Madchild makes his mark after lost years
What: Madchild with Demrick, MC Pimpton, Adlib, Animal Nation and Paint the Town Red When: Friday, 9:30 p.m. (doors at 9) Where: Sugar nightclub (858 Yates St.) Tickets: $20 ticketzone.com, Lyle’s Place, Complex and Status Barber Shop Four years ago, Shane Bunting wasn’t quite sure where he was headed, both personally and professionally.
He was free of a drug addiction that had robbed him of millions of his own money, but he was still in the process of putting his life back together.
Bunting, 39, who performs as Madchild, had returned to making good music, but he couldn’t — due to an association with members of the Hells Angels — enter the U.S. to tour with his hip-hop group, Swollen Members.
Once he sorted out his issues with immigration officials, the Vancouverbred rapper headed straight for the U.S., hoping to uncork some new inspiration.
He eventually found it. Since 2014, Bunting has been living happily in West Hollywood.
“When I first got here, I was a ghost,” Bunting said. “A year later, I get stopped for pictures. In a very short period of time, I feel like I’m making a mark here.”
Bunting has been doing work these days largely without Prevail and Rob the Viking, his bandmates in Swollen Members (there’s no bad blood; plans are in place to make another record, Bunting said).
That took some getting used to.
When he released his solo full-length, Dope Sick, in 2012, not even Bunting was sure where he fit in. To the surprise of many, it sold well, and netted the blondhaired, heavily tattoed performer a Juno Award nomination for rap recording of the year.
That was once familiar territory for Bunting and his bandmates. The trio won three consecutive rap Junos between 2001 and 2003, a feat not even the country’s biggest urban export, Drake, has been able to match in the years since.
Money was made — Bunting, as the owner of the band’s label, Battle Axe Records, became an instant millionaire — but things, as they often do, eventually went sideways for Swollen Members.
Audience tastes changed, and the group became less potent, sending Bunting into a drug-addled period that began taking its toll in 2005. He bottomed out, and lost everything.
With help from his bandmates and a change in social circles, he got sober. Bunting has been clean for four years, which — perhaps un-ironically — is right around the time his solo career began getting back up to speed.
Silver Tongue Devil, which arrived in July, is a hit. The record debuted at No. 3 on the sales charts in Canada, and “would have been No. 1” had an Eminemproduced soundtrack and a new Lamb of God record not been released the same week, Bunting said.
Nonetheless, the popularity of Silver Tongue Devil necessitated a massive tour that now stretches beyond 80 dates, including a hotly anticipated appearance at Sugar on Friday.
Bunting will follow his run of Canadian dates with his first solo headlining tour of the U.S.
He did a small U.S. run this summer, which peaked with a July 25 appearance at Thornville, Ohio’s Gathering of the Juggalos, an annual festival staged in part by Detroit’s Insane Clown Posse.
He had played the festival in the past, both as a solo artist and with Swollen Members.
But this year’s date was something special, Bunting said. His was a side-stage set scheduled for 3:30 a.m., which required him to drive nine hours by car from New York to get there on time.
“I thought, ‘Who the hell is going to watch my show at 3:30 in the morning?’ I couldn’t believe it — it was just packed full of people. You would have thought it was 11:30 at night.”
Touring will be his life for the next year at least, Bunting said. Not only does it feed his creative appetite, it keeps him out of trouble, too.
“I spent some of my past making questionable choices,” he said. Now that he’s older and wiser, he’s ready to focus solely on his work.
“If you want to be a real artist and don’t want to tour, then go do something else. You’d better love touring.”
Bunting has been on a roll in the studio of late. He has another solo album, produced by longtime collaborator Evidence of Dilated Peoples, already in the can, and thinks it might be his best yet.
“I’m trying to be something brand new while being a veteran at the same time. I’m eating, breathing and living my career on a full-time basis, because it’s new.”
How long will he be able to satisfy his Madchild audience? At this point, he’s not sure.
The music world is in flux, so Bunting is doing what makes sense to him as an artist.
Beyond that, he’ll let the pieces fall where they may.
“If I was 12 or 13 years old, I don’t know if I would want to be a rapper. It’s a different world. I’ll put out an album and three days later, kids will be like: ‘This is awesome! When’s the next one?’ ”