if the Arts recently had the chance to speak
- 40 members of Montreal's Bootsauce.
an Drew Lingand bassist Al Baculis were in
promote their upcoming show and their
um Sleeping Bootie. The Planet snagged
ne to bring you some insight into Canada’s

t band.

Drew, you said that all of your previous
were very “Bootsaucy” and that this new
yrought your sound into focus. Did this
ause you to lose any of that “sauce” from
ther albums?
rNo. | think, if anything this record, Sleeping
ie, isvery mucha growth from. You have your
m Album, Bull, and then Sleeping Bootie. The
m Album being the first thing we ever did so
ke we didn’t know what the hell we were
|. Butlots of fun. We just sort of did it for the
. With Bull we were very experimental and
with Sleeping Bootie we sort of put those two
her and that’s how I'd describe Sleeping
ie. Except very current as far as this being

4: Sleeping Bootie has a sort of retro, and in
2 cases disco, feel to It...
r. How insulting. (laughs)
4: O.K. then, tell me about that.
aynie”, that sounds pretty disco
Vhen we wrote that tune we
going through a couple of weeks
il nostalgia, listening to Sly and
‘amily Stone and some other
When you're into something
while you write a song at one
and it reflects what you've been
ing to. The next week we were
ing to Ministry... and we wrote
Long Goodbye”. No. (laughs)
loanie did come from a period of
ig off on the old R&B sound.
everybody else is getting so
1g retro, why can’t we do it?
r The thing is, in the bio | go on
t good 70's, bad 70's but nine
s of the bands coming out today
3ing either a Black Sabbath riff, a
| Purple riff, a Led Zeppelin riff
ve don’t do anybody's riffs. But
0 appreciate good things from
vast. There's a difference be-
n appreciating something and
r stealing them, or repeating
endlessly. Disco isa funny period. Never put
st Bootsauce to appreciate a bit of tongue in
k. There's a line and sometimes we like to
over that line. Moss of our fans are sort of
eof the tongue in cheek attitude and deal with
such.
ind you try to write a tune that’s not inane
), it's kind of the good things about disco, be
+h Wind and Fire, things like that...
v: Yeah, but then you just have to go and
ie disco. Because then it gets very confusing.
ynna Summer disco or is Earth Wind and Fire
)? Oris Earth Wind and Fire just like.. who was
/nat was that band? Itwas KISS! Kiss had that
|, what the hell was that song?
isco tune. (sings) “| can‘t...uh...! was made for
.. Ha ha.
w: You know, was that disco? Go and ask Paul
ley if he ever wrote a disco song.
That's a typical example of a band who had a
yd and everything and then the whole musical
ate of that moment was disco and they stepped
the line and tried to cash in on a disco market.
get Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley with a
0 ball singing that song and basically | think it
shed them for about ten years.
w: That's what would happen if Bootsauce
dto cater itself toa grunge market, which is the
instream right now. We'd be selling ourselves
che Devil...or at least the Devil's aunt.

Look

POTA: Who is Jenni Greenbaum and what's that
song about?

Drew: She's just a fictional play on words. It was
a very interesting idea to write a song about a
Jewish-American princess on the one hand and
also at the same time question can you write a
song called Jenni Greenbaum that’s obviously
about a Jewish-American princess? Can you get
away with that without all the politically correct
people in the world freaking out at you? And it’s
just that the lyrics are along the same lines. You
push...'Jenni Greenbaum’s got big thighs. | like it
‘cause she’s easy’ Every politically correct person
in the country gets up and goes “Squeal!”. ‘I like

_it’‘cause she’s easy to look at. Please.’ You know,

please give me a break. Don't even bother be-
cause most people have already stopped it. |
played it for somebody in.Montreal and they didn’t
even listen to the next line. They said “ What did
you say?!” over the fact that | said ‘I like it “cause
she’s easy to look at. Please.’ So it’s sort of
pushing buttons and that's sort of the main premise
behind the song.

POTA: Also the whole title of your album, Sleep--
“ing Bootie and that song could be offensive as

well.
Drew: It's funny, the girl who was just in here
before you (another interviewer said that was her

INTERVIEWED By Nickie CENGER

favourite song on the record and she loved the
lyrics. So everyone's allowed to think whatever
they want to think. It was based on the Anne Rice
book. So if you read the Anne Rice book then
maybe you can make a judgment call after that.
The important thing to remember is that “Sleep-
ing Bootie” is a song. It's not some sort of
Communist mantra or the Taoist beliefs of Pooh
Bear. It's very much a song and if you keep that
in mind and you keep the subject matter in mind,
which is very muchan erotic telling of a tale...If you
read the book you'll actually pulled back from a lot
of things that go on in the book. It’s just sort ofa
telling ofa tale, aninterpretation that was perfectly
down the Bootsauce line, slamming beats with
the heavy guitar. 25)

Al: Another thing is that music like that is

music. You have Prince, Chili Peppers, raunchy
music. It’s not an idea. We have eight or nine
videos and there’s not one tits and ass video
there. There’s not one. Talk to Poison and
“Cherry Pie” and things like that. That's an
idea. That's like taking a live human being and
exploiting them.

Drew: It’s like laser objectification.

Al: There's nothing exploitive about a tune
that’s a fun groove that’s maybe like a 70's
tune. There's nothing exploitive about that.
When we have some video with somebody's
butt in your face, God hope it’s not one of

ours...

Drew: | was going to say “Hopefully mine” (laughs)
Al: Then you can get upset about it. We're not
about gangsta booties. Ha. We recorded in New
York and that’s where a lot of the sound from the
record comes from. Be it that it was written
before and we were very influenced by the radio
that was on down there because everybody in the
band likes Black music. We listen to a lot of itand
when you come back to Canada you miss it. In
Canada there just isn’t that kind of a representa-
tion on the radio and that's one thing that’s a real
drag.

Drew: Unless it's really big, big bands. You don't
hear Onyx or Dr. Dre, you don’t see too much of
that. | mean! come from avery mixed background
with real cross culturalization. Montreal is an
ethnic wonderland. Everybody. Portuguesé, Black,
Jewish, Italian...and Mc Gill students, a whole
breed of their own.(laughs) It’s a very interesting
place.

POTA: As far s success goes, what did you set out
to accomplish when you Started as a band? Did
you want to become a big band or did you just
want to do your own thing?
Drew: We're not sucha big band you know. | think
pretty much every band in Canada is bigger than
-__ us actually (laughs).
Al: The goal for all musicians is to write
music and if they like it, record iton an
album and tour it and do it. We're not
a band that has some producer as-
signed to us who wouldn't give a fuck
as longas he gota lot of money. | think
the idea of just being in music and
recording albums is better than
shoveling shit out of a ditch or some-
thing. So that's the goal of a musician.
Drew: Bull sold gold-plus. All of our
albums sell around 50,000 and this
one we'll see by around April, May.
Actually | only have one pair of jeans.
You cancome to my house and search
my house. We make a salary and we
make enough to ect. | don’t have a TV
set like that. (Points to the nifty set in
the room) It's a business on one hand
and the people who make the money
are oftentimes the promoters and the
club people. But we're doing what we
want to do so, you know, | could make
more money doing just about any-
thing, working as a secretary for
Polygram for example.
Al: We do make money but instead of making a
large amount of money and just keeping itwe take
all the money we make and sink it back into the
project. So we could cash in on the fast buck but
we'd rather do that.
Drew: | don’t know if we could actually cash in on ~
the fast buck.
Al: Well in the past we've gone out on tour and |
don’t know if you saw us at the Town Pump but
we took a ton of production into there and it cost
us alot of money. Butit’s something for the show.
People come in and look at the Town Pump and
they say “Shit, | don’t even recognize this place.”.
That costs money that we've earned from gigs.
Drew: Yeah, that came from any money that we
would have made off the show. So in effect at
those shows you were paying for exactly what
you got. In fact more. It goes into extras and
overages. But it’s a fun thing to be into. | mean
trends will come and trends will go, and the
mainstream will be whatever, but if you’re doing
what you want to do and you're doing the best you
can then people either like you or they don't. And
the end result is that things change. Everything is
circular.

Bootsauce will be performing an all-ages show
and a licensed show Friday, February 4th at the
Commodore.
of the Artsrecently had the chance to speak
10 members of Montreal's Bootsauce.
an Drew Lingand bassist Al Baculis were in

promote their upcoming show and their
um Sleeping Bootie. The Planet snagged
‘ne to bring yousomeinsightinto Canada’s
t band.

Drew, you said that all of your previous
were very “Bootsaucy” and that this new
»rought your sound into focus. Did this
1use you to lose any of that “sauce” from

ther albums?

No. Ithink, ifanything this record, Sleeping

iis very mucha growth from. Youhave your

‘Album, Bull, and then Sleeping Bootie. The

‘m Album being the first thing we ever did so

ke we didn't know what the hell we were

1. Butlots of fun. We just sort of didit for the
With Bull we were very experimental and

with Sleeping Bootie we sort of put those two

her and that’s how I'd describe Sleeping
ie. Except very current as far as this being

4: Sleeping Bootie has a sort of retro, and in
>? cases disco, fee! to it.
1 How insulting, (laughs)
4: OK. then, tell me about that.
nie", that sounds pretty disco
Vhen we wrote that tune we
going through acouple of weeks.
aI nostalgia, listening to Sly and
‘amily Stone and some other
‘When you're into something
while you write a song at one:
anditreflects whatyou've been.
ing to. The next week we were
ing to Ministry... and we wrote
Long Goodbye”. No. (laughs)
oanie didcome froma periodot
1g off on the old R&B sound.
everybody else is getting so
1g retro, why can't we do it?
1: The thingis, in the bio | go on
t good 70's, bad 70's but nine
of the bands coming out today
>ing either a Black Sabbath riff, a
Purple riff, a Led Zeppelin riff
ve don't do anybody's riffs. But
‘0 appreciate good things from
vast. There's a difference be-
fn appreciating something and
stealing them, or repeating
endlessly. Discoisa funny period. Never put
st Bootsauce to appreciate a bit of tongue in
k. There's a line and sometimes we like to
over that line. Mosr of our fans are sort of
eofthe tonguein cheek attitude anddeal with
such.
ind you try t6 write a tune that’s not inane
» it's kind of the good things about disco, be
th Wind and Fire, things like that.
v: Yeah, but then you just have to go and
edisco. Because thenit gets very confusing,
nna Summer disco or is Earth Wind and Fire
9? Oris Earth Windand Fire ustlike.. who was.
Thatwas that band? Itwas KISS! Kisshad that
|, what the hell was that song?
‘isco tune. (sings) "Ican’t...uh...l was made for
“Ha hi,
nv: Youknow, was that disco? Goandask Paul
ley if he ever wrote a disco song.
at's a typical example of a band who had a
dand everything and then the whole musical
ateof that momentwas discoand they stepped
“the line and tried to cash in on a disco market
get Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley with a
ball singing that song and basically | think it
shed them for about ten years.
w: That's what would happen if Bootsauce
dito cater itself toa grunge market, whichis the
instream right now. We'd be selling ourselves
the Devi..or at least the Devil's aunt.

Look at

POTA: Who is Jenni Greenbaum and what's that
song about?

Drew: She's justa fictional play on words. It was
very interesting idea to write a song about a
Jewish-American princess on the one hand and
also at the same time question can you write a
song called Jenni Greenbaum that's obviously
about a Jewish-American princess? Can you get
away with that without all the politically correct
people in the world freaking out at you? And it’s
just that the lyrics are along the same lines. You
push....Jenni Greenbaum’s got big thighs. | ike it
‘cause she'seasy’ Every politically correct person
inthe country gets up and goes “Squeal!”. ‘I like
it‘cause she's easy tolook at. Please.’ You know,
please give me a break. Don't even bother be-
‘cause most people have already stopped it. |
playedit for somebody in Montreal and they didn't
even listen to the next ine. They said ” What did
you say?!" over the fact that | said‘ like it ‘cause
she's easy to look at. Please.’ So it's sort of
pushingbuttonsandthat’ssortof themain premise
behind the song,

POTA: Also the whole title of your album, Sieep-
jing Bootie and that song could be offensive as
well.

Drew: It's funny, the girl who was just in here
before you (another interviewer said that was her

INTERVIEWED BY Nickie CeNGER

favourite song on the record and she loved the
Iyfics. So everyone's allowed to think whatever
they want to think. Itwas based on the Anne Rice
book. So if you read the Anne Rice book then
maybe you can make a judgment call after that.
The important thing to remember is that “Sleep-
ing Bootie” is a song. It's not some sort of
‘Communist mantra or the Taoist beliefs of Pooh
Bear. It's very much a song and if you keep that
in mind and you keep the subject matter in mind,
whichis very muchan erotic telingof tal... fyou
read the book you'llactually pulled back from alot
Of things that go on in the book. It's just sort of a
telingofa tale, aninterpretation thatwas perfectly
down the Bootsauce line, slamming beats with
the heavy guitar.

‘Al: Another thing is that music like that is

‘music. You have Prince, Chili Peppers, raunchy.
music. It’s notan idea. We have eight or nine
‘videos and there's not one tits and ass video
there. There's not one. Talk to Poison and
Cherry Pie” and things like that. That's an.

idea. That's like taking a live human being and
exploiting them.

Drew: It's like laser objectification.

‘Al: There's nothing exploitive about a tune,
that's a fun groove that’s maybe like @ 70's
tune. There’s nothing exploitive about that.
When we have some video with somebody's
butt in your face, God hope it's not one of

ours.

Drew: was goingtosay “Hopefully mine” (laughs)
Al: Then you can get upset about it. We're not
about gangsta booties. Ha. We recordedin New
York and that's where a lt of the sound from the
record comes from. Be it that it was written
before and we were very influenced by the radio
that was on down there because everybody in the
band likes Black music. We listen to a lot of itand
‘when you come back to Canada you miss it. In
‘Canada there just isn’t that kind of a representa-
tion on the radio and that's one thing that's a real
drag.

Drew: Unlessit's really big, big bands. You don’t
hear Onyx or Dr. Dre, you don't see too much of
that. I mean |come froma very mixed background
with real cross culturalzation. Montreal is an
ethnic wonderland. Everybody. Portuguese, Black,
Jewish, Italian..and Mc Gill students, a whole
breed of their own.(laughs) It’s a very interesting
place.

POTA:Asfars success goes, what did yousetout
to accomplish when you started as a band? Did
you want to become a big band or oid you just
want to do your own thing?

Drew: We're notsucha bigband you know. Ithink
pretty much every band in Canada is bigger than
us actually laughs).

{Al:The goal forall musicians is to write
‘music andif they like it, ecorditton an.
album and tour itand do it. We're not
‘a band that has some producer as-
signed to us who wouldn't ive a fuck
aslongashe gotalot of money. | think
the idea of just being in music and.
recording albums is better than
shoveling shit out of a ditch or some-
thing. So that's the goal of amusician.
Drew: Bull sold gold-plus. All of our
albums sell around 50,000 and this
‘one welll see by around April, May.
‘Actually | only have one pair of jeans.
Youcan come tomy house andsearch
my house. We make a salary and we
make enough to eet. | don'thavea TV
set like that. (Points to the nifty set in
the room) Isa business on one hand
and the people who make the money
are oftentimes the promoters and the
club people. But we're doing what we
‘want to do so, you know, | could make
more money doing just about any-
thing, working as a secretary for
Polygram for example.

AAI: We do make money but instead of making a
large amountof money andjust keepingitwe take
all the money we make and sink it back into the
project. So we could cash in on the fast buck but
we'd rather do that.

Drew: | don’t know if we could actually cash in on
the fast buck

Al: Well in the past we've gone out on tour and |
don’t know if you saw us at the Town Pump but
\we took a ton of production into there andit cost
usalotof money. Butit’s something for the show.
People come in and look at the Town Pump and.
they say “Shit, I don’t even recognize this place.”
‘That costs money that we've eared from gigs.
Drew: Yeah, that came from any money that we
‘would have made off the show. So in effect at
those shows you were paying for exactly what
you got. In fact more. It goes into extras and
‘overages. Butit’s a fun thing to be into. 1 mean
trends will come and trends will go, and the
‘mainstream will be whatever, but if you're doing
‘what you want to doand you're doing the bestyou
‘can then people either like you or they don't. And
the end resultis that things change. Everythingis
circular.

Bootsauce will be performing an alkages show
‘and a licensed show Friday, February 4th at the
Commodore. ©