BOB’S NOT THEIR UNCLE
Ambient/house rock duo in the mix
For so many bands who grew up in Vancouver, it’s the holy grail of music venues, the one place you always dream to play: the Commodore Ballroom.
Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance, who perform as ambient/ house rock duo Bob Moses, may have left the green pastures of the West Coast for the wild nights of New York City many moons ago, but the prospect of playing the venerable Commodore still means the same as it did when they were teenagers.
“I remember when I was 16 and I had a fake I.D. and was playing clubs on the Granville strip, looking over to the Commodore,” Howie said via phone from Berlin. “I walked by once and Kanye West was playing — ‘One day I’m gonna play at the Commodore.’ And now we are and it’s gonna be sold out. It’s pretty sick.”
As Bob Moses, Howie and Vallance have released a buzz-worthy debut album, Days Gone By (via label Domino Records). Ellen DeGeneres was a fan of one of their songs — ebullient synth-driven single Tearing Me Up — to such an extent that she personally asked the guys to come perform on her show last January.
“Back in the day if you had an iconic (TV) performance it could really help you,” Vallance said. “We have always been a word of mouth, head-down-in-the-trenches, natural-build-on-the-road. But it’s helped.
“We were worried that people in the scene, or our fans, or people who think Ellen is too mainstream might have thought it was lame. But everybody was super happy and congratulatory. She just heard us in her car and invited us on the show and she was actually a big fan — when things are genuine, no matter how big or small, you can’t really balk at that, you know?”
Vallance, who is also the son of Bryan Adams’ co-songwriter Jim Vallance, and Howie met in New York City in the fall of 2010. Both already knew each other, having attended St. George’s School in Vancouver.
“We shared the same art class,” Vallance said.
“We weren’t super close friends, but when we ended up running into each other in New York that was enough to get things started. From Day One it just felt awesome.
“The music we listened to growing up was the same. Without knowing it, it felt like were meant to be doing this together.”
The band was officially formed on Feb. 11, 2011, Vallance recalled, the day Howie moved into Vallance’s apartment in Brooklyn.
“Just in time for Valentine’s Day,” Howie said with a laugh.
The pair began performing at underground parties and soon teamed up with a small boutique label, Scissor and Thread. The name Bob Moses was borrowed from former N.Y. city planner Robert Moses, who helped build Shea Stadium and the Brooklyn- Queens Expressway.
“We were running in this really cool underground alternative club scene that was very forwardthinking and based around punk and techno music,” Vallance said. “There were these big parties and shows in warehouses. (The label) was all very artistic and thought out and curated.
“The whole theme of the label was a throwback to New York icons and the techno scene in the ’80s. We got named ( by label co-founder Francis Harris) after Robert Moses, a city planner who built modern day New York as we know it. ‘ Bob Moses’ is a quip — it’s a joke.”
Nevertheless, the name stuck and Bob Moses released two EPs on Scissor and Thread before moving on to Domino Records (also home to Vancouver punk favourites White Lung).
With a well-received debut and a growing fan base, Bob Moses soon found themselves performing on the festival circuit all over the globe, from Lollapalooza to Coachella to Europe’s famed Sonar festival.
Just in time for their homecoming, Domino has re-released Days Gone By as an expanded “Never Enough” edition, containing remixes and original demos of the songs found on Bob Moses’ debut.
It’s impossible to not ask Vallance how having a famous songwriting father (who co-wrote Summer of ’69, among many others) impacted his musical upbringing.
“He left me alone and never wanted me to go into music,” Vallance said.
“By the time I was making music, he kind of had retired from the business and didn’t have the connections, and I was too shy to ask him anyway.
“There was this really amazing moment when I first played him Tearing Me Up and he said, ‘I wish I wrote that.’ ”
There was this really amazing moment when I first played him Tearing Me Up and he said, ‘I wish I wrote that.’