Band blurring boundaries
Sex With Strangers keeps getting better with latest album
After six albums, Sex With Strangers isn’t so strange.
In fact, it’s growing more familiar, more friendly.
Not many bands are together for six albums. Sex With Strangers has achieved such a milestone with its new Discourse.
Nor can they claim to grow with each album; Discourse charts a path of steady refinement.
“We wouldn’t put out the album if we didn’t think it was better than the one before,” claims Hatch Benedict, one fifth of a band that includes Mike Gentile, Cory Price, Dan Walker and Shevaughn Ruley.
That’s easy for Benedict to say but not many bands have that critical acuity. For them, each record is some kind of progression, otherwise there’d be fewer mediocre Rolling Stones records
Sex With Strangers started as a deliberate attempt to merge hard rock with dance floor beats, united by a sci-fi concept. That made it different. Ten years ago, no other band was experimenting in such a way.
“It’s definitely changed quite a bit,” Benedict admits. “When we started, we were writing about robots and electronic stuff. It’s a lot more sophisticated now.”
Initially, the joins were more obvious but over time the boundaries have blurred. The band’s sound has been refined just as the genres have merged and the themes grown more universal. Guitars and keyboards are bigger, yet have merged and the vocals of Richards and Ruley more equal. With more and more bands exploring electronic dance music, Sex With Strangers might at last be of its time. If so, Benedict believes producer Jason Corbett deserves some of the credit.
“The last couple of albums were very strong in their vision,” Benedict says. “It’s challenging for us to let go and trust the producer. We were looking for a challenge. With this album, we wanted to be challenged.
“Jason’s sting point is getting guitar and keyboard sounds,” Benedict continues. “Mark Henning, who produced the first few albums, helped us get together; Jason forced us outside our comfort zone.”
Corbett had known the band or its members from when they all played in different groups. In Sex With Strangers, he faced a band that had its own ideas and was growing together. It had a relationship based on trust.
“Especially with our band,” Benedict agrees. “We wanted everyone involved in the songwriting. You have to have respect. You have to respect each person in the band. You don’t have to respect the producer; you can say to him what you want.” tharrison@postmedia.com