Hey Tone Deaf readers! Steve Douglas here, guitarist from The Resignators. Tone Deaf has asked me to answer a few questions about the great Ska Nation event coming up Saturday, September 15th at the legendary Espy in St. Kilda, Melbourne.
I have been playing guitar in The Resignators for two years now and in that time we have done some amazing shows in Australia and abroad, including two Canadian tours and a recent European tour, but I am extremely excited about the upcoming Ska Nation show in Melbourne!
The fifth and final Ska Nation is coming up in September! Which artists are you looking forward to playing alongside?
17 great bands are on the bill, spread around the three rooms in The Espy, but of course The Toasters are traveling furthest from NYC and Europe where they live, and this will be their first time in Australia in 30 years! Also, Nicky Bomba’s Melbourne Ska Orchestra is a mighty ensemble, and it is always great to see that huge band.
All the bands traveling from Brisbane, NSW and WA get my attention because it is a long haul for all those guys to get down to Melbourne. It will be great to see all the bands we have played with on our tours in the past; Kingston Stompers, FunAddicts and Jobstopper from Queensland, Son of Dad from Adelaide, and a few bands I have never seen like Strange Brew (WA), and The AuSkas, Stepping Razor and Steel City Allstars, all from NSW.
The bands members have all been involved in diverse creative projects. How did you decide on forming a ska group together?
Francis Harrison, our singer and band manager put the band together 7 years ago with a bunch of like-minded folks, but of course the lineup has changed over the years. The band-members we have now all came to the table loving the sound that was happening and wanting to be a part of it all. I have had a love for ska since I was a wee lad in Nassau, Bahamas, where I first listened to ska on ZNS radio in the 60’s, and my first guitar lessons were from two old black Voodoo priestesses there, who taught me the skank backbeat, along with classic calypso and mento tunes.
How has your combined experiences influenced The Resignators sound?
All seven of our band members come to ska from different angles and different eras; punk, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, alt-country, soul, funk, world music, jazz and more. The original ska was a conflux of all these different sounds that Jamaicans heard on USA and island radio stations, so I guess there is a real melting pot thing happening. We still like to let those influences cross over into our songs.
Who are your greatest influences when creating music?
No real conscious effort is made to be like any other bands, our greatest influence is just life, I guess. Love and loss of love, joy and suffering, we write about things we have experienced first hand. We try to keep it pretty real so that the songs can be more meaningful. Musically, we wave the ska flag, but we are not scared to step outside the ska parameters and try something different. That being said, we all listen to a huge variety of other bands and take something from each of them. Stacy (keyboards), Sharpie (drums) and myself got to see Rancid after our tour in Amsterdam and that was a blast. Lately, Francis and I have been listening to Bastard Suns out of Atlanta, and the best band we played with on tour was The Queens of Everything from Czech Republic. Mighty Mighty Bosstones will always hold a special place in our musical hearts, as well.
You’ve recently returned from a pretty extensive Europe tour – what were some of the highlights?
Wow, so many! It was a 26 show tour across 28 days so we were on the run a lot, but highlights for me would have to be Luzern, Switzerland where we were pampered like rock-stars in an 1800’s Grand Ballroom, a squat show in Paris where the toilet was a hole in the ground, and Prague, a beautiful city that was such a contrast of light and dark – where the “green fairy” of absinthe put a different spin on things. Croatia was the most beautiful countryside. Netherlands had the best cheese (and smoke), Germany the best sausages. We had a day off in Hamburg’s “St Pauli” red-light district, and everyone loved that. Some of the festivals in eastern German villages were also very special, mainly because of the people we met there.
Is there any international place you’ve always wanted to gig at?
I would love for The Resignators to get to China, Japan, South America, really anywhere! I just love to travel and meet new people, see new places, eat new foods! Also the UK would be nice when we go back to Europe next year, as this year was all continental Europe. We would also love to do an extensive tour of my homeland (USA) and return to Canada where we have so many fans.
If you could play any venue/festival where would it be?
Maybe Rebellion Festival in the UK, or Roskilde Festival in Denmark. We met some Danish girls in Berlin, and they seem like they are very happy folks in Copenhagen. We have had an offer to go to Moscow, but The Resignators will NOT play Russia until Pussy Riot are free!
How do you like your music? On digital, CD, or vinyl (maybe even cassette)?
Absolutely vinyl, if given a choice. Analogue sounds so much warmer and fuller and there is more room for album art. The reality is that we are in the digital age, so most music we hear will be in some digital format, but hopefully we can keep the bit-rate and sampling rate up and listen through nice speakers to keep the music’s integrity. The Resignators offer higher quality digital tracks of our music on bandcamp.com for those who care! CDs are on the way out, I can’t see them lasting much longer, they were never the greatest idea, and are limited to 16 bit. I went to a party last week where the DJs were spinning only 78 RPMs, and we had an awesome after show dance party in Erfurt, Germany where the DJ played only 7 inch records…that was magic! We danced til dawn. Bring back vinyl records and record stores!
Any plans for new music coming up soon?
Yes! We have started ideas for songs while on tour, and now we have to iron out some arrangements and parts and put them all together. That is our priority now, as our last album “See You in Hell” has done its job well, leaving our fans wanting something new. The “devil is in the details”, as they say!
What else have you got in store for 2012? Where can we catch you playing next?
We are staying in Australia for the rest of the year, but we have two national tours supporting overseas artists. First, The Toasters (NYC) tour in September, of which Ska Nation is a part, then a tour with Big D and the Kid’s Table (Boston) in November. Both are going to be a blast and will take us to see our friends across Australia. In the meantime I hope to see lots of Tone Deaf readers at Ska Nation, Saturday September 15th at The Espy in Melbourne!
