
Rogers says the name Apocalipstick for the album was born out of a joke, the bandmates finding humour in the light-dark contrast of the title – and, of course, liking the way it sounded.
“And then we were like, ‘Hey, that’s actually pretty cool and actually means something in this day and age.’ And we felt that it sort of represents where the band is at musically and sort of just jives with the sound of this record in particular,” he says.
The band has come a long way. Rogers and Hall first met more than 10 years ago when the budding musicians were both hired to help create a jingle for a Jamaican pizza restaurant. They had obvious musical chemistry together, and decided to keep at it, eventually opting to form a duo.
When asked what’s contributed to the bandmates’ success together five albums and more than a decade later, Rogers answers immediately.
“I would say our differences. We’re extremely different people, extremely different writers – we like a lot of the same music but we also bring a lot of different musical things to the table.”
The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer are known for their high-octane concerts and devoted fans. Rogers says the band likes to keep changing things up and offering the audience something new and exciting every time they come see them play.
It’s a challenge, but he says it’s important to keep the audience on their toes. He’s enthusiastic seeing songs from the new album performed live will offer them something fresh.
“No one’s singing along yet, but maybe that’s to come,” he says.
