|
Finding their Fortune
By: Adam Grant Listen to Cheap Suit - Ska Saves Like any sort of fashion, a cheap suit sometimes takes a bit of time to become fashionable within the public eye. Much of the same can be said for the band that calls themselves Cheap Suits, as it has taken them since 1998 to establish their style and have it embraced by the music industry and its audiences.
Leading up to this point, the band put forth 3 independent recordings, 1999's Sorry, No Refunds, which was followed quickly the next year with Lookin' For A Deal, and then 2003's Canadian Idles. Now three years removed from that project, CS is back with One Giant Leap - an album that they may be quick to proclaim their excitement for in spite of the amount of time that it took to put down on tape. "This (was) a really long album to make," recalls Cheap Suits drummer Mike Indovina. "We started recording it in January of last year, and prior to that, we had been in pre-production for 6 months. It's just been really slow - not necessarily because of more and more writing, just (because) of things being changed. "We were done in February or March with the recordings, then we got it mixed, it was mastered, then it was all ready to go halfway through last year, and then we decided that we were going to re-mix it, and re-work it all," he adds. "We just really wanted this album to sound really kick ass. We were happy with it, but we felt that there was something missing." 
In order to make this record "kick ass," the quintet - Chris Collins (vocals, keyboards), Dave Iogna (guitar, vocals), Jean-Marc Pineau (guitar), Erik Olaveson (bass) and Indovina, brought in the services of producer King Kong Girio as well as engineer Richard Benoit, who combined, have worked with such heavy hitting bands as Sum 41, Planet Smashers and Red Hot Chili Peppers. What wound up being captured is the non-premeditated diversity that Cheap Suits take pride in. A lot of this has to do with the group's wide range of musical tastes that may sound surprising to those who think of CS as just another ska/punk/rock band. Individually, Indovina admits to being the hard-rock lover in the fold, while his mates are quite content to listen to anything from the blues to, of all things, country music. However, these different perspectives help more than they hurt, as it allows CS to focus more on what they want their audience to hear, as opposed to the argument of "let's make this song sound like this." With that idea firmly in place, Cheap Suits are ready to embark on the next phase of their career - touring in support of an album that is, unlike in their earlier days, being carried in commercial record shops, thanks in large part to MapleMusic Recordings. "They're really helping us get it across Canada and they're going to help out with some promotion," explains Indovina. "Really, they're just getting (One Giant Leap) out there so that people can buy it, because there are people that we've been contacted by who live in Vancouver, and they haven't been able to buy it, because they can't find it in stores. "Some people are if-y about buying stuff online, so to have it in stores is great because it opens up the doors for us so much." For more information on Cheap Suits, please visit www.cheapsuits.ca
|
