Rusty returns with a blast of the ’90s
Sometimes replacing someone in a band can be like an actor taking over a recurring character. One member leaves and another musician assumes the role of New Bass Player.
“Yeah, just like Victor Newman,” proclaims bassist John Sutton of Toronto alt-rockers Rusty, aping the iconic character on vintage soap opera “The Young and Restless.” “It’s exactly like that,” he repeats with a laugh.
The New Bass Player says it did not take long to learn Rusty’s song catalogue. Sutton was originally the bass player in The Weakerthans, and did a lot of “fill-in bass” over the years.
“After the Weakerthans days I would often get a call, ‘Can you go on this tour?’ So I am pretty comfortable learning songs. Rusty has three albums plus we have been writing a whole bunch of new songs,” he adds.
The band is nearing the end of their PledgeMusic crowd-funding campaign for their upcoming album.
Rusty thought they would give their pledge drive a little push by playing three key punk meccas in southwestern Ontario: London’s Call the Office, Hamilton’s This Ain’t Hollywood and Waterloo’s Starlight.
Sutton recalls playing the Starlight many times with The Weakerthans.
“I know the boys in Rusty are really excited to be playing the Starlight for the first because it has been so long since we have played Kitchener-Waterloo,” says Sutton who is originally from Regina, then moved to Winnipeg in the ’90s.
Unlike many young musicians Sutton’s first instrument actually was the bass.
“I was one of those weird kids,” he recalls. “At age 13 I actively went out and brought a bass mostly because everyone at my school had guitars and drums. So I thought I will get the “other one.” I did not even know how to play it.”
“I just got it and fell in love with it.” Sutton began playing bass in the ’80s, learning the music of heavy metal gods Iron Maiden.
But in the mid ’80s punk rock took over his life.
“There were so many great punk band bass players that I started to follow. I thought, man, I want to be one of those guys!”
In ’97, Sutton joined Winnipeg’s acclaimed poetic indie rockers The Weakerthans.
The Weakerthan’s albums included debut “Fallow” (1997), “Left and Leaving” (2000), and “Reconstruction Site” (2003).
Sutton didn’t play on the final album and left the band in 2004.
“I went down to L.A. and was playing in a band called All Systems Go with members of (California punk band) Big Drill Car and (Montreal punk stars) Doughboys,” explains Sutton. “It was this weird super group we formed in L.A.”
He says leaving The Weakerthans was just “one of those things.”
“There were new opportunities,” he recalls. “I had the big chance to play (with Doughboys founder) John Kastner and (Big Drill Car’s) Mark Arnold. That was a dream come true for me,” says Sutton.
“It’s unfortunate The Weakerthans did not last as long as they should have.”
Toronto band Rusty formed in the summer of 1994. There were a few switches in the drummer’s seat. But despite that, the band released three albums in five years. They included Juno-nominated “Fluke” (1995), with singles “Misogyny,” “California,” “Groovy Dead,”; 1997’s “Sophomoric” featuring “Oh No Joe” and popular video single “Empty Cell,” plus 1998’s “Out of Their Heads” with single “Soul for Sale” and a killer version of The Kinks classic “Till The End of The Day.”
The band split up in 1999, played one final show in 2000, then reformed in 2011 to play some reunion shows for Toronto’s North By Northeast Music Festival. Original bassist Jimmy Moore had moved to the U.K. and Sutton took his place.
Hence Rusty 2.0 featuring founding members Ken MacNeil, vocals; Scott McCullough on guitar; John Lalley on drums; and Sutton on bass.
They are now working on their first new album in 20 years. Sutton says the band has been “demo-ing” songs in their home studios with the goal to put the album out before the summer.
Recently they went to East Toronto’s Taurus Studios and worked with musician/engineer Thomas D’Arcy known for his work with Hawksley Workman and July Talk.
“Tom helped us with about seven or eight songs in the studio plus, three or four more ready to be recorded and three or four more ready to be learned,” says Sutton.
“We are just writing, writing, writing and seeing what comes out,” he notes, adding one of his songs will be possibly included on the new album.
“The song has more of my sensibilities and Ken seemed to jump on it with a great melody right away,” he says. “So I am hoping that we can advance further into some of my songs. But I want to work with the sound of the band the most I can of course,” notes Sutton adding the songs will have that ’90s signature — “quiet, quiet, quiet, loud, loud, loud.”
Rusty sounds like the best of ’60s psychedelic pop meshed with vintage punk with a hip-hop/funk and roll sound, seasoned with ’90s grunge.
“If you listen to “Fluke” it does sound like a whole bunch of different kind of styles of the band. I would like to stay in that realm where people have to keep guessing what Rusty really is.”
“We are ready to go. And that’s the exciting thing here,” says Sutton. “We are a band on a mission! Put on your ’90s oversize shirts and come on down to the show!”