One Bad Son cuts to the chase on latest album
SASKATOON It took a few lefts and rights for One Bad Son to create straight ahead rock ’n’ roll.
Their latest record cuts to the chase in a way their previous work didn’t thanks to no-nonsense producer Gavin Brown (Tragically Hip, Billy Talent). As drummer Kurt Dahl tells it, they’d play him a song and he’d ask, “What’s it about?” They would say something like, “Well, it’s a little bit about this, it’s a little about that, it has some esoteric meanings.” And Brown would say, “That’s crap. If you can’t tell me what it’s about in 30 seconds, then I don’t care and no one else is going to care.”
Much streamlining resulted. Now the 13-year-old band feels like Made in the Name of Rock N Roll is the record they always wanted to make.
“I feel like we really captured something. It has a certain urgency, a certain vitality,” Dahl says. “The record took us two years to write but a lifetime to live. We put everything we had into this record.”
It’s already paid off. The first single, Raging Bull, hit No. 1 on the Canadian rock charts, a first for the band. The second single just out, Scream for Me, was radio’s most-added track earlier this month, with the album released on Oct. 13.
“The good thing about taking 13 years to have your first No. 1 is that you really appreciate it. We never take anything for granted. It’s motivated us to work harder. We still have a long ways to go to reach that level we want to reach,” Dahl says.
OBS would like to expand its reach beyond Canada. To that end, they headed to Germany this fall for the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg.
They hoped to secure a booking agent, promoter and publicist for a full-on tour in 2018, “and I think we’ve done that,” Dahl says.
The only bump in the road was bassist Adam Grant leaving the band on amicable terms this summer after 10 years.
“There’s no drama, we totally respect his decision and we’ll be friends for life. Arguably, we’ll be even better friends because we’re not stuck in a van all the time,” Dahl says.
Hopeful bassists from across the country sent video but the band stuck close to home, choosing Saskatonian Steve Adams, who was with OBS for a few months 11 or so years ago.
“We’re a Saskatoon band. This city is a major part of what we are, so to have someone come from Toronto, it wouldn’t have felt right,” Dahl says.
Next up is a Canadian tour which includes a Halloween date in Regina. Dahl is looking forward to unleashing the new songs.
“Right now it’s kind of like you’re sitting on this great secret. Revealing the secret on stage, as a creative person, is liberating. All the hard work, all the sacrifices take a lot out of you but all of that stuff feels worth it for the hour that you’re on stage.”