Divine By Design

When local rock trio By Divine Right picked their name, they were sort of joking - but they sort of weren't.

Guitarist Jose Contreras, drummer Mark Goldstein and bassist Scott Maynard met, wrote and recorded together without ever having "actively pursued anything," Contreras says.

Since then, their self-titled debut and free-flowing live shows have been raising ears and eye brows around town, particularly during Canadian Music Week.

The next stop on their tour of fate, or whatever drives them, is the Rivoli tonight, where they share the bill with Mrs. Torrance and Resin Scraper.

"Everything happened organically," Contreras says.

"In '89, I had all these songs and I couldn't remember writing them, not the exact moment, I just knew that they sounded right, they were what I needed to hear."

Contreras made a few copies for friends, one of whom was Thornhill school buddy Goldstein. "Mark heard it and decided it was better than going to university."

There was a revolving door of bass players for a while before Contreras and Goldstein met composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Maynard. The time felt right for a recording, but there was no money - until... "People just gave us money - to record, to mix, to master - people who love music and have money, our patrons.

"There was just enough money to do everything once - one harmony track, one guitar overlay, so at first, when it was finished I hated it.

"But then, after a break, I listened to it again and I really liked it, and I love it still. I'm still really proud to play it to people and say 'this is my band' - my band of a year ago, because it's always a work in progress, but still."

Tapes were mixed, but true to form, the band made no effort to shop them around to record companies. And true to form a record company, Kinetic, came to them.

Do you even have to ask why things happen so "organically" for a band called By Divine Right?

"Well this is going to sound totally flaky, but the music has become very healing, for all of us. More and more we're just opening up and just being ourselves, being more honest.

"We're just letting those songs, that in a sense were always there, speak through us, and when it's good it's great. Our only motivation is just playing what we need to hear."