After a five-year studio hiatus, Canadian blues-rock band Wide Mouth Mason is back. Shaun Verrault fills in the blanks on the band’s musical void and their plans to turn it up and get back to rock.
The twice Juno-nominated trio consists of vocalist/guitarist Shaun Verrault, bassist Earl Pereira and drummer Safwan Javed.
“There will be a new record sometime either this year, or very early next year,” said Verrault, making a statement fans who have held their breath since the group’s last studio release in 2005 will appreciate.
While Wide Mouth Mason was on pause, Verrault and Pereira did remain musically active with side projects, but the band mates haven’t been in the studio together for half a decade.
Currently, they are scattered across Canada living in the cities of Saskatoon, Ottawa and Vancouver.
“It hasn't just been physical space, we also decided to not be musically monogamous in the last few years,” said Verrault. “I made an acoustic solo record where all the songs were stripped down. Our bass player did a project (Mobadass) with his sort of Sublime/Ben Harper-y band he sings in. And our drummer got a law degree, as his side project, which is wicked because now we don't pay any legal fees.”
At the very end of 2009, on Nov. 10, Wide Mouth Mason released its first live CD/DVD from performances in 1997 and 1999 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
“It's sort of an appetite whetter for a new record we're doing,” said Verrault.
Now the band is back on the road for a small Canadian tour starting in the eastern provinces and continuing West. On Feb. 27, the band will perform at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
“We’re trying out a lot of the new songs live as we do this tour and the response, to the tour itself, is overwhelming,” said Verrault. “When you haven't been somewhere in a few years, you never know if people are going to forget, and the shows have been sold out.”
Verrault said Wide Mouth Mason always subscribed to the philosophy that if you're lucky enough to play music for a living, you have to play as if Jimmy Hendrix and Aretha Franklin, Bono and Nina Simone are standing in the wings watching you.
Within the five-year period the band remained dormant the Internet has made it virtually impossible to escape a lacklustre performance.
“In the era of YouTube I can't have a bad night because it’ll show up on the Net and people will watch it,” he said.
While in their early twenties the band members landed their first record deal with a big-label from the success of their independently released album The Nazarene.
In 1997, the release of the self-titled debut album, under Warner Music Canada, propelled the band from obscurity onto radio and MuchMusic airwaves.
As the years and four other studio albums rolled by the group garnered eight Prairie Music Awards and two Radio Awards. The band also opened for the likes of The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, and George Thorogood.
The opportunity to speak with Verrault arose during a stopover at Cornwall’s Indie Guitars.
Verrault became acquainted with the Indie line playing on a blues record with Myles Goodwin from April Wine.
“I ended up using one of their guitars on this tour,” said Verrault. “So, when Indie found out I was in the neighbourhood, they generously offered to come bring me in to check out all the guitars, not in the flesh, but in the wood.”
With everything falling back into place Verrault is pleased that Wide Mouth Mason is picking up where it first started.
Verrault said that there was chemistry within the band from the first time the members played together in their hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
“We didn't have to have a single out for us to tour, just to support that single, we're musicians who feel like we're recording artists in the studio, but we're a band when we're on the road,” said Verrault. “Our longevity in the industry I attribute to the fact that we made ourselves a live entity early on. So people know they're not just going to hear a band playing their singles at our show.”
For more information on Wide Mouth Mason visit www.widemouthmason.com.
