The Belle Game with Hannah Georgas at the Rio Theatre, 1660 East Broadway, tonight and Saturday, April 27. Doors 7 p.m. Show 8 p.m. Tickets $22.50. Also available at Highlife and Red Cat Records, or charge by phone 1-888-222-6608. 19+ only.
IT'S a reverb-soaked alien soundscape bearing only a passing resemblance to earthling music, at least at first. Then there's the guitar riff, the keyboard lick, or some sweet vocal melody that welcomes the listener to the obscure and explosive musical universe of The Belle Game.
The five-piece band, consisting of three North Shore natives, recently released Ritual Tradition Habit, a 12-track album that delves into darkness but never despair.
The songs began with inklings and ideas shared between guitarist Adam Nanji, singer Andrea Lo and keyboardist Katrina Jones.
The trio search for bridges and melodies "until it somewhat resembles a song," Nanji says.
While some bands arrange themselves as fascist regimes, the Belle Game is distinctly democratic, according to Nanji.
"Everyone gets a say no matter what. It's not just the drummer takes care of drums. Everyone can critique or have ideas for the vocals, everyone can critique or have ideas for the guitar. It's all fair game, which is probably why it takes us so long to write music," he says, speaking from his parent's West Vancouver home. "When we started the band I always hoped that it could be very democratic but that rarely works I find, in band situations."
The Belle Game may be aided by the depth of friendship among the members. Nanji has known guitarist Alex Andrew since kindergarten and Lo since Grade 8.
"It really does seem to work where we all get a say and whoever started the song or whoever just has a clear vision for the song will help guide everyone's suggestions into one actual piece of music," Nanji says.
The album production is somewhat in the tradition of the Phil Spector wall of sound, with Lo's vocals sometimes rising out of the wall, and at other moments blending with the instruments.
"We wanted to push ourselves. That was kind of our only guideline, to push ourselves and try to sound not too much like any other band around right now," Nanji says.
The centrepiece of the quintet's release is "Bruises to Ash," which locks a bluesy riff to an ethereal arrangement behind Lo's powerful vocals.
The tune, along with "River," shaped the album, according to Nanji. "When we started the album I think it was still a lot of experimenting with different ideas," he says. "Once we got those songs into the mix, I think it became pretty clear to myself and to everyone else in the band what kind of band we wanted to be. It definitely had a little bit of a darker side than our previous releases."
Delineating an identity beyond the simplest terms is one of the key subjects of the album.
"There's people and there's places and there's little systems that you have that help you define yourself. So if you're in university and you're an English grad, that helps you define yourself. The album is what's left of you and your identity if you take those things away," Nanji says. "What the album and the album title are about is looking at how you were raised . . . what you were expected to do when you were younger, and deciding: are those things still valid in your life as an adult?"
Music has been part of Nanji's identity since spending childhood listening to his father's collection of Beatles and Van Morrison.
"When I was about 11 or 12 I started to move away from being a kid and just wanting to play and do sports and stuff and getting pretty into music," he recollects. "I think I started guitar when I was 11 and I've pretty much been playing in bands ever since."
The Scandals was Nanji's fledgling attempt at forming a band, and it featured Alex Andrew.
"Alex, our other guitar player, I've known him since kindergarten and we got into music at the same time and we've basically been in some form of a band ever since we were 11 years old."
The two brought Lo into the fold in eighth grade, putting together a Led Zeppelin cover band.
"I always call her our secret because she's such a small, little person and she's got this crazy, big, aggressive voice when she wants to use it," Nanji says.
There was a bond between the musicians and the potential for something exciting, according to Nanji.
"Pretty early on I felt like I wanted to take it as seriously as possible, even when we were just a three-piece and we were just writing songs in a basement, I still took it pretty seriously," Nanji says.
The group moved closer to formation when Nanji found keyboardist Katrina Jones in Montreal, Que.
"I felt like there was something between the four of us where if we did take it seriously we could actually turn it into something more than just a hobby."
The missing piece of the Belle Game turned out to be drummer Rob Chursinoff.
"He's kind of our resident popular music expert. He knows what makes a good pop song. Where the rest of us sometimes tend to lean more experimental or try to avoid that stuff, I feel like he reins it in and that's actually pretty essential for us," he says.
The group has a growing following, but the life of a touring band can be a difficult one, according to Nanji.
"It's still pretty tough. We're coming to a point where we're almost starting to break even on things and it is hard but we all really love it and we all know that that's just the process. What keeps us going is that we see things growing, we see things getting better," he says. "When you start a band, I feel like you have to dedicate a thousand per cent to it if you really want it to work. So if that means not making money or it means working really bad part-time jobs for a year or it means not working for a year; that's what we have to do for a couple years to know if it was actually ever going to work out."
